Happy Feet Two

Eric D. Snider started his review by saying, ““Happy Feet Two” is such a messy, giddy collage of undisciplined storytelling and half-developed subplots that I’m amazed I enjoyed it as much as I did. Like its predecessor, also directed and co-written by George Miller (“Babe: Pig in the City,” the “Mad Max” series), the sequel gets by largely on goofy energy and good-naturedness, not quote-unquote “strong writing” or “clear ideas.””

As you remember from the first movie, the emperor penguins of Antarctica used to express themselves mainly through singing, and despised dancing, until one of them, a penguin named Mumble, reprised by Elijah Wood, taught them the power of dancing. The sequel continues with Mumble now happily married to Gloria, now voiced by Alecia Moore aka Pink (taking over for Brittany Murphy, who sadly passed away), and the entire colony happily singing and dancing all throughout the day. Now, as predicted, because it’s a sequel and history has to repeat, Mumble and Gloria’s shy little penguin, Erik, voiced by Ava Acres, doesn’t dance. He feels like an outsider because of it. Snider said, “It’s a classic reverse “Billy Elliot” scenario.”

Meanwhile, in the part of Antarctica where the penguins are Latinos, the hilarious Ramon (Robin Williams) is trying to flirt with Carmen (Sofia Vergara, using her regular speaking voice). Also, a new penguin named Sven, voiced by Hank Azaria, is introduced. He has a Scandinavian accent and can fly. Yes, a penguin who can fly. Snider said, “He looks suspiciously like a puffin, not a penguin, but maybe that’s a spoiler? Anyway, Ramon is jealous of the attention received by the glad-handing, Harold Hill-like Sven.”

Meanwhile, in the ocean are two tiny krill named Will (Brad Pitt) and Bill (Matt Damon). Will wants to leave the giant krill colony and move up the food chain – really live a little. Snider said, “He and Bill flit in and out of the rest of the film, occasionally intersecting with whatever the main plot happens to be at the moment, and sometimes seeming like they’re in their own movie altogether.”

Meanwhile, a shifting ice formation has trapped all the emperor penguins in a giant valley, preventing them from going to sea and find food. (Climate change is apparently the cause, but that point isn’t really told.) It’s up to the group of penguins who weren’t home when it happened to help them get out and fine a new place for their colony.

That’s a lot for one movie. (Snider said, “I didn’t even mention the flashbacks to Sven’s encounter with humans, or the intimidating elephant seal that harasses Mumble.) The trapped penguins are the real story; everything else is included for funsies, and to give the characters from the last movie something to do.” We can tell that “Happy Feet Two,” released in 2011, is not one of those sequels that was rushed into production because someone had a really good idea for a story.

That being said, it’s continuously funny, sometimes wildly fun, with smooth and exciting animation. It has the right messages about helping one another and the value of every creature. The musical numbers, mainly existing pop songs but some written for the film, are made even better than before by including choreography. Snider ended his review by saying, “One of the original songs is, I kid you not, an operatic aria — characteristic of the film’s likably weird, try-everything-and-see-what-sticks mentality. It won’t be the best cartoon of the year; thanks to “Rango,” it won’t even be the most eccentric. But it’ll do, penguin. It’ll do.”

I wanted to see this sequel in the theaters since we saw the first one in theaters and loved it. However, I missed that chance and had to see it as a rental from the library. I loved this film since the first one was a lot of fun. If you saw the first “Happy Feet” and loved it, see the sequel, which is currently streaming on HBO Max. You will love this one too, as the characters are good, the song numbers are all familiar, and you will love the message of the film. George Miller, even though it is strange that he would take on a children’s film, did a good job in educating viewers that the penguins need help with the polar ice caps melting and we need to save the environment since they can only survive in cold environments. Check it out, see it with your children, and hopefully this will teach everyone a good lesson.

Thank you for joining in on “Animated Environmental Move Month.” I hope everyone enjoyed it and…wait a minute. Next month is October. You know what that means! HALLOWEEN MONTH!!! Stay tuned because I have some exciting reviews planned for everyone.

Happy Feet

In the tribe of Emperor Penguins in Antarctica, community is very important. You have to know how to gather together against the cold, or march to the sea to catch fish for the family. During mating season, the male and female penguins are attracted to each other by their “Heartsongs.” Every penguin has a song that is his or her individual identity. It’s the “voice you hear inside” that makes you “who you truly are.”

When Norma Jean (Nicole Kidman) and Memphis (Hugh Jackman) meet, he is drawn to her shake and her soulful singing. She loves his self-confidence and Elvis-like serenading. When Norma Jean goes off to the sea with the other females, Memphis, unfortunately, has a small mistake with their egg. When it is time for their egg to hatch, he takes longer than the others to crack out. Baby Gloria, voiced by Alyssa Shafer, tries to help and is there to witness his strange behavior. The baby penguin, named Mumble, voiced by E.G. Daily, can’t keep his feet still. He jumps all over the icy area. Instead of being proud of his new son, Memphis is troubled by his “happy feet.” He says: “It just ain’t penguin.” Others see it too, and as the months pass, the entire community decides that Mumble is the eccentric penguin. What’s wrose is he can’t sing at all, and, as the saying goes, “a penguin without a Heartsong is not a penguin at all.”

