More About Having Fun Than Preachiness
music lover, Movie Reviewer, a storyteller, mother of 2
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| Cons |
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APR
27
2007
Happy Feet —
IntroDon't worry about the small backlash surrounding the animated film Happy Feet. Some people just want to ruin everyone else's fun. There's been criticism of this since it came out in the theatres that it was at times too preachy regarding environmental issues and had racial stereotyping in it.
The Experts
Personally I didn't find any of that at all in Happy Feet, and thought you'd only see that type of thing if you were looking for it, and kids most likely aren't. They're more interested in just having a good time. So I went to my own experts, my 14 year old son and 10 year old daughter.
As far as the racial stereotyping neither one noticed anything like that. As far as the preachiness, my son did notice it, but found it a good thing, thinking people needed to be more aware of environmental issues. My daughter, though, didn't think it was preachy, but found the ways in which is was presented somewhat scary, to the point of hiding her face through some parts.
The Story
A young penguin, Mumble (voiced by Elijah Wood), finds he is different than the others. While other penguins sing songs to attract other penguins as well as expressing themselves, Mumble can't sing. Instead, he dances. Because he's different, he's ostracized from the penguin community, although he wants nothing more than to find a way to impress Gloria (voiced by Brittany Murphy).
Mumble takes off on his own and meets up with a small group of a different breed of penguins led by Ramon (Robin Williams). This breed all have Hispanic accents, leading to what some believe is the stereotyping as they seem to want nothing more than to have a good time and occasionally make catcalls at the female penguins.
This group accepts Mumble as is, no questions asked, and helps him search for "the aliens" that they believe are causing the fish famine. In reality, the fish famine is actually caused by mankind. In addition, a six-pack ring gets caught around one of the penguin's neck. I'm not sure if it's preachy, but all of it is truthful as far as what happens in our environment, and if it opens some kids' minds to this, while going over the heads of others', where's the harm?
Conclusion
If you're the type of person to be irritated by preachiness, you may want to stay away. Yet, being overly worried about this leaves out the highlight of the whole movie, the music. These penguins sing and dance through some really fun songs such as Boogie Wonderland and Tell Me Something Good, and if you can look past the other stuff, you could turn off the movie feeling entertained and singing Somebody to Love, as we were.
Happy Feet is recommended by LauraBelle
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