DVD Review: Happy Feet

“It just ain’t penguin, okay?”

The 2006 winner for best animated feature tap dances its way onto DVD. Prepare to get your toes tapping.Each Emperor penguin has within themselves what is called a “heartsong.” When they sing their song they’ll know who their mate is. This is the way it happens for Memphis (Hugh Jackman), doing Elvis, and Norma Jean (Nicole Kidman), doing Marilyn Monroe. They sing a duet and become a couple. The harsh winter comes and Memphis stays behind to guard their egg while Norma Jean goes to the feeding grounds for the winter. Memphis accidentally drops their egg, but recovers it quickly.

Their child nearly doesn’t make it out of the shell but when he does he has some fancy footwork. The problem is that Mumble (Elijah Wood) can’t sing a lick. Mumble grows up and is infatuated with fellow penguin Gloria (Brittany Murphy) but knows that to win her he must learn to sing his heartsong. Sadly, she’s unattainable because he can only dance. Mumble meets up with a different breed of penguin led by Ramon (Robin Williams). There’s a fish shortage up north and Noah the Elder (Hugo Weaving) blames the event on the different Mumble. Mumble then sets off into the wild to make contact with the aliens (that’s us folks) that are causing the shortage and make things right. Happy Feet is a green friendly film disguised as a family film. The film also oddly seems like a tale of conflict of religions, old ways and new ways. The penguins have a conflict or crisis of faith. This seems like heavy stuff for a kids’ movie, but I’m not sure that the kiddies will recognize them though. They’ll just see the pretty animation and friendly penguin faces. The movie is good and features some good and creative use of pop songs from Prince, Queen, and others. The vocal cast does a good job with kudos going to the vocal insanity of Robin Williams. Mumble even looks like Elijah Wood. Now here’s the part where I might earn some hate mail or nasty talkback: I still liked Cars better. However, this years Oscars were focused on environmental issues with Al Gore’s Inconvinient Truth poised to win best documentary and Cars really didn’t stand a chance against Happy Feet’s environmental friendly message. I still think that Happy Feet is a good film and enjoyed it – but I still liked Cars better. Cars seemed to have a more cohesive story, but Happy seems to wander around a bit like it wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be a kids story or environmental wake-up call. Sorry, I’ll recycle a can to make up for it.

Happy Feet is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. A fullscreen version is available separately. Special features feel a little light for the film that won best animated feature, which makes me think that a more elaborate version is coming down the arctic shelf someday. First up is the 3 minute “Mumble meets a Blue Whale.” Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin wanted to be involved with the project and in the beginning recorded as cameo as an albatross in this scene. He appears as an elephant seal in the final film. After his tragic death director George Miller (who introduces the scene) decided to complete the scene and include it on the DVD. Next is the 30 second “Happy Feet moment” which I’m unsure how to describe. Is it a deleted scene or just a little joke? You tell me. The 5 minute “Dance Like a Penguin: Stomp to the Beat” has dancer/co-choreographer Savion Glover showing the kiddies some tap dancing ala Mumble (who he tapped for in the film). It’s followed by 2 music videos, Hit Me Up by Gia (3 minutes) and Song of the Heart by Prince (3 minutes). “I Love to Singa” is an 8 minute Warner Brothers classic cartoon similar in theme to the film in that the classical music loving owl papa ends up with a (gasp!) crooner for a son. Finally there’s the 1 minute theatrical trailer. There are also some DVD-ROM features but it really seems to be links to some WB websites.

Happy Feet is a good movie that features some great tunes and an environmentally friendly message. I court controversy when I say that I think that Cars was more deserving of the Oscar, but that was up to the Academy and I really didn’t have a say in the matter (I think Al Gore stuffed the ballot box). Whatever the case, it’s a good movie but I expect that a more elaborate special edition is down the road somewhere. Happy Feet is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK. Visit the DVD database for more information.