Happy Feet

Voices: Elijah Wood, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving, Robin Williams, Johnny A Sanchez, Carlos Alazraqui

Set in the freezing world of the emperor penguins, Happy Feet is the story of misfit Mumble (Elijah Wood), who is the only member of his colony ever to have been born without the ability to sing. He can tap dance like crazy, but the others think he’s weird and his lack of a ‘heart song’ (the unique song every penguin uses to attract a mate) looks certain to doom him to a lonely life of misery.
Mumble finds friendship when he runs into a bunch of fun-loving adelie penguins, but ends up cast out from his own community when the elders identify his ‘un-penguin’ dancing as the cause of their food shortage.
Happy Feet ticks the boxes for cuteness, humour and drama quickly enough. The newly hatched penguins are hard to resist, especially Mumble, who has to make a concerted effort not to start dancing at any given moment; the adelie penguins (who are all Hispanic for some reason) provide a steady stream of chuckles; and Mumble’s encounters with leopard seals and killer whales throw up a couple of arresting action sequences that might have younger kids hiding behind their popcorn. Some of the musical numbers come off better than others but are mostly kept pretty brief.
After a year of mediocre, uninspired talking animal movies, it’s great to see one that is actually visually memorable. The filmmakers have obviously studied natural history series like the BBC’s Life In The Freezer to get the penguins’ world looking almost as stunning as the real thing. The snow, ice and skies look real and so do the penguins - apart from all that singing, talking and dancing, of course.
When he is cast out and goes looking for the aliens (humans) that he believes are responsible for the penguins’ plight, you really feel for Mumble, and Happy Feet has you just where it wants you.