Customer Reviews

Happy Feet-UK Version

5 star:		(301)
4 star:		(92)
3 star:		(59)
2 star:		(64)
1 star:		(94)

 

 

First of all, this is simply a great movie. The narrative is brought to life with humor, action, important life lessons, and conservational commentary. The voice actors all give 5-star performances and the animation is incredible.

But, this being the Blu-ray disc, I'm going to focus on the picture and sound.

The animation by itself is simply breath-taking; easily one of, if not the best looking CGI feature to date. But in HD, it's brought to life even further. Every feather on the penguins is apparent, every flake of snow falling through the air and I'd almost go so far as to say every molecule of water! This is the best looking animated feature you can get on Blu-ray now. It's definitely the show-off piece when people ask "How much better does HD look?". The leopard seal was particularly mind-blowing to me.

Another hook is the sound. While I wouldn't say this is the best sounding movie on Blu-ray, it definitely puts sound to good use and ranks pretty high. All five channels are used when appropriate, but Happy Feet does not utilize them as much as other films. Still, crank up the sound and the action scenes will blow you away.

All in all, this is an excellent movie made even better on Blu-ray. At this time, this is the Blu-ray disc to own for giving people lessons about HD.

When I saw this movie, I was struck by two things - how it looked and how it felt.

It sounds obvious, but I couldn't help but be struck by the artistry of the film's animation. "Happy Feet" had the appearance of a nature documentary, and I mean it in a good way. The filmmakers made a conscious effort to study penguin movement (maybe by watching "March of the Penguins?") as well as how the enviornment interacts with them. Simple backgrounds work as well, as they are able to capture the splendid vistas of an admittedly minimalist natural environment.

Now, it also was meant to be a "message" film, and those can always be tricky. I'm not a big fan of them because, when moviemakers attempt one, I get the feeling they assume the watchers are too stupid to get what they're saying without clobbering us about the head with them. It's worse when it's done with a "children's" film. There are two here - taking care of the environment and not casting out those that are different - and yet they're handled in a truly cool way. Yes, the uberconservatives may get in a bit of a snit when they see the forces against Mumbles are cast to appear like mean-spirited religious zealots, however this IS a great plotpoint. Outcasts (I speak from experience here) sometimes feel just that way - beat on and thrown out simply because we're running against the popular tide. And the environmental point is handled, I truly believe, in a way non-humans would look upon it. Humans really ARE "aliens" in this world, and they aren't being necessarily "mean" in how they act toward animals. They may be just clueless to the harm they're doing.

A top-notch voice cast helps bring this off. Elijah Wood may yet be one of the most overlooked actors in Hollywood because he's able to bring off a tender, desperate Mumbles with only his voice (although the animators also gave him Wood's piercing blue eyes). We don't get to see often enough Hugh Jackman's verstility with accents, and here we are hearing him do a cross between Curly from "Oklahoma" (I strongly suggest anyone who hasn't yet see the filmed Royal Shakespeare version with him in it to do so) and Elvis without it seeming forced or artificial. There are really too many performances to list, and they're all first rate.

The tapdancing too is great. We only see a cartoonish replication of Savion Glover's moves, but he really sends off on sound as well. A carryover from his days on "Stomp."

The final verdict is an enthusiastic "buy it." Unless you don't happen to like penguins.

