Haaaapppie Feet

Watched Happy Feet a fortnight ago (sorry for the overdue post).

Was kinda bored and not really in an animated mood but somehow my friend dragged me along and so, we ended up in Gurney Plaza (duuuh, where else to catch movies in Penang).

We were there early; about 11.30a.m.
Anyway, the line is building up and the crowd's coming in:P

Too bored; friend still waiting in line...so, I snapped some pics of the other section; of people from the beverages and food counter for the movie-goers :)

That same weekend was also the much anticipated opening of the longest and largest mall up north; Queensbay Mall.

Don't ask me about it; I haven't been there myself - not part of the frenzy crowd to flock to the opening of a new place when I know fairly well this is a place to stay for good and not going to be just there for a weekend:p

So, I don't know what the frenzy and excitement is all about to rush to a newly launched mall....:P

Anyway, back to my movie outing, since there is nothing much to watch, we decided to watch Happy Feet - the cute little penguin animation that we have seen in the big screen trailers while watching other movies as well.

So, this was a Warner Bros productions ( frankly speaking, I seldom watch non-Disney animation productions; kinda biased and skeptical towards the others huh...LOL! I am one loyal Disney fan :)

I will not go into too much length on this review; mainly because I find nothing interesting about this production; and let me tell you why.

First of all, after the first few minutes into the opening scene, I was bored. Yups, amazing how an animation can actually bore me so soon (I think this is a record compared to all other non-Disney animations I have watched; hey, even Madagascar didn't bore me this soon:p )

I was a little edgy with the scene where the penguins were singing during their courting season.

Norma Jean, the female Emperor Penguin was at the prime of her attention as she sings her way to find her mate.

**It seems that the Emperor Penguins in this heart of the Antartica is to have their own heart song and to be able to sing to find their soul companions.

Pushing her way through the others, Norma Jean finally found her soulmate in the brave Memphis and together they formed a family; or rather an egg.

Now, contrary to other species (including human beings; homo-sapiens alike), these Emperor Penguins practise the male penguins being the ones who stay at home during the winter to protect and hatch the eggs while their spouses go out fishing for food.

As Norma Jean leaves the nest reluctantly along with all the other female penguins, Memphis and the rest of the male penguins continue their journey to brave the winter storm to hatch their eggs safely.

Memphis, being the vocal one started out singing and in the midst of his enthusiasm, he dropped his egg.

**The rule for the eggs; is never to drop it**

Memphis managed to retrieve the egg and thought that it will be fine. However, little did he know that this will start the nightmare for him but the beginning of the Happy Feet story.

Moving on, during the hatching season, all the eggs hatched naturally one after another and you see all those adorable little penguin chicks coming out and hollering near to their dads; all except Memphis's egg.

He waited for a while and anxiety was creeping in when his neighbour's egg hatched to an adorable and inquisitive little female penguin by the name of Gloria (whom we have the gut feeling will be the future companion of Memphis's son...surprised?:p)

Anyway, the egg was a little slower but eventually Memphis was relieved when it finally hatched but not for long though when they started noticing the strange wobble the little chap had when he was trying to stand on his feet.

At the same time, he can't really speak well which soon earned him the name of Mumble.

Norma Jean soon came back and the family reunion was a happy affair; Norma is still in the dark about Mumble's predicament and definitely not about the egg dropping incident.

Mumble soon revealed himself to be a different penguin as he was unable to find a heart song and worse still, he can't even sing - sort of tone deaf.

Due to that, they outcasted him as of bad gene and that soon led Memphis to admit that he dropped the poor little guy in the egg.

Mumble however was not totally useless; in fact he was pretty talented with his feet movements to tap or even compose music; much to the chagrin of the penguin's elders who expelled him from the pack in scorn.

Finding his own interest, he ended up in another land with the adelies breed of penguin (which are shorter and smaller in stature - rather cute, I should say:)

There he met their Great One, Lovelace who actually took pride in wearing the plastic holder which holds our aluminium cans in 6 packs and he called that as a bestowment from the Heavens above.

As such, he has all the other adelies penguins bowing to him and look to him as the great advisor and seer of future:p

Anyway, Mumble soon landed himself in a mission to find out about the lack of fish which caused the shortage to his kind's food supply and together with Ramon and the great Lovelace and 2 other pal penguins, they travelled until the human land to find out the problem and also to seek help to remove the plastic thing which was choking Lovelace.

One thing led to another and Mumble landed in a zoo which gave him a sense of fear initially but his happy feet taps him out to freedom as one day, he attracted the attention of a little girl while he was tapping to her fingers on the glass window and soon brought the whole crowd to his attention.

The zoo soon sent him home to his kind; but attached the GPS system thingy behind his back to find out his location. He was again unfairly accused of turning on his own kind but as he soon got the whole pack to dance and tap their feet, they got the people's attention worldwide to the food-deprived penguins in the Antartica and also the pollution problem.

Of course, it soon came to a happy ending (as all cartoons do) and guess what...pssst, Mumble ended up with Gloria...LOL :)

Like factor?

1. The little baby penguins -when they were still offsprings, they look really adorable :)

2. Those adelies - Ramon and the gang actually injected more happiness and notched up the flow of the movie

Dislike factor?

1. The texture of the adult Emperor Penguins - very badly rendered; gives me the creeps and also goose bumps when I look at them...ugghhhh, and imagine that the whole show focuses on them :(

2. The posture of the female penguins and their voices - I know they are supposed to sound sexy but....ewwww....just gives me more goose bumps

3. The heart song part - hmmm, just doesn't seem to appeal too much to me

Well, guess I will only stick to only Disney produced animations in the future; I think so far all the non-Disney ones have kinda disappointed me - not that I am so Disney-obsessed but speaking from the flow and the tacky dialogue lines; guess they are no match for Disney yet :p

Frankly, Happy Feet? Definitely not my cup of tea....up to you guys whether you want to watch it; to me, it's plain boring :(

Rating: 4/10

Coming up next from Disney in Summer 2007; trailer seemed amusing - looking forward to this French mouse with a picky taste for food (sounds familiar?Hehe....)