HAPPY FEET
HAPPY FEET
May 3 2008, DVD, home living room, from library
This movie would probably be really pleasing to me without the music, or with original music. It's the same problem I have with MOULIN ROUGE, in that I really hate movies that sling about thirty popular pop songs at you in sung-by-the-actors cover versions. The more I love the original song, the more I dislike this treatment of it. Folks who don't have the same kind of relationship with music that I have, but who love the same kind of music that I do (and love musicals), totally love these sorts of movies.
Unfortunately, I don't. They make me want to flee, scream, and die. I can take in good performances and brilliant production design, something this film shares with MOULIN ROUGE, but the songs fill me lingering, bitter rage. I am very sorry for this - it's a mild handicap - but I can't help being the way I am, which is the very message of HAPPY FEET. George Miller understands me! ... except he doesn't, because he wouldn't have made a VH1 "I Love the 80s" soundtrack part of his film. There's no reason why those songs need to be there - an original soundtrack, written by someone like Bjork, Ben Folds, or any of a number of capable, sensitive tunesmiths, might have been gorgeous. It's a really nice story - a beautiful one, in fact. I just really don't want to listen to Brittany Murphy sing "Boogie Wonderland" like she's auditioning for American Idol.
Anyway, HAPPY FEET is a heartwarming, cleverly subversive film featuring CG dancing penguins and a dizzying plethora of celebrity actor voices. Heading up this truckload is Elijah Wood as Mumble, the penguin on the hero's journey; the penguin character design looks freakishly like the actor himself, but unfortunately the need to make a visually distinctive character kind of pulled me out of the film in a bad way - Mumble doesn't even look like he's the same species of penguin as the rest of his colony. (A velvet-coated anvil, for those of us who notice these things.) He can't sing, which is something biologically and spiritually necesssary for the Emperor penguin way of life, but he sure can tap-dance like Savion Glover. (Too bad little stubby penguin feet obscure the undoubtedly brilliant dancing Glover created for the role. OH WELL.) His community shuns him, and then he gets separated, and then adventures ensue. Somewhere alone the line, Mumble discovers and uncovers the presence of Man, fucking shit up in the Antarctic seas, spilling oil and trash and overfishing. GODDAMN WHITEY! Mumble takes measures into his own Frodo-like hands, and aims to do something about it. But the world out there is harsh... (Also: blind faith and conservatism may keep you alive in harsh conditions but it also stifles innovation and growth, and willful ignroance destroys civilizations.)
I'm sorry, that's a great story, and the sad, poignant bits are sad and poignant the way only George Miller can do it. (See: Feral Kid in THE ROAD WARRIOR, the embracing chimps in BABE: PIG IN THE CITY, and the tenderness between Master and Blaster in MAD MAX: BEYOND THUNDERDOME.) It would have ruled quite a lot without the singing and dancing. The CG is intermittently brilliant by non-Pixar standards, especially in the water and ice effects, but the leopard and elephant seals are not good. I mean, I can forgive that. That's fine. I'm comfortable with bad CGI. But Prince's "Kiss" as a song is done to death, the Beach Boys' "In My Room" has a lyrical meaning that is simply disregarded because it makes a good church-y song for a children's choir to sing, and can we get a moriatorium that states that no Lionel Richie song can ever be played publicly again? Ever? Please?
Also can I request that Hugh Jackman never imitate Elvis again? I love you, but I'm bored with it, Hugh. Just stop. And... R.I.P. Steve Irwin.
May 3 2008, DVD, home living room, from library
This movie would probably be really pleasing to me without the music, or with original music. It's the same problem I have with MOULIN ROUGE, in that I really hate movies that sling about thirty popular pop songs at you in sung-by-the-actors cover versions. The more I love the original song, the more I dislike this treatment of it. Folks who don't have the same kind of relationship with music that I have, but who love the same kind of music that I do (and love musicals), totally love these sorts of movies.
Unfortunately, I don't. They make me want to flee, scream, and die. I can take in good performances and brilliant production design, something this film shares with MOULIN ROUGE, but the songs fill me lingering, bitter rage. I am very sorry for this - it's a mild handicap - but I can't help being the way I am, which is the very message of HAPPY FEET. George Miller understands me! ... except he doesn't, because he wouldn't have made a VH1 "I Love the 80s" soundtrack part of his film. There's no reason why those songs need to be there - an original soundtrack, written by someone like Bjork, Ben Folds, or any of a number of capable, sensitive tunesmiths, might have been gorgeous. It's a really nice story - a beautiful one, in fact. I just really don't want to listen to Brittany Murphy sing "Boogie Wonderland" like she's auditioning for American Idol.
Anyway, HAPPY FEET is a heartwarming, cleverly subversive film featuring CG dancing penguins and a dizzying plethora of celebrity actor voices. Heading up this truckload is Elijah Wood as Mumble, the penguin on the hero's journey; the penguin character design looks freakishly like the actor himself, but unfortunately the need to make a visually distinctive character kind of pulled me out of the film in a bad way - Mumble doesn't even look like he's the same species of penguin as the rest of his colony. (A velvet-coated anvil, for those of us who notice these things.) He can't sing, which is something biologically and spiritually necesssary for the Emperor penguin way of life, but he sure can tap-dance like Savion Glover. (Too bad little stubby penguin feet obscure the undoubtedly brilliant dancing Glover created for the role. OH WELL.) His community shuns him, and then he gets separated, and then adventures ensue. Somewhere alone the line, Mumble discovers and uncovers the presence of Man, fucking shit up in the Antarctic seas, spilling oil and trash and overfishing. GODDAMN WHITEY! Mumble takes measures into his own Frodo-like hands, and aims to do something about it. But the world out there is harsh... (Also: blind faith and conservatism may keep you alive in harsh conditions but it also stifles innovation and growth, and willful ignroance destroys civilizations.)
I'm sorry, that's a great story, and the sad, poignant bits are sad and poignant the way only George Miller can do it. (See: Feral Kid in THE ROAD WARRIOR, the embracing chimps in BABE: PIG IN THE CITY, and the tenderness between Master and Blaster in MAD MAX: BEYOND THUNDERDOME.) It would have ruled quite a lot without the singing and dancing. The CG is intermittently brilliant by non-Pixar standards, especially in the water and ice effects, but the leopard and elephant seals are not good. I mean, I can forgive that. That's fine. I'm comfortable with bad CGI. But Prince's "Kiss" as a song is done to death, the Beach Boys' "In My Room" has a lyrical meaning that is simply disregarded because it makes a good church-y song for a children's choir to sing, and can we get a moriatorium that states that no Lionel Richie song can ever be played publicly again? Ever? Please?
Also can I request that Hugh Jackman never imitate Elvis again? I love you, but I'm bored with it, Hugh. Just stop. And... R.I.P. Steve Irwin.