You have heard about “Casino Royale”, the latest flick of James Bond. Well, the news is that Bond is having sleepless nights because of a group of penguins.  According to “Internet Movie Database” (IMDB) “Happy Feet”, a non-Pixar 3D animated movie, is giving Bond a run for his money. George Miller’s new animated film Happy Feet is believed to be one of the year’s ‘hottest toons’.

This new film engages into storytelling tactics that will move you to enchanting vistas. This wonderful movie opens up with an enchanting and beautiful snowy glass ball sky. The first half of the film makes you relaxed and you sway with the rhythm, in the second half the film suddenly takes an unexpected turn, but all in all it is an entertaining one which will make you glued to the seat. What makes it more captivating is that an animated film about penguins has quite a dramatic edge to it. The film carries some really socially important things, while at the same time making the temperament of the film fancy-free and foot-loose.

George Miller, the director, has taken a different approach in his film, as it used to happen at Aesop fables, using animals to illustrate a parable about human beings. The director has used the same procedure in his film, so instead of turning these flightless birds into people, he transforms the people as penguins. Although many of you will associate Happy Feet with March of Penguins, they are entirely different.

The pivotal character is Mumble who is different from other penguins, since the penguins sing romantic songs to find their mate, but Mumble on the other hand can only dance. But his community doesn’t approve of this and avoids him like anything. Then one day he comes across a different type of penguin group, who praise his dancing and helps him to woo his lady love, Gloria. But a problem arises when they find there is a mysterious lack of fish in the ocean. And Mumble sets out to solve the mystery as well as win the heart of Gloria.

Another entertaining thing about the film is the music, which is really splendid. There are the songs from Moulin Rouge! Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder and many other recent hits. The camerawork by Miller is outstanding, mostly using “the bird’s-eye-view” technique. When the young ones learn to swim, Miller choreographs a beautiful underwater ballet. No doubt about the animation, which is just superb, as the penguins and the environments all look real and makes the characters look unique. The voice over by Robin Williams, Elijah Wood as Mumble, is superb, Brittany Murphy as Gloria delivers fantastic vocal chords, while Nicole Kidman as Norman Jean are first rate.

Finally, “Happy Feet” delivers a good message for the kids. It tells them to express themselves and also teaches them to respect their environment. Though there are scary moments for young kids as well as some mature themes, but overall it is enjoyable.

“Happy Feet”, November 17, 2006 Weekend Gross $41.5 with its waddling feet is already dancing ahead of “Casino Royale”, November 17, 2006 Weekend Gross $40.8 according to Internet Movie Database (IMDB). What say Bond!

This entry was posted on Monday, November 27th, 2006 at 2:04 am and is filed under 2006 News Highlights, Blog, Filmmaking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.