Happy Feet Two (Warner Bros.)
Rated PG for some rude humor and mild peril.
Starring (voices of) Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Pink, E.G. Daily, Meibh Campbell, Lil P-Nut, Carlos Alazraqui, Johnny A. Sanchez, Lombardo Boyar, Jeffrey Garcia, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Magda Szubanski, Sofía Vergara, Anthony LaPaglia, Michael Cornacchia, Danny Mann, Hugo Weaving, Hank Azaria, Richard Carter, Common.
Written by Warren Coleman, Gary Eck, Paul Livingston and George Miller.
Directed by George Miller.
GRADE: C
REVIEW:
Movies are sometimes the best way to share a "message," or moral, if you will. Kids and adults can learn good lessons that enrich their lives and the lives of others. The best messages are subtle and require no detailed explanation. Others are not so subtle, like a Michael Moore "documentary." I was a little annoyed at the first Happy Feet (2006) for its preachy message about fishing, but was able to stomach a few Green Peace PSAs when juxtaposed with cute penguins singing and dancing. With this week's release of Happy Feet Two, it turns out there can be such a thing as too many messages.
Elijah Wood is back as the voice of Mumble, the tap-dancing penguin with voice so awful it can crack icebergs. Mumble and his wife Gloria (voiced by Pink, who replaces the late Brittany Murphy) are parents to Erik (E.G. Daily), a cute, little fuzzy guy who is a bit embarrassed at his clumsiness. When Erik and his cousins follow the love-lorn Ramon (Robin Williams) to a strange penguin population, Mumble follows to rescue the kids. Erik is impressed with a different kind of flying penguin (who is really a Puffin) named Sven (Hank Azaria).
When Mumble catches up with the youngsters, the group is suddenly cut off by from their home by a runaway iceberg, supposedly set loose by global warming. The iceberg encloses the emperor penguins, keeping them from their fishing grounds. As Mumble and the kids try to find a way back, they enlist the help of an elephant seal named Beachmaster (Richard Carter) and Sven to find a way to get those thousands of penguins out of their ice hole prison. In the mean time, two krill named Bill the Krill and Will the Krill (Mat Damon and Brad Pitt) separate themselves from their krill swarm to avoid becoming lunch for the next passing whale.
In the end, Erik and Mumbles must use their musical/artistic talents (hidden or otherwise) to save the penguins from doom.
Like I mentioned before, I was not a big fan of the first Happy Feet, mostly due to the heavy-handed message. HF2 suffers from the same preachy affliction, but in greater abundance. In fact, I lost count of all the messages we're supposed to learn. For example, HF2 teaches us to follow our dreams, no matter how unattainable (Erik's dream is to fly like Sven, even though he's a flightless bird). HF2 also teaches that human environmentalists are the perfect saviors of the world, except for their penchant for eating bird flesh (Sven is saved by enviromental activists, only to learn that they secretly eat chicken, to his horror). HF2 also teaches us that we must swim against the crowds until we discover how unsafe it is to be away from our own kind (Bill and Will leave the swarm at first, but end up conforming with the crowd in the end). Finally, HF2 teaches that polar bears are drowning and the ice caps are melting, although the film does not say exactly why. I guess the message is we'd better recycle, or all those cute penguins will die.
Mumbled messages aside, Happy Feet Two is cute enough, with plenty of those great musical/dance numbers to momentarily entertain kids and adults. As for the story, I'm not sure what the point is, unless you're into cartoon penguin karaoke.
