Happy Feet Two (Animated Movie): From a Commoner's View
Two happy feet of mine happily tap-danced on the way to the
movie house yesterday to get my fill of penguin singing and dancing galore on
the big screen. As an avid fan of Mumble
and his quirky feet in the first movie, I waited for this sequel with fervent
anticipation. And what did I think of it?
Well…sadly, it did not completely live up to my expectations. The storyline was very simple and the same as
the first one. You know, one little penguin trying to find his talent or his
purpose, being a bit different from the rest.
Being odd and weird and hence, being laughed at. Getting sad and low, running away, and
finding a hero….etc…etc… It was little
Mumble all over again. And then, there’s the bit about saving the entire race
of Emperor penguins from starvation. Of
course, Mumble saves the day again, although this time with the help from his
son, Erik, and from a lot of new characters.
Yes, the new characters added color and allure to the movie,
especially since A-list names gave voice to them but somehow they also fell
short of my expectations. They are not
as funny and witty as I thought they would be.
Pink’s voice as Gloria (formerly Britanny
Murphy) was cool for me, but her role was just supporting and can do nothing
much to pull the movie up. Hank Azaria,
the new (false) hero, Mighty Sven, is one of my favorite actors. He may be a
just a typecast of different funny voices to some people, but for me he’s a
great actor. A very, very talented and
versatile actor. However, he wasn’t able
to bring the movie to great heights as his supposedly “flying penguin”
character should do. Even my most
favorite comedian Robin Williams wasn’t as entertaining in his reprised roles
as Ramon and Lovelace. Then, there are the real-life best buddies, Matt Damon
and Brad Pitt as Bill and Will, the runaway Krills. They kind of reminded me of Dory and Marlin,
but less funny.
All the characters’ actions and inactions are supposedly
linked or connected and thus affect each other, either directly or indirectly.
As an adult, I could see and understand the connection but I couldn’t feel it.
How much more for the kids who are supposedly the target audience of this
movie? The characters somehow felt a bit
awkward and out of place. They don’t
feel connected at all! I think it was
the flatness of the story. Or maybe it
tried too hard in connecting all the characters in one string but failed in the
end.
In fairness though, the movie was still an eye candy. Visually speaking, Happy Feet Two is twice as
fun to watch as the first Happy Feet movie, since it is 3D animated. But aside
from that….hmmm….I don’t know.
If we’re not going to think of the first movie…. If there was no Happy Feet one and this is
the first time we would be seeing feet-tapping and song-belting penguins, it
would have been a great movie. But
unfortunately, this is already the second time.
That’s why my two feet were not as happy anymore when they walked away
from the movie house.
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