Happy Feet

Took the kids to see Happy Feet yesterday. It was the first cinema experience for the wee one and she enjoyed it, but didn't manage to endure to the end of the film. Indeed, my elder daughter found it quite hard to maintain interest until the end, as the film is simply too long; 1hr 49mins to be precise. Which is fully half an hour longer than it should be.

This film gets it right for kids and adults alike on some levels - the penguins are cute and the way they sing to each other using (reasonably) contemporary songs is fun. But the plot doesn't really get going until about 20 minutes into the film and it is fairly slow going in bits - the kids lost interest on a few occasions.

Where the film started going wrong was that even the characters that weren't voiced by Robin Williams sounded as if they were. And then there's the last 30 minutes and the 'in your face' ecological message which is just too much. If I may paraphrase, the message of the film is this:

It would be OK if we over-fished the Antarctic ocean and deprived the penguins of their only food source if penguins were just ordinary penguins. But as it is, some penguins can tap-dance and so they are worth saving. Let's not steal their fish.

Can anyone spot the flaw in logic in that message?

Things they got right: Penguins singing, penguins dancing, penguins sliding on their tummies down exciting ice slopes, Elvis, going on a quest for food, South American penguins, synchronised swimming, nasty grey seals, elephant seals, killer whales.

Things they got wrong: Robin Williams, Robin Williams, the whole zoo bit, the eco message rammed down your throat, too many dull moments.

But the kids enjoyed the first 2/3 of it, so I can't really complain. We'll probably end up with the DVD eventually.

So 6/10 for kids (probably 7/10 for the DVD, when it comes, as you can simply switch off the end) but only 5/10 for adults.