Review – Happy Feet

Apparently one of the big problems with penguins is that they’re hard to tell apart. Thus this animated tale of the waterfowl of Antarctica goes to some strange lengths to help the audience distinguish one character from another. The story here is a sappy tale of a misfit, dancing penguin trying to get by in a colony that chooses mates solely by singing talent. Of course our ostracized hero manages to befriend fellow misfits and save the day in the end, making this an expensive, opposite-pole knock-off of the old Rankin-Bass “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” The slick production values and strong (indeed perhaps a bit on the preachy side) environmentalist message do a little to redeem the show, but otherwise it’s a run-of-the-mill parade of celebrity voices and simple-minded screenwriting. Mildly amusing