Happy Feet?
I took the kids and their cousins to a movie yesterday. The one that no one had seen, and seemed good for a bunch of kids between the ages of 4 and 12 was 'Happy Feet'.
It seemed, from the previews that I had seen, to be a fun, musical, kids animation. It was, or at least it started that way. I have to say Robin Williams is awesome. I love movies where he is allowed to improv. Which apparently he was allowed to do here, and he played like 4 characters, so he was all over the place. The story of the movie is pretty tame, some penguins have to find a 'heart song' that represents who they really are and sing their song to find a mate. Other penguins have to build a nest of pebbles, and the larger the nest the better the chance of finding a mate. Mumble is a penguin of the variety who has to find his heart song. His problem is that his father is channeling Elvis and Mumble can't sing, his emotions are expressed by dancing. The movie makes the excuse that his father dropped him as an egg, and that is why he is different. Whatever, in any case the story is suppose to be about how he overcomes this to find a mate. But along the way the story takes a turn that I wasn't expecting. It got kind of dark and became a vehicle for someone's environmentalism message. The problem with this is that when this happens, instead of a good animation / kids story ending you have to invent a pretty lame conclusion to finish the movie on an up note.
The animation was really good. The realism of the penguins and the ice was really amazing. The music was fun and the dancing was really fun to watch. The jokes were funny and were age appropriate. There were even some really interesting mixing of live action and animation during the eco-preaching scenes. My only real reservation is the eco-preaching and the stuff they were saying. I hate it when film makers use a film as a ruse to preach to the audience. I admire and applaud film makers who use film to make a statement, but DON'T hide the message in the guise of a kids movie. Kids aren't sophisticated enough to be able to parse the message from the movie. And I don't like messages that are opinions being presented in a way that doesn't say that the message is an opinion.
Memphis: Whatcha doin' there, boy?
Baby Mumble: [tap dancing] I'm happy, Pa!
Memphis: Whatcha doin' with your feet?
Baby Mumble: [looks down] They're happy, too!
It seemed, from the previews that I had seen, to be a fun, musical, kids animation. It was, or at least it started that way. I have to say Robin Williams is awesome. I love movies where he is allowed to improv. Which apparently he was allowed to do here, and he played like 4 characters, so he was all over the place. The story of the movie is pretty tame, some penguins have to find a 'heart song' that represents who they really are and sing their song to find a mate. Other penguins have to build a nest of pebbles, and the larger the nest the better the chance of finding a mate. Mumble is a penguin of the variety who has to find his heart song. His problem is that his father is channeling Elvis and Mumble can't sing, his emotions are expressed by dancing. The movie makes the excuse that his father dropped him as an egg, and that is why he is different. Whatever, in any case the story is suppose to be about how he overcomes this to find a mate. But along the way the story takes a turn that I wasn't expecting. It got kind of dark and became a vehicle for someone's environmentalism message. The problem with this is that when this happens, instead of a good animation / kids story ending you have to invent a pretty lame conclusion to finish the movie on an up note.
The animation was really good. The realism of the penguins and the ice was really amazing. The music was fun and the dancing was really fun to watch. The jokes were funny and were age appropriate. There were even some really interesting mixing of live action and animation during the eco-preaching scenes. My only real reservation is the eco-preaching and the stuff they were saying. I hate it when film makers use a film as a ruse to preach to the audience. I admire and applaud film makers who use film to make a statement, but DON'T hide the message in the guise of a kids movie. Kids aren't sophisticated enough to be able to parse the message from the movie. And I don't like messages that are opinions being presented in a way that doesn't say that the message is an opinion.
Memphis: Whatcha doin' there, boy?
Baby Mumble: [tap dancing] I'm happy, Pa!
Memphis: Whatcha doin' with your feet?
Baby Mumble: [looks down] They're happy, too!