Posted in Life

Have you seen Happy Feet?  We rarely see movies, mostly because they are so expensive.  However, we thought this looked like a cute movie that the whole family could enjoy, and miht be a nice special treat. 

We were expecting a movie about a penguin who is born a little different from others and how he finds his niche in the world.  Instead we found a movie jam packed with poilitical agenda wrapped in a few cute characters.  This movie not only bashed Christians, but pinpointed specific denominations, such as Baptist and Catholic.  Of course, there was a huge environmentalist undertone, which portrayed humans as the spawn of the Devil.  Zoos are portrayed as terrible gawking places where humans round up wild animals and place them behind glass for observation.  There is a strong part of the story line that deals with those who believe they have been abducted by aliens and the alien belief in general.  The penguins cast out Mumbles (the penguin with happy feet) because he is different.  Int he end he brings the aliens back to help (they have little food because of fishermen over fishing the waters).  All the penguins then conform to Mumbles way and the "aliens" (humans) come and partake of the little dance fest...thus coming in peace and we can all live together.  Towards the end, they show humans arguing around boardroom tables about what to do about the situation (we aren't certain how the humans made the jump from a penguin that dances to searching out his whole community because they need help). 

The characters were fairly well developed and there is a group of smaller penguins that Mumbles befriends that are funny.  The hubby, didn't think the movie was nearly as political as me and my oldest did.