Happy Feet **
Cast (voices): Robin Williams, Hugh Jackman, Elijah Wood, Nicole Kidman, Brittany Murphy, Hugo Weaving
Director: George Miller
Running Length: 1:45
MPAA Classification: PG

Upon returning home from a fishing expedition, Norma Jean (Kidman, an Emperor penguin, meets her baby boy Mumble (Wood). He is a little strange. While all Emperor penguins like to sing, Mumble likes to dance. He also sings really, really badly. Feeling like an outcast, he leaves his group of penguins and becomes friends with Ramon (Williams), a penguin of a different species who does not mind Mumble’s “Happy Feet”. With the help of his new friends, he sets out to figure out why the fish supply has decreased, a problem that threatens all the life on Antarctica.

“Happy Feet” could have been a really good movie. Lots of singing, cute penguins, and a nice story about how being different is not bad. But, in the last third of the movie, it all falls apart. A conservationalist message is handled with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the head. The way it is handled feels out of place in a kids’ movie, and has a different and darker tone from the rest of the film. Also, a dues ex machina to save the day for Mumbles feels like a big old cheat. The last third of the movie actually made me dislike this film a lot, and I cannot recommend it to anyone.