Norma Jean and Memphis send him to a voice teacher, voiced by Magda Szubanski, but all she can get out of him is an ear-hurting screech. Off by himself, where he can let his happy feet tap dance across the ice, Mumble (Elijah Wood) meets Boss Skua (Anthony LaPaglia), head of a tribe of evil birds who want to make lunch of him. The penguin gets him to tell the story of being abducted by aliens who pokes and explored him and then put a yellow thing around his leg. Mumble escapes from them but keeps this strange incident to himself.

Soon it is time for the young penguins to go to the sea for their first catch. Mumble is actually the first one in the water, which ends up having some dangerous creatures and very little fish. He shows his love for Gloria, now voiced by Brittany Murphy, by catching a fish for her and fighting off some greedy birds to keep it. That night, under the stars, she sings a concert and he tries to sing along, much to the alarm of the others. Soon after, he goes off alone.

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat said in their review, “Wandering the icy wastelands, he meets the Adelie Amigos, a group of five happy-go-lucky Latino penguins who find his moves "so accidentally cool."” Ramon, voiced by the late Robin Williams, the most outspoke one, calls Mumble charismatic. The Emperor Penguin has finally found friends who respect him and his dancing feet. They come up with a plan to help him win Gloria’s heart. However back home, Noah, one of the elders, voiced by Hugo Weaving, sentences Mumble’s dancing and blames him for the loss of fish in the sea. He bans Mumble from the community. Mumble decides he’ll find out the real reason for the fish shortage.

The Adelies tell Mumble about a guru penguin called Lovelace, also voiced by Williams, who answers every question. Brussat said, “He asks him about alien abductions, but his response about mystic beings on a forbidden shore doesn't make much sense. This quirky character has a plastic six-pack ring around his neck that is slowly strangling him.” Deciding this strange thing may be a clue, Mumble, the Adelies, and Lovelace go to where he found it, a journey that will test their strength and friendship.

Brussat said, “George Miller, who co-wrote, produced and directed Happy Feet brings the same creativity, exuberance, and spiritual élan to this animated feature as he did to Babe. He has incorporated so many imaginative elements into the story that it boggles the mind. First, there is the exciting music, which includes rock, funk, opera, rap, liturgical, pop, gospel, and Latin.” The music is composed by John Powell, and the soundtrack also includes songs performed by Prince, Yolanda Adams, Fantasia Barrino, Gia Farrell, Chrissie Hynde, Pattie La Belle, k.d. lang, Jason Mraz, and Pink. Second, there is the great dancing by the penguins. Brussat noted, “These scenes have been choreographed by Warren Coleman who brings together many styles including Zulu, gumboot, Navajo, and Samoa slap dancing.”

Brussat said, “The music and the dance bring out the yearning we've all had to move the body in sync with the rhythms of the earth.” The final act of Mumble’s journey brings him into an encounter with the humans and a connection that justifies all his troubles to stay faithful to his real self. The ecological crisis shown in the story of the disappearing fish is finally told with an inspiring message that had to be told at the right time: We have so much more in common with the whole Creation than we know, and our survival – and theirs – depends upon our realizing that real truth.

I saw this in the theaters with some of the family and we enjoyed this a lot. I think that everyone should see this because they will like this a lot. Sure, it’s strange that George Miller directed this, but he did a good job. The whole family can see this, get into the singing and dancing, and actually learn a true environmental message that hopefully people will take to heart and pass it along. Because this message is something that needs to spread around and make people aware so we can save the environment, which is the underlying message of the film. Check this out and enjoy.

Next week, I will be ending “Animated Environmental Movie Month” with the sequel to this film, which is still a good one.

Ferngully 2: The Magical Rescue

If a movie had to make a list of everything direct-to-video sequels always get wrong, “Ferngully 2: The Magical Rescue,” released in 1998, is probably that movie. MrEightThreeOne said in their review, “The animation quality is massively downgraded, which isn't a big surprise, but the bigger surprise is the massive art style shift -- the new animals for this movie look like every cheap kids' show animal I've ever seen, and they clash badly with the designs of the returning cast. Speaking of, not a single voice actor returns for this movie either, by far the most distracting example being Batty Koda who sounds nothing like Robin Williams at all, something I'd be more willing to cut slack on if Dan Castellanetta's Genie weren't a decent effort in the Aladdin sequel and TV show.” This movie essentially misses the entire point of the previous film and has nothing to do with environmental protection at all, instead going for a ridiculously basic search-and-rescue story that has been annoyingly done in so many kids’ movies. The story in this sequel is only going along because of how stupid everyone is, like how Pip, voiced by Digory Oaks, and everyone constantly ignore that their friends are in danger because they’re distracted by the carnival. MrEightThreeOne said, “The villains in this movie are generic beyond all belief, and pale in comparison to the fantastic villain Hexxus was in the prior movie. The pacing in this movie feels more at home with a 22-minute TV episode rather than a feature film, with special mention going to a wildfire scene that destroys a ton of their home yet it lasts all of maybe 20 seconds.” The music in this sequel does not match many scenes at all. Like in the climactic chase scene, the music is strangely quiet and would feel righter where the characters are sneaking around trying not to get caught.

