Happy Feet (a penguin movie)

Last year, on the movie theaters, the documentary (docudrama actually) "The March of the Penguins", was played (I even wrote something about it last year click this link if u need backstory). It was one of the best movies/documentaries I had ever seen. There was such a thin line between a fictional movie and a documentary, because you could see yourself as a penguin, they couldn't be more human than you or I. Beautiful, heartbreaking, hopeful, powerful, very uplifting movie...

So. With that said, comes:

Happy Feet (trailer 2 is my favorite)

Mumble Happy Feet is a newly born emperor penguin who cannot sing. So?, you may ask. Well, if you cannot sing, according to the movie, you cannot find a mate. But Mumble could dance, when no other penguin either didn't dare to dance or they couldn't. So, Mumble was ostracized, by the high powers (the goverment, or the "wise" men), from the community. And you think, "oh, so this movie is going to be very light, warm, fuzzy, and most likely for children". But, oh, I was wrong.

The movie deals with so many issues, simbolisms, allusions and parallelisms of real human life that is almost unbelievable. I mean, from the fact that Mumble was ejected from the community for being "different", right there you have themes like: racism, homophobia, or discrimination in any way. I don't want to tell the story but, the scene in which you can see that discrimination it's also a critique to blind religion, when the penguins refuse to dance, and the say something like: "the penguin way" (that casually sounds like Amen)... Really freaky and interesting. There's also a commentary on hierachies...

Also, there are messeges about acceptance, when some latin-sounding, smaller, non-emperor penguins, accept Mumble no matter how he is. And, you have to listen to those little penguins, they're hilarious, specially the one voiced by Robin Williams; and you have to see theme move and act, they're so vivid. Really, a very entertaining thing to see, and to listen; it was like a stand up comedy show.

Remember tho, that this movie is a musical, so there's music and dance... The choreographies were great, and worked so well with the camera movements, which were on themselves very very smooth. And the music is all about latin-black-pop-soul-dance-hiphop really enjoyable, if not awesome (that coming from someone who doesn't really like hip-hop).

And there are scenes with such drama, and violence that I was like: "gosh, this is NOT for children". Because it showed the harshness of nature, like there is a scene where some big eagle-like birds were going to eat the little Mumble, and it was to me soooo heartpounding, and menacing, that I seriously thought that the children in the theater were going to cry. No one did. But, there was another scene involving a fight over a fish between three birds and the teenaged Mumble, that is pure violence. In THAT one little child cried.

What else can I say. Everytime you think the movie is going somewhere it takes you somewhere else.

My favorite scene is one when Mumble is walking with his latin-voiced-small-penguins friends against a storm of high winds... One of the most frigid photorealistic shots of the movie, and one of the most memorable. They're pushing against the high winds, and the sun is on the background, so you see only their silhouettes...

You must see it. Even if you don't like animated movies. See this one. It is worth it. There are movies that afterwards you say: "why the fuck did I pay X amount of money to watch this shitty movie"... I assure you, that you will not be disappointed. You go for the cute factor, and because the trailers are so funny!!!!, but you come out with a whole experience of drama, commentary, art and, most importantly, comedy.

Ps: Oh, and pleeeaaase, see it in English, you will loose so much with a dub (I think).