This review contains spoilers for Happy Feet 1, and musical spoilers for Happy Feet 2
I loved the original happy feet. It was engaging, fun, the music was great, the visuals were spectacular..... then the ending happened and undid all that good work. Sorry kids, in the real world if grown ups find a dancing penguin, we certainly do not release it back into the wild, we keep him in an enclosure and we make him dance until his no longer happy feet are sore and calloused so we can turn a profit!
So I was a little dubious about the sequel.
The story brings back Mumbles the dancing Penguin, and his wife Gloria (now voiced by singer Pink after the untimely death of Britteny Murphy), and introduces their son Erik who isn’t much of a dancer or singer (every father’s worst nightmare). During the opening song and dance, little Erik loses a dance battle or something, and becomes an outcast from the community of fabulous penguins (a few more Liza Minelli fans than Chuck Norris me thinks). While Mumbles is out trying to find his rhythemless son (no son of mine will play football! What will the neighbours think? You will dance and you will enjoy it! Now give me 10 pirouettes and put some pezaz into them!), a tsunami messes up the lay of the land in emperor-land (the most creative name since Avatar named their hard to obtain substance Unobtainium), and the entire population of penguins are landlocked, leaving the father/team and their ragtag team of penguins, walruses, krill, and a puffin with a God complex to rescue the doomed commune.
Yep, I can fly, just like Jesus
The movie’s side story is odd and interesting all at the same time. It involves Bill and Will Krill voiced by Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. 2 little krills lost in a swarm, and wanting to know what else is out there, and if they can get more out of life than being lunch for whales. There are some genuinely funny bits, but the less than subtle gay undertones had me scratching my head a little. This is an actual conversation they have after leaving the swarm.
“What if we start a swarm of our own?”
“We’re both guys”
“We could adopt”
It just struck me as odd. Replace Brad Pitt with Ben Affleck and suddenly this side story is hilarious!
Aaaaah! Pleather!
THIS PARAGRAPH HAS MUSICAL SPOILERS
In my opinion, this movie lacked in the musical department, which is a problem in a movie like this. The original had fun music from Queen, Prince, Lionel Ritchie and Stevie Wonder. It made you want to sing along. The sequel had original songs with some horrible lyrics (“you don’t need to fly to be awesome”. Seriously, a penguin sings this)
Other times you’ll be set up for a song, then the penguins just don’t deliver. At one point we hear “oo mow mow mow” and you think “Genius! Penguins singing the bird is the word. How clever!”, but they don’t, they just keep singing “oo mow mow”. Later again we hear the instantly recognisable guitar solo from Queens’ We are the champions”, reckon the penguins sing it? Hell no! You’ve hooked me, now reel me in penguins! Then when they do sing, it’s something bizarre. Rawhide? For real? What kids want to hear rawhide? If I want to hear Rawhide I’ll call the Blues Brothers
But only if Jake comes back. I’m not calling these clowns for anything
But, in the penguins defense, they really bring it home with an appropriate and brilliant rendition of a classic song. I even went to youtube once I got home to hear it again. I won’t spoil this one, but it fits the tone of the scene perfectly, and adds to the emotional impact of the situation, but it’s not enough to make me forget the lack of musical fun in the rest of the movie. Alvin and the Chipmunks do a better job in this department; take a popular song, put your own twist on it, profit! Basically what they do on Glee (oh God, did I just praise Glee? Be right back, I need a steel wool shower).
Now we’re even again Glee
Movies like this are as strong as their voice actors, and Happy Feet 2 falls some where in the middle for me. Having Hank Azaria (The Simpsons), and Robin Williams is a no brainer, as they’re both experienced voice guys, I’ll even allow the inclusion of Pink because they need someone who can sing, but I don’t see the point of having Brad Pitt and Matt Damon included. Damon at least puts a voice on, but Pitt just plays himself which just seems pointless to me? Having Sofia Vergara (Modern Family) on the other hand is genius, as she has a unique voice, and one that suits the role of Ramon’s (Robyn Williams with an amazingly over the top spanish accent) love interest. Rapper Common only seems to be in it for his ability to be fluent in Jive. I had flash backs to Transformers 2 with some of the borderline racism! I’d much prefer to hear a team of talented voice actors, rather than Brad Pitt phoning it in. It just seems logical to me, you’ll get a better finished product, for about a third of the price!
Like it’s predecessor, visually, this movie is spectacular. The penguins are cute as hell, the crowd scenes are spectacular, and the storm scenes will have you shivering. I only wish I saw it in 3D, as a movie this beautiful would only be enhanced by this element.
Did I mention cute penguins?
The movie has the pro-environment message that you’d expect, and they don’t paint people as being overly evil, but I’m not sure how many kids will go out and buy hybrids after seeing it. Seriously kids, if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. There’s also plenty of very touching father/son moments (sorry mum’s you’re all stuck in the hole with the other penguins), which are definite tear jerkers, plus singing, dancing and horribly awesome puns! Some slightly mixed messages about the power of one, and the importance team work, but the positive message is definitely there. A great one for the family, but not quite as good as the first in my humble opinion.
