Written by
Warren Coleman and John Collee
With: Elijah Wood, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving, Robin Williams

"Yeah, I heard an animal once do that, but then they rolled him over and he was dead."

The Iliad for Penguins. Happy Feet is more then just a cute animated film with lots of penguins (God's greatest creation) but it is also a mythic epic: the story of a social outcast who is forced to leave the only home he has ever known because of the fears and prejudices of others.
His own father renounces him, his mother is forced away from him and the only girl he has ever loved he has to hurt just to save her. This is the story of Mumble Happyfeet, a Penguin with no 'heart song' and since this song is what helps all Penguins to find their one true mate, Mumble is apparently doomed to be alone.
But why can't Mumble sing? Is it because his father dropped him when he was an egg? Or was it the harshness of the winter or the fact that he hatched late? Or maybe he is just a dancer?
Because that is what Mumble does; he dances like Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly. He comes out of his shell tapping his toes to beat the. well, snow I guess you would say.
And his young life is filled with the dance as all his friends lives are filled with song. And because of this Mumble is always at the back of the class, or left behind in activities. A lot of us know what it is like to be different and ignored by our peers.
But, Mumble does his best to not let that get him down. After he is chases by a leopard seal, he meets five smaller Penguins, led by Ramon (Robin Williams, in a very over the top role for him) who show him that he is different but in a good way.
They accept him, and try to help him gain an understanding of what is going on around him. When they discover clues to an 'Alien Civilization' the group goes to the wisest, most spiritual being among them for answers.
Lovelace (Robin Williams again) is a Barry White/Jim Bakker sort who 'speaks to the Celestial Beings' by virtue of a talisman he wears around his neck. Once the boys discover the awful truth about Lovelace, all of them began a massive trek across the bottom of the world to try and find out the answers the Mumble needs.
The voyage takes them across beautiful ice covered landscapes that look that they came right out of a National Geographic Documentary. Just plain beauty.
Which takes up to one of the most impressive shots of the whole film. A scene in which Mumble, his friends and wise old Lovelace are walking across the snowy ice fields during a blizzard. They are shown as a shadow, as they fight to move ahead, with the fading light of the sun providing only slight lighting. As they are pushed back by the wind, they lean into it and keep going. It was one of the most beautiful scenes I have seen in a film in a long time.
The animation was excellent and the style matched with the plot easily and smoothly. This is not the animation of other animal films, this one has set the bar at a higher standard for the years to come. It is very impressive and leans toward the realistic side of the box.
The scene with playful Penguins flying down the mountain made me tense up in my seat I was so sure they were going to get hurt, it was that authentic sounding and looking. I would love to see this film in IMAX. Or 3-d.
The music didn't totally suck; yes there was some Hip Hop and top Forty, but there was also Elvis (Hugh Jackman as Memphis, Mumbles daddy) a couple of Beach Boy's tunes, and some others that I really enjoyed. And the dance numbers were great.
I wonder how long it took them to train those Penguins to dance like that?
The live action stuff at the end of the film sort of pulls you away from everything else that has happened. You wonder why they mixed it up the way they did, if it was worry about making the humans look like cartoons or what?
But even that little exception was not enough to dampen my appreciation of this film.
As to the film being 'propaganda', well yes; I guess it is. But so what?
I think that even that is a lesson the film wants to teach. That sometimes you have to be hit in the head before you think about what is going on around us. Mumble's problems teach us that even though we are different, we are still special and have abilities that can be used by ourselves and those around us.
And this is the same lesson George Miller has tried to teach in many of his films, from Babe to Mad Max, and yes Mad Max had a lot of Environmentalist propaganda in it, as did the other two Max films. Babe was little more then an anti-meat film at it's core.
But what is so wrong with that? What is so bad about trying to teach a lesson in a way that people might actually hear for once?
As we watch Happy Feet, we find that the film is about differences. But it is also about the damage the human race is doing to our own world. We actually are fishing out the oceans, causing famine among the oceanic life.
What is wrong with teaching that lesson, that we have to do something before it is to late? And to teach it to the children, the ones who will be running this show in only a couple of decades? Perhaps if we get them interested today, some of these problems will have a solution when they get there.
Crist. Just go and watch the film without trying to make it a bad thing. Go, have some fun by yourself or with your kids.
Happy Feet will make your feet happy and your heart sing.