Happy Feet Two

I guess if the production companies are going to throw animated flicks at mercilessly, the holiday time is, at least, a more forgiving time to do this to us. As with others that are coming up, we have "Happy Feet Two", a sequel to, you guessed it, "Happy Feet".

Mumble (Elijah Wood), the penguin, now called the Master of Tap has an unusual problem: his son Erik (Ava Acres) is reluctant to dance. He obviously didn't pick up that dancing gene. Being embarrassed, Erik runs away from home and encounters The Mighty Sven (Hank Azaria)-- a penguin who can fly. Poor Mumble can't compete with Erik's unusual new role model.

But when the world is shaken by powerful forces, otherwise known as global warming, Erik gets a chance to see his father's true colors as Mumble gathers all creatures great and small, including a fellow peguin, Ramon (Robin Williams) and Brian the beachmaster (Richard Carter) to set things right again so as to free half the penguin nation from peril.

Others to round out the cast are Alecia Moore as Gloria, Mumble's partner, Brad Pitt as Will the Krill, Matt Damon as Bill the Krill, Robin Williams, who reprised his role as Lovelace, Sofia Vergara as Carmen, Benjamin 'Lil P-Nut' Flores Jr. as Atticus, and Common as Seymour.
This was equally well directed as the original was by George Miller ("Mad Max" '79, "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior" '81, "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" '85, "The Witches of Eastwick" '87, "Lorenzo's Oil" '92, "Babe: Pig in the City" '98, "Happy Feet" '06). It was written by Warren Coleman, Gary Eck, Paul Livingston, and Miller. This basically is where the problem lies with this project. The script just kept meandering from a global warning message to saving the penguins in peril to a father and son trying to bond. One can have all these elements in a film and succeed, but the script was too disjointed for this to be the final outcome.

This film was certainly visually stunning as with the first installment. Point being: if you liked the original "Happy Feet", you undoubtedly like this equally well. It's just a shame that the screenplay couldn't have been more cohesive considering all the the great messages it was trying to get across under the banner of entertainment.

Out of 4 stars: 2.5                    Rated: PG                            100min.