MrEightThreeOne mentioned, “This movie is far from irredeemable. You could do much, much worse for bad kids' movies. There's nothing that's jaw-droppingly awful here and I can at least say despite the low animation budget, they did try their best.” However, at the same time, why go for this when there are so many better movies to watch, the first film included?

This film didn’t have much to go from but was just pointless. They don’t tell us any more about Ferngully or the characters. The characters get distracted by the attractions, but it’s not developed, and it just makes the characters look shallow. Overall, this is just forgettable, especially with none of the original voice actors return for this film, not even Robin Williams. He’s instead replaced with Matt K. Miller, who isn’t even funny, but just annoying. Don’t see this film, as it won’t keep anyone’s attention, especially with the characters having too much distraction and forgetting about the characters who are in danger and would be dead if they kept getting distracted. Avoid the sequel.

Now that we’ve gotten that superfluous sequel done with, stay tuned next week when we talk about a much better movie in “Animated Environmental Movie Month.” I apologize for the late posting. After work, I went to see my aunt, and I ended up being there longer than I thought I would be.

FernGully: The Last Rainforest

For this month, I will be looking at animated movies that focused on saving the environment. I know that I have reviewed some of the movies that focused on saving the environment, like “Atlantis: The Lost Empire,” “Pocahontas,” “Princess Mononoke,” and “Dances with Wolves.” Also, I know that those movies weren’t the first ones who had the message of saving the environment, as there are a plethora of those movies out there, but there are a few that I wanted to go over this month. Let’s get started with the 1992 animated musical, “FernGully: The Last Rainforest.”

“FernGully: The Last Rainforest” continues the fiction, so encouraging at times, that the evilest animal is Man. The story involves the rain forest being destroyed by the deforestation people, and its defense by the nymphs and fairies of the forest. Roger Ebert said in his review, “I am in favor of saving the rain forests and I am appalled by their wanton destruction, but is it not true that Man is the only animal to which it has ever occurred that murder is wrong?” Nature is the least romantic of creations. It is shown most accurately in old cartoons that show a school of fish, each one smaller than the next, lined up ready to happily eat one another. It is in the nature of every living thing to eat other living things, in one way or another, in order to survive. Ebert said, “A fern is as ruthless as my cat.”

This animated film was made by humans, not jungle plants and animals, and is thus more romantic about the flora and fauna then they would ever be about us. Ebert compared, “It takes place in the coastal rain forests of Australia, which are seen to be inhabited by little fairies like Crysta (Samantha Mathis), who looks like a Barbie doll, and Pips (Christian Slater), who looks like GI Joe.” Everyone is watched over by a wise old fairy godmother character, Magi Lune, voiced by Grace Zabriskie.

One day Crysta flies up above the trees and sees a threatening cloud of smoke on the distance (just like Pocahontas did). It soon is found out that men are cutting down the forest and carrying away the wood, and Crysta uses a spell to shrink one of the men, Zak, voiced by Jonathan Ward, to fairy size. He then falls in love with Crysta, and begins to understand why it is important to save the rain forest. The story is fleshed out with supporting characters, including a fruit bat named Batty Koda, voiced by the late Robin Williams, who has been so badly tested by human laboratories that he flies into trees all the time. There is also Hexxus, voiced by the late Tim Curry, a creature created from the smoke of the fires of destruction, who, as Ebert described, “looks like an animated surgeon general’s warning.”

The animators did a lot of their drawings on location in the rain forest, and the visuals are very pretty. The story tells an important lesson, the jungle creatures are amusing, and despite the movie not being a masterpiece, it’s nice to watch for its humor and likeability. Kids may like it. Ebert ended his review by admitting, “Every time I see a movie that sentimentalizes the rain forest as a pastoral Eden, however, I remember those fish.”

Currently, you can see this film on YouTube, Tubi, Pluto TV, Amazon Prime, Roku, CW, and PLEX, so you have your options. I first saw Nostalgia Critic and Nostalgia Chick’s joint review of this film, but it took a long time after that review to watch the film. I think this is a nice film and it does have the right message to children, but I don’t know how many people will like this. Sure, this isn’t a great animated movie, but I still think this is watchable and is fine enough. Check it out and see for yourself and judge it based on your own thoughts. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. If you don’t like it, I can understand why. This is still a nice kids film that has the right message that is still relevant today.

I was surprised to find out that this film had a sequel, which I will look at next week in “Animated Environmental Movie Month.”