Voices of Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, and Hugh Jackman
Directed by George Miller
Music and Lyrics by various
With cold weather hitting much of the US at this time of year, I thought it was the appropriate time to cover another snow-themed animated film. Happy Feet was a surprise hit in 2006. Director and screenwriter George Miller was inspired by documentaries and documentary filmmakers who had shot footage in Antarctica to make a movie set there. Considering what the last animated musical about penguins in Antarctica I reviewed was like, how does this one fare? Let's follow a feather to the Antarctic shores, where emperor penguins are beginning their mating season, and find out...
The Story: Memphis (Jackman) and Norma Jean (Nicole Kidman) mate because their "heartsongs" - the songs penguins sing to attract the opposite sex - match. They have an egg, but Memphis drops it while marching with the other father penguins to protect it from the harsh winter. Their baby, Mumble, can't sing, but he can do an amazing tap dance. He's always had a crush on Gloria (Murphy), who has the best voice in the rookery. One day while dancing on his own, he encounters a group of skua (predatory sea birds). In between attempts to eat him, the largest claims he gained his yellow-tagged foot after being abducted by aliens.
As he grows up, Mumble keeps trying to attract Gloria, even though he can't sing. He flees a leopard seal and discovers a group of Adelie penguins who love his dance moves. They try to help him sing for Gloria, but the fact that the song is in Spanish and sounds nothing like Mumble gives him away. His dance moves win Gloria over anyway, until Noah (Hugo Weaving) and the other elders of the tribe claim his dances are scaring away the fish and banish him. Mumble will go a long way to get his love back, literally around the world as he and the Adelie "amigos" discover how their "guru" rockhopper penguin Lovelace (Williams) got a set of plastic six-pack rings stuck around his neck, and he finds out what really happened to the fish that supports their ecosystem.
The Animation: Motion capture technology comes to the fore here, both as a guide for the dance moves and to animate the few humans towards the end of the film. It looks better on the utterly perfect dance moves. Those penguins can really move, even made to look as realistic as a penguin can get away with and still be cute to humans. The snowy white of the Antarctic is rendered so well you get cold just watching the penguin fathers protect their eggs in that snowstorm!
The Song and Dance: This one gets some bolstering from the cutting-edge animation and well-chosen cast. Wood does well emphasizing Mumble's sweet and curious sides, while Williams is very "on" as the laid-back Lovelace, who thinks the six-pack he got caught in grants him special powers. Listen for the late Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin in one of his last films as the voice of Trev the Elephant Seal. The dance numbers are a blast to watch, and you'll probably learn more than you ever wanted to know about how three different penguin species live and attract a mate.
Favorite Number: Jackman does his best Elvis for the opening, matching his aching "Heartbreak Hotel" to Kidman's playful version of the Prince dance jam "Kiss." Little Mumble gets a darn good dance routine going to "The Joker" by the Steve Miller Band and "Everything I Own" by David Gates. Murphy's "Somebody to Love" when she's trying to choose between suitors isn't bad, either. She finally matches Mumble's awesome moves with the disco classic "Boogie Wonderland." K.D Lang sneaks a lovely version of the Beatles' "Golden Slumbers/The End" in, appropriately towards the end of the film when Mumble returns to the rookery.
Trivia: Originally, Steve Irwin also voiced an albatross who encounters a blue whale, but that scene was cut from the final film. (It is included on the DVD and Blu-Rays.)
What I Don't Like: For all the fancy animation and up-to-date cast, the story isn't anything you haven't seen before. It plays as a CGI Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer that suddenly veers into Ferngully: The Last Rainforest territory for the last half-hour. To give it credit, it does come off as less preachy than Ferngully, but it's still pretty obvious that the environmental slant was a last-minute addition. The motion capture works great on the penguins and their slick moves...but not-so-well on the humans, who look creepy and even a little too real.
The Big Finale: This charming jukebox musical is worth checking out for families with kids who love animals or big dance routines.
Home Media: Out of print on solo disc, but it can be found bundled with its sequel and is available for streaming from Amazon Prime and HBO Max.
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