Happy Feet is the story of Mumble, a misfit penguin who’s born without the special “heartsong” ability that all Emperor Penguins possess. It’s the ability to express ones love and being through song. Mumble instead has the ability to tap dance. This is looked down upon by his society of penguins. “That just isn’t how a Penguin is supposed to act” says many, including his own father. They try everything they can to get him to sing, but he just doesn’t have the ability. The ruling Emperor Penguins even go so far as to blame Mumble and his “crazy ways” for the shortage of food that the penguins are experiencing which ultimately leads for him to be banished from his tribe, and set out on a journey to find the true source of the food shortage.

Happy Feet is a fun little tale that I think most kids will enjoy. The tap dancing scenes are fun, exciting, and even quite magical, but do get old after a while. The soundtrack is fantastic, and Robin Williams steals the show. The animation is great, and I sometimes found myself thinking that it was better than many animated movies I have seen recently.

Ultimately where the movie fails is in the story and its message. It starts out good with a message of “it’s ok to be yourself” but then fails when the movie is about to end and it all of a sudden becomes a message motivated by real life current issues and political agenda. This is a kid’s movie, and I feel as if the filmmakers went to far, when we start seeing people talking about the regulations of over fishing in the Antarctic oceans to save the penguins. A young child who goes to see this movie, will either not understand this part of the film (which in a kids movie there should be no part that kids don’t understand) or you will find kids thinking about things and feeling concerned for penguins and other issues at a time in their lives when they should only be concerned with one thing, being a kid.

Overall, this is a fun, entertaining movie that just falls flat and fails in the end. I think it can be best summed up by saying it is a cross between Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (A misfit member of society born with a unique characteristic) and Footloose (Hey, we all just want to dance right?). Ultimately, much like Rudolph, his crazy deformity may just come to save the day and his entire civilization.