Animated Movie Talk

Happy Feet

Last night, the brilliant movie bought a small avalanche of memories back to me. Before watching it, I could only remember a few scenes, but when I saw the movie again the scenes that had important places in my mind when I was much younger all came back to me. This is Happy Feet- a film that is not only funny but also raised awareness about the plight of penguins and the ocean in general when we overfish, that is perhaps the most influential animated film of the 2000's. 

The film starts off in space, which I think is awesome, and introduces the viewer(s) to a pair of emperor penguins singing their love song-Memphis and Norma Jean. Soon they fall in love and have an egg. When Norma Jean leaves to fish in the winter, she leaves her egg in the care of Memphis, who she thinks will do a very good job of protecting the egg. That is, until, he accidentally drops the egg into a blizzard, which he has been told is the worst thing a father can do to his chick. Memphis feels very guilty and he tells no-one. How this affected the chick is soon revealed when little Mumble hatches awkwardly out of his egg- tap dancing! And also, unlike other penguins,he cannot sing well, and he does not have a heartsong.  Mumble seems to get along with the other penguins when he encourages them to swim for the first time, and kindly gives a fish to his girlfriend, Gloria that he had to fight skuas to obtain. However his relationship with Gloria is damaged by his bad attempts to sing Somebody to Love with her. Mumble is exiled on a iceberg and swept into a rollercoaster ride (not literally, but there is a part where it would feel like Mumble was on a rollercoaster!) of action with his five Adelie penguin friends, who love his tap dancing! On his journey Mumble discovers that the áliens' (humans) are responsible for the food shortage, and he sets out determined to tell the humans to stop fishing and ultimately save his kind, becoming a hero! Even if I've put a bit too much detail about what happens in the movie, you still watch it, especially with the amazing soundtrack, which I have listened and danced to for years. The morals of Happy Feet are that if people pick on you for being different, you have the potential to become a great person, and that we respect nature's resources more and use them wisely.  I noticed that the humans in Happy Feet are not animated, which is quite unusual. I think this is becuase people might have been too difficult or taken too long to animate. An interesting fact is that Mumble has the same voice actor, Elijah Wood, as Spyro in The Legend Of Spyro video game series. That means that a penguin and a purple dragon have the same voices, and another similarity between them is that Mumble and Spyro both become heroes! Happy Feet is an awesome movie ideal for watching with your friends. I give it four and a half out of five stars. 

The video is of the trailer, which was released in 2006. Check it out!