I'm 38 year old man, and all I have to say is that this movie spoke to me. Warner brothers is likely to get my money at least a couple more times before it leaves the theater and then again when it comes to DVD. I'm not going to expose plot points or anything like that you can read other reviews for that stuff. I'm more putting this here for the folks that are reading their own ideas into what they saw when they saw this movie. if your looking for certain things and then interpret those things a certain way, you're going to find them, good and bad. there's nothing wrong with and environmental message. we as humans are the top of the food chain, so to speak, but we sure don't act that way most of time. it is our responsibility to conserve, save and share this planet, be it with penguins or otherwise. we share this earth with a million other beautiful creatures. it's not just ours, it's theirs too, they live here too, they're not alien beings taking up our space, they were put here same as you and me, earthlings. as far as folks reading in religious, racial, sexual etc., stereotypes and otherwise, go ahead and check any of the latest pixar(no knock to pixar, just an example) and you'll find the same. as far it not all being for kids, go ahead and check out some old tom and jerry, there's about 20 times more violence in one 3 minute cartoon than in Happy Feet. Yes there are some scary moments but that's where the movie gives you a dose of reality as any one of you who have seen march of the penguins knows. If you think they're (WB) going to let a silly thing getting eaten get in the way of our hero saving the day, then you might as well walk out. Sure there are few sad moments too, but any of you seen Bambi and Finding Nemo? Hey man I'm a big cry baby myself. the biggest message I found in Happy Feet was that there's nothing wrong with being different and pursuing your own thing, that one thing just might end up saving the world one day, maybe not the whole world, but maybe your world. That's another cool thing about this movie, in spite of all the hard times Mumble is handed for being different, he doesn't back down for a second, misfit or not, he stays true to what he feels inside, if that's not being cool, then I don't know what is. So for all of you knocking this great movie with a great message, let's just calm down a bit and take it for what it is, some great family entertainment. if you take your kids and choose to explain certain items about the movie a certain way, that's on you, not Warner brothers. remember, if you look for bad, you're going to find bad. I find most movies to be up for ones own interpretation anyway and not all are going to walk away with the same experience. if you must go ahead and ask the folks at WB if they were actually tryting to get a certain point across that you found objectionable about Happy Feet. The music is great, the dancing is great, and the baby penguins couldn't more adorable. HAPPY FEET ROCKS!

I loved the movie, it had me swaying to the music and singing right from the beginning. I loved the characters.. I chose to get it in full screen version due to I'm not a big fan of the wide screen version.. I loved the movie from beginning to end.. I watched it along with my parents and they're a tough bunch when it comes to movies, But my mother loved it especially, I think she must have laughed and kept a smile through the whole movie.. My fathter, whose an even tougher critic to watch movies with enjoyed it also.. I even him him laughing a few times and saw him smile, so all and all, it was worth the buy.. Thanks amazon!

First, this movie may be appreciate by kids, but its really made for big
kids, which will understand and appreciate it more. Great music, great
characters will entertain you with this eye candy of a movie. I did'nt
know what to expect, and viewing it at 23:00 it had to be good. By the
time the movie ended, i could'nt go to bed...cause my feet were dancing.

'Happy Feet' is an animated feature that has some dizzying animation effects. Sitting there in the theatre, I thought at times that I was watching an I-Max feature. (And at times I was glad I wasn't, which leads me to believe that the cries of one young theatre-goer, indicate it may be too intense for younger viewers.) For the rest of us over seven, there is a good, although familiar, story of the misfit penguin. "Mumble" (played with proper insecurity by the voice of the Hobbit, Elijah Wood) does what comes naturally. Having some latent pre-hatched anomolies, he comes out ready to dance rather than sing. It alienates him from his community and his love interest, Gloria (played with sexy voice by Brittany Murphy). His loner pursuit gets him in another fold. (In this case they're alien penguins with Spanish accents.) The elders disaprove of the alien assimilation, reasoning that too many mouths to feed will stretch community resources too thin. (Sound familiar?) The development is often episodic with harrowing enemies--like a sea lion--and songs that burst out at the drop of an iceburg. (Just like other musicals, characters burst out in song for the weather--or, in this case Northern Lights, and falling in love--or, again, mating season.) The bursts of songs are decent to splendid. (This film is worth every penny for watching the penguins dive into arctic waters from great heights while the full stereo spendour of the Beach Boys' "Do It Again" pipes through the digital sound.)

The main plot has a point and a destination. Mumble meets into Lovelace (Robin Williams) who is the penguin guru. (Much of the movie makes political points, for he wears an involuntary necklace made from a plastic six-pack ring.) He is short on advice, but Mumble has the messianic touch to go solo on a trek to discover the aliens (man) and solve the mystery of the disappearing food supply. "Happy Feet" Mumble tries to bridge that gap and bring home the bacon (or in this case, sardines). While I either respect or agree with the viewpoints of the film, I sometimes think it would be more effective if they "chilled out" a little bit. Besides that, 'Happy Feet' is an irresistible animated musical drama/comedy. (Robin Williams does three voices, including Mumble's main homie, Ramon, which sounds like Williams' comedy portrayal of Ricardo Maltoban.)

I bought the DVD, sight-unseen, and am not disappointed. I take issue with many of the previous reviewers, in many ways. Peril seems to be an issue, but lessons are learned from those in peril; anyone remember "Pinocchio" or "Peter Pan" or "Bambi"? Also, Robin Williams gave some ethnic impressions (very well, I thought, and entertaining). This was necessary because the "Hispanic" penguins were of another tribe. What's the fuss? My problem was that it started out too slow, too much time setting the scene. Once it got going, I had no problem keeping up. Narrow minded people have forgotten that ethnic characters have been a part of cartoon history, so why complain now (anyone remember Babba-Looie, or the speech impediment of Elmer Fudd?). Lighten up, for God's sake. I liked "Cars", too, only because I hit the old Route 66 and was dismayed. Both are good films.

Okay, seriously why are people consistently saying they're surprised Happy Feet is not for very young kids when the movie is clearly rated "PG"?? Don't blame the movie for some of the sexy songs (which I thought were very funny and well done) when they warned you upfront with a big "PG" label. Take some responsibility and do a little research before not hiring a babysitter for the night. :-)

I didn't find the environmental message to be over the top either but the movie is definitely two parts-- part 1 being about learning tolerance and cute penguins and part 2 about taking care of your environment and semi-stupid humans.

But overall they did blend the two parts well and I laughed out loud so many times I had to buy this movie as soon as it came out.

South polar-izing in this case, but it's hard to miss the fact that some people really love this movie and some really...well...don't.

I just saw this movie twice over the past three days, and here's my take on it, with the upsides and the downsides.

The upsides were:

The animation technology! Some of the animation, especially the backgrounds, was drop dead gorgeous. I don't even have HD, and I was mesmerized by how beautifully done some parts of this movie were.

The misfit becomes a hero. It hit sort of close to home for my wife and I because we have a special needs child and have often felt like Memphis and Norma Jean. What went wrong? We sigh a lot and wonder what will become of him. I quietly hope he will develop some great talent some day. We'll see.

An environmental message that wasn't too heavy handed. The humans are not presented as evil, just as being who didn't know what they were doing. Once they discovered the penguins, they helped them out. At least this movie didn't stoop to the now very tired "man is bad" cliche message.

Interesting symbology. The "Memphis" character was obviously Elvis, and Norma Jean was Marilyn Monroe? The two icons of the 1950's give birth to a misfit who revolutionalizes music among a sort of authoritarian theocratic paternal oligarchy. Is this supposed to be something like what happened when rock 'n roll took America by storm in the late 1950's and early 60's? The fundamentalists preached against rock 'n roll, and the kids just wanted to have fun.

The music itself. I found it varied and rather enjoyable. I've never liked that "Somebody to Love" song by Queen, but I genuinely enjoyed the way it was rendered by the penguin choir.

Finally, extrapolating on the fact that penguin couples can identify each other out of the masses of penguins because each has a unique call. This I assume was the inspiration for the idea that penguins mate when they find "their song".

Now the downsides:

I found the adult penguin characters to be designed in a way that didn't make them particularly endearing to look at. I thought the penguins in Surf's Up (which anyone who likes this movie should see too; it's brilliant) were designed to look more fun and loveable. The hint of breasts on the female penguins just made them look sort of weird.

One dimensional stereotype characters. There's the overbearing authoritarian fundamentalists, the holy roller preacher, the "five amigo" wise guys, the skua bird gang, etc. There just wasn't much depth anywhere in the character department.

Very little genuine humor. A lot of what was supposed to be humor seemed forced, Disney Style. I was entertained throughout the movie, but I only really laughed two or three times.

And, one big helping of subliminal vulgarity. I read it elsewhere and so out of curiosity I freeze framed through the sequence where Gloria and Happy Feet emerge from their first swim and tumble through the snow, and yes it lookes like they went through the catalogue of sexual positions. That was crass, but then this movie is rated PG for a reason. I mean, what parent would think that a fuzzy little cute baby penguin on all the artwork would mean that they should allow their young children see it? Who would get that idea anyway?

So, a solid three stars for a movie that pretends to be for the little ones but richly deserves a PG rating and perhaps PG-13. Now, my happy keys gotta stop clickin'. Tippity tippity tap tap click!

I loved this movie from start to finish. The story line has been bashed by other reviewers but I think it's a cool little movie and a lot of fun.
The sound and picture of this Blu-Ray disc are truly amazing.
If you are a fan of animation then this is one for the collection... Yes sir.