Happy Feet Two

I'm not sure if this film is made with a specific target audience in mind or if it totally wants to be like Pixar films in that it aims to hit both the young and adult audience with one stone. But in trying to do that though, I think we get more for a plot than we can handle.

First, it's reminiscent of the first film: Gloria (Pink) and Mumble's (Elijah Wood) son Erik (Ava Acres) is different. He may not have his father's rhythm or his mother's strong voice, so he thought maybe he could fly. Penguins fly? Not.

One happy family in the end, of course.

Consider also the friendship of the little furry penguins and the different family dynamics, aside from Mumble's family, we have dad Seymour and son Atticus (the chubby ones) and the British-accented mom and child. And there's also the small bit about the elephant seal and his kids' encounter with Mumble and the furry little kiddos—a really nice story though.

The former cult leader (right) and the new one (left) who didn't learn from him.

Then, there's also the new cult leader Sven (Hank Azaria) and his false hope of flight because he's really a bird, not a penguin (that beak should've given it away early on). And also Ramon's (Robin Williams) quest for love, which he found in Carmen (Sofia Vergara), you know, after a selfless act and some cheesy romantic stuff.

Second, the Penguin Nation is trapped by an ice berg gone rogue, so we have efforts to help them like giving them fish, the bit about Queen's "We are the Champions" and aliens trying to help, and tap-dancing penguins and elephant seals.

My favorites (even if they're such a distraction)

Plus, there are the krills Will (Brad Pitt) and Bill (Matt Damon), which is already a good short story by themselves. If they were trying to be kind of like Scrat in Ice Age, well, they've taken too much screen time that they take everyone's attention away from the main story. Oh, and don't forget the global warming stuff, too.

Those are a lot going on in a film, let alone a children's film. I wasn't surprised when my seven-year-old didn't pay attention to some parts and kind of wanted to stop watching even when it was so close to the end. It isn't entirely bad; there are lots of lessons to be learned. But it's just really... mumbled.


Happy Feet Two gets a five out of ten, for being a smorgasbord of a lot of stuff but not seamlessly fused together—a little too much for their real audience, the kids.



*screencaps courtesy of VLC