Nov. 16, 2011 - Issue #839: Ox
Happy Feet Two
Penguins live a harsh, cold life. They deal with extreme storms, vicious sea lions, opportunistic skua and now, for reasons that are lost to their little penguin world, their home is melting at a violent rate. Good thing they're so cute, or else Happy Feet Two would be a really depressing movie.Without tackling the issue head on (Mumble doesn't set out to stop greenhouse gas emissions), the enviro-conscious animators at Warner Bros address the effects of rising temperatures in the coldest place on earth, in this, our second run-in with the adorable world of these singing, dancing but flightless birds. With the potential effect of creating a legion of tiny environmentalists hell bent on saving their favourite cartoon characters, Happy Feet Two starts with shattering icebergs causing giant waves in the southern ocean threatening the lifestyle of all the frozen animals that populate the Antarctic. When the rapidly melting bergs crack and shift, they trap the emperor penguin population in a deep pit with no way out.
The only emperors to escape are Mumble, owner of the original happy feet, his son and his son's fluffy friends. The rest of the movie is one giant, protracted struggle to save the species, interspersed with big dance numbers and this strange, unfortunate attempt to demonstrate how all life is interconnected using two krill voiced by Brad Pitt and Matt Damon.
In an inspiring feat of animation, the re-creation of the ice spilling into the sea and the swirling swarm of krill is surprisingly vivid. And the dance numbers, including the entire emperor penguin population (yes, they all have happy feet now) are big and fun.
But the obstacles between Mumble and saving his friends are stretched out to the point where adults (and kids too) are bound to get a little restless. Throw in a churning mass of morals—save the environment, be yourself, and the motivational "if you want it, you must will it and if you will it, it will be yours"—Happy Feet Two is overstuffed and a little heavy for the genre. It is a little harsh and cold to say, but no matter how wide-eyed and fluffy, baby penguins lose their charm somewhere around the 90 minute mark. vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus
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