The Good

Mumble is cute. The animation looks great on this disc.

The Bad

Too much singing. Too many annoying characters.

Mumble the penguin has got some big problems. He' s a dancer in a world filled with amazing singers. Such is the set up for the Academy Award Winning Happy Feet.

Tap dancing is all Mumble wants to do yet that is impossible because all the other penguins are great singers. In addition to this, there is currently a fish famine which many of the Emperor Penguins blame on Mumble. Sadly, this gets our furry friend kicked out of Emperor Land and into the the far reaches of the North Pole. Realizing that he must find out the reason for the lack of fish, Mumble sets off on a journey to help his people. Along the way, Mumble makes friends like the Adelie Amigos and the lovely Lovelace, and it is through many trials and tribulations that he realizes he is going to have to dance, not sing, his way into a romantic interlude with the woman he loves (apparently, these animals sing to one another in order to bring about a relationship). This movie is filled with many singing numbers, a lot of comic voice stylings by Robin Williams and a plethora of amazing animated shots.

At it's core, Happy Feet is a film about being true to yourself. About taking those things that make you different from the others around you and using them to show the world just how special you are.

Features

Additional Sequences

There are two of these in this section. They are "Mumble Meets a Blue Whale" and "A Happy Feet " These are both very well done and could have easily found their way into the movie. They keep the same zany, slapstick vibe of the film going, and I think my only complaint is that they are too short. I would think that a DVD of this nature would be packed with deleted scenes (even if it was just still drawings set to a voiceover track). The color and look of these two sequences is quite pristine and I got the impression that these were created just for this release.

Music Video

Dance Like a Penguin: Stomp to the Beat

Savion Glover who choreographed this movie and also danced as Mumble, takes us through this story, while showing how he did certain scenes. We see his body in the motion capture suit and then we see him go to work, dancing around, and then these scenes are juxtaposed with their animated counterparts. He talks about the themes of the film, how Mumble had to sing with his feet and he also takes us through the whole process of using tap dancing to develop this character on screen.

Video

Widescreen Version - 1080p resolution. A lot of times in my standard DVD reviews I write things like, "I can only imagine how this movie will play in one of the next generation formats." Well, getting to see this film on HD-DVD (and in its standard format) was illuminating in a lot of ways. I know that average people probably aren't going to do side by side comparisons of all this stuff. Most people don't have the time. However, this HD-DVD release looks immaculate. In fact, I feel that once people get hipped to how good this next generation release looks, they will have a hard time watching Standard DVDs (which still look pretty darn good by the way). The picture is so clean here it is scary. There isn't a hint of fuzziness in any of the ways that the picture has been rendered. I can only imagine what people are going to say once the prices of all this next generation equipment comes down.

Audio

Dolby Digital TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1. If you read my Standard review of this DVD, I think you will get the hint that I really don't care for musicals all that much. The fact that the singing can now be heard even better than before sadly does nothing for me. Putting just my technical hat on for a moment, I am not gonna slag the audio because of my personal preferences. If you want to hear this movie in all its glory, this is certainly one of the better ways to go. The musical numbers sound sharp and when you factor in the picture this is one of those releases that you could use to show off your system's capabilties.

Package

This front cover features Mumble and the rest of the penguins as they flail around and kick up their feet. The back features more images of Mumble and the other characters dancing around, with a clear blue sky and snow all around them. There is a small description of what Happy Feet is about, a Special Features listing, a cast list and technical specs.

Final Word

In theory, I should have loved Happy Feet. I should have loved the ideas and themes that were behind the very heart of this story. I should've fallen in love with all of these characters. While I loved Mumble, I just found every other animal sorely lacking anything that I could attach myself too. I didn't enjoy the singing, I didn't enjoy Robin William's antics (he should have only done one voice), I didn't enjoy the way this story was told. This was quite a surprise to me because when I sat down to watch this movie I expected to fall in love with it. I expected to be blown away by how well put together it was. Sadly, I never was.

Anybody who has followed any of my reviews knows that I don't like musicals. They take me out of the story and constantly remind me that I am watching a movie. The fact that I didn't like these songs at all (too modern for my tastes) makes me think A) I just didn't get this film or B) I was simply the wrong person to review this movie. I will say that the animation was great and that on DVD this thing looked pristine. It is truly amazing what can be done with computers nowadays.

That said, I think too much of Happy Feet relied on being cute and quirky when it just should have told it's story and stuck to it's central idea of being proud of being different.