Whats this I hear (from Aint it Cool) that this movie is a leftist eco-friendly Save the Earth anti-religion movie?

That's pretty much what I took away from it. The first 1/2-2/3 of the movie are fun and very entertaining, then it takes a turn and next thing you know it's become an environmentalist film complete with debates at the UN. What kid is going to know what the hell the UN is, let alone care? I took one of my friends and his two daughters. The girls enjoyed the film, but the dad and I talked about how the message isn't necessarily bad, but it really didn't have any place in a movie that's supposed to be appealing to young children.

"Crappy Feet" review here:

http://michaelmedved.townhall.com/blog.aspx

There is one point that this reviewer TOTALLY missed, and I'll white-text it:

Gloria doesn't hook up with the fat penguin. She referrs to the baby penguins as her children, but because she's the singing teacher. She even goes so far as to say she guesses she never met the right one.

It's a fairly minor quibble, but if you're going to make a point of tearing a movie to shreds, you need to make sure you know what you're talking about.

Not sure I want to see a movie where all the characters look exactly alike.

Wow, what a review.

I do hate it when a movie aimed directly at kids, but it has twisted "Themes" in it that should not be "Subliminaly" giving them the anger/point of view of the writer/director.

Will wait for DVD.

Come on Pixar, give us more movies like the Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 3 (and whatever new story you can come up with).

This article claims that Happy Feet is gonna beat Bond at the Box Office... I have serious doubts about that one...

-ringding-

Well, I had a better time with Happy Feet than the new Bond Begins movie, for most of the running time.

Happy Feet is overall pretty cute, and yes, there is an eco-friendly element to it, but I had fun with most of it, though it did drag a bit in the middle, and about 10 minutes could have been chopped off of it. I did like the animation for the most part, and the dancing bits were pretty entertaining. Some people might find the 3rd act too preachy (probably due to George Miller's worldview) and it concludes rather quickly, but overall, I liked the characters and humor interspersed throughout the film (though I didn't much care for Robin Williams' character of Lovelace, but the main penguin Mumble, voiced by Elijah Wood, is pretty easy to root for in the film.

If you've seen March of the Penguins already, just think of this as an extension to some of the material from that documentary, only imagine that we could really understand penguin communications and be okay with the anthropomorphic personification of the penguins for this tale.

I give it 2.75 stars or a grade of B-.

My guess is that when you have humans, people tend to criticize them based on how realistic they are, unless they're done in a very cartoony style like The Incredibles. With animals (or toys or monsters, etc.), they can give them detailed textures without concern about how realistic they look. Also, some people don't like the look of cg or motion-captured humans and find them creepy (remember how some people found The Polar Express creepy, for example).

uh, like go to imax's website - www.imax.com

also here:

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00005130.html

I was drug to this movie today by my girlfriend (she claims I never see anything she wants to see). Seriously, if you're not interested in watching penguins sing and dance for 100 minutes, avoid it at all costs!

I really liked the movie. Basically like everyone one say's the first act is all singing and stuff. The second act I really thought this was a good movie.

I saw this with my daughter yesterday, my initial reactions:
-it's a unique movie that combines musical sequences, real drama, politics and some fairly scary adventure. I've never seen a movie quite like this one. It's a somewhat clumsy combination, though. The gears are shifted often and somewhat randomly. The pace of the movie is uneven. The ending seems more than a little tacked on.
-The movie is surprisingly dark, the sequence is a convincing vision of hell.
-the musical sequences were actually pretty good. My daughter liked them and I found myself tapping my feet.
-The action scenes are, in general, extremely well done but intense. The scene with the leopard seal was way, way too scary for younger kids. The "sliding" sequence was the most exciting "chase" scene (not really a chase, but similar) I've seen since "Hundred Mile Dash" in "The Incredibles" but once again, probably too much for very young kids.
-The whole movie is obviously made by a serious director, the "camera" work is very inventive, the "cinematography" is striking throughout. The animation is top quality. The undersea sequences in particular are beautiful.
-The polical sermonizing was about as subtle as a bulldozer. Once again, those dastardly, self-concerned humans (who are, of course, American) are ruining everything. Evangelical Christians (in the form of hunched-back, elder penguins) are also pasted.
-The whole "outcast that saves the day" plot is hardly inventive, but it is fairly well handled as is the "opposites attract" romance.
-Please, Hollywood, enough with the "anthropomophic anlimals using broad ethnic stereotypes to generate humor" characters. Although, I did like the Mexican penguins...

In general a fairly good and definitely unique movie with a fair amount of astonishing eye candy-like visuals and sound. Somewhat unfortunately the filmakers seem unable to resist including some fairly heavy darkness and political sermonizing.

Thats pretty much the last 30-35 minutes of the movie...It went from fun animation movie..to a movie with some serious and deep messages..and they will bluntly hit you over the head again..and again.

It was just too much of a dramatic switch.

Holy shit!! Reading that, I just discovered that there was a homosexual subtext in the film!

Who the hell takes Michael Medved seriously?

Actually, I prefer to call them "East L.A." Penguins

<hr>

The penguins aren't really Mexican. Let's at least call them Hispanic. In one of the songs, they say they're Dominican.

I went to see this in IMAX and have to say this: This is one of the most beautiful CG movies I've seen since Dinosaur. It's only ice and snow but it is rendered so majestically that it makes Ice Age look like a Hanna Barbera or Fox cartoon (oh wait). There are some subtle (and unsubtle) jabs at illegal immigration, evolution debates, religion/evangelicals, environmentalism, etc. It is not that bothersome until the last 5 minutes of the movie, so I wouldn't be too concerned. The first half of the movie is basically a musical and a well-done one. I'll take Prince over some Disney crap any day.

This movie absolutely pales to the best CG movies we've seen in the short history of the genre (The Incredibles, Over the Hedge, Toy Story 2) but it is also leaps and bounds better in quality over the less interesting stuff (Ice Age, Shrek, Shark Tale, Flushed Away, etc.).

If you've got an IMAX theatre near you, it's an awesome experience. When the movie started a lot of people gasped at how great it looked. I could think of a lot worse family movies to have to sit through.

Laugh if you want to, but the homosexual subtext was very obvious to me.

As far as the movie itself goes... rent it. It's just an OK movie. The animation was very good, as well as the music, but the story was just OK. It has no replay value to me.

As far as what's in it...

Homosexual subtext - check
Latino caricatures - very big check (and did you notice that one of the people argueing for continued fishing at the end (thus killing penguins) was hispanic?)
Black caricatures - oddly enough, this element was missing
Religeous fanatics caricatures - check
Humans are bad - check
Industry is bad - check

That's a good way to review it - compare it to other CGI movies out there. And I agree that this ranks among Dinosaur, Ice Age, Flushed Away, etc.

Guess I missed the homosexual part when I watched it this weekend. Where was it? The link to Medved's site goes to his current blog (search on his site for Happy Feet didn't find anything).

I could parallel the part where the elders were frowning upon Happy Feet for dancing and "being different" and ostracizing him from the community with uptight Christians frowning upon homosexuality and ostracizing homosexuals from the community. Is that what you meant?

I'm normally a big proponent of "Just watch the damn movie and enjoy it, and not try to pick it apart for the "meaning""...but this one hit you over the damn head with it. Repeatedly.

I enjoyed it much more than any of the titles previously listed...of course, I thought The Incredibles was terrible.

A bit heavy-handed at times, but the animation was absolutely astounding (the epic landscapes in particular). Easily deserving of the Oscar it received. I'd love to see more "kids movies" made for adults: CG films that are willing to so freely transition to dark subject matter. While it won't succeed in changing my world views or lifestyle, I thought the film was beautiful, and it easily surpassed all of my expectations (and most, if not all, of my previous animated favorites). An astounding technical achievement, and entertaining to boot. Thumbs way up.

-JP

Rented the DVD. Liked it a lot. Certainly deserved the Oscar. I liked the message too and the fact that the film is really an "author" film, not one that follows a recipe for success. Comparisons with "Dinosaur" are apt for the great quality of the animation. Of all the reviews I've read the one from Variety is the most accurate: http://www.variety.com/awardcentral_...=2352&cs=1&p=0

Michael Medved should be put in an institution. Seriously.

The Michael Medved link, once again, is: http://michaelmedved.townhall.com/bl...c-d20b94c78024

I agree with the heavy handedness but yes I thought the animation was amazing. I didn't get to see it in IMAX, but the standard 35mm print I saw was impressiveness nonetheless. The aggressive 5.1 soundmix also got a thumbs up from me. I'm kind of surprised that the video release no where mentions this just won best animated film of last year - you'd think Warner Bros. would make more of that fact.

Even though I had problems with 'A Scanner Darkly' I thought in general the use of the rotoscoping animation technique really was a great artistic decision to implement. Would love to see more 'adult' films take this approach, animator Ralph Bakshi did in the past, why not ressurect that style?