My friend Ursula arived from Brisbane early this morning with her young son, to stay with my flat-mate Bodhi and me for a few days. Bodhi's daughter is staying with us for the week as well, making this a very fun but very full little cottage at the moment! After a late breakfast at a cafe nearby, we headed into a large shopping complex to go to the movies and see Happy Feet.
It's a beautifully made film. The quality of the animation is absolutely spot on, with all the penguins successfully being given quite distinct personalities. I mean, they're penguins right? Just how unique can you make a penguin seem, next to another penguin? They manage it though, which is commendable.
I enjoyed it, but it sort of didn't work for me in parts. The concept of the penguins singing, each one finding it's own 'heart song', and what happens to a penguin who can't sing was nicely done. There were some interesting metaphors for ostracism due to difference, acceptance etc, that can be applied to anyone with a 'difference'. Gay people, people of colour, people with disabilities...
What didn't quite work for me was how dark some of the film was, and I found some of the ecological message a bit heavy handed. The smaller kids in the audience were quite restive during those parts of the film. Having said that, it is a great achievement in animation, the music and dance scenes are really well handled and on balance it's an enjoyable movie experience.
Sing it, grrrl!
3 comments:
Okay. I felt this post was 'lonely.' So here's my "comment."
HAPPY NEW YEAR,Andrew!
(( smooch at Midnight! ))
You're a giver MG. J'adore. Happy New Year to you too big guy. Lots of love to you!
I went an saw Happy Feet with Bliss and Conga a couple of days ago and was unsatisfied as well. The whole "heart song" message seemed to get mixed up with "penguins save the world" message.
Having just studied the treaty of Antarctica, which is what the final part was about, I feel it would have been nice to give the movie some context to explain what that part was about. A simple sentence at the end stating that the treaty came into effect in x year (it's new Year's day so I couldn't be fragged looking it up) and that much work has been done, but fish stocks are still under threat.
Or..... just leave as a tinies movie, in which case the whole environmental message may have been pointless.
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