Happy Feet
May 2007 Reviewed by: Mischa Hayek Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Last year’s Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature, George Miller’s Happy Feet is a marvel of computer-generated entertainment. It was produced in Australia by Animal Logic animation studio for Warner and Village Roadshow Pictures.

Happy Feet tells the story of Mumble, an Emperor penguin, who is born different from other penguins and who struggles to find love and acceptance in the penguin community. All Emperor penguins are born with the ability to sing, and discovering their "heartsong" will enable them to find their mates (so the story says). Unfortunately, because Mumble is born tone deaf, he’s unable to sing. Instead he tap-dances -- he really tap-dances! This talent is unappreciated by the penguin community. Mumble is ostracized and even blamed for the scarcity of fish and the hard times that the penguins currently endure. Eventually Mumble has to leave the penguin community. Along with some new-found friends, a bunch of Adélie penguins who call themselves The Amigos and a Rockhopper penguin called Lovelace, Mumble sets out to find out why the fish are scarce and to prove his worth.

The penguins and other animals are voiced by some well-known actors including Elijah Wood, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, and Hugo Weaving, but only Robin Williams, who provided voices for Lovelace and Ramon, one of the Amigos, is easily recognizable.

Happy Feet will appeal to all ages. Adults and children will be amazed by the singing and dance orchestration, but adults will also notice many parallels to real-life events in the actions and behaviors of some of the penguins. My only disappointment with Happy Feet is that it becomes an environmental message film towards the end, taking away some of the film’s innocent fun.

Sound is exceptional on this DVD release, making use of all channels with good bass and great clarity -- an important feature given that music and singing play such an important role in the enjoyment of this film. Picture quality is also extraordinarily high. However, this might be expected given that the entire film is created on computer; there is no transfer from one medium to a different one that might compromise quality. The detail, colors, and sharpness of images are more easily controlled by the computer animators, who do not experience some of the development and editing problems associated with film.

Special features in this widescreen release include two new animated sequences, "Mumble Meets a Blue Whale" and "A Happy Feet Moment." Also included are a short dance special with Savion Glover who choreographed Mumble’s dancing routines, two music videos, and an old classic cartoon, "I Love to Singa." The animated sequence "Mumble Meets a Blue Whale" was finished as a tribute to Steve Irwin, the Australian naturalist who died recently and who voiced the albatross in this sequence as well as a large elephant seal in the main film. Languages and subtitles are in English, French, and Spanish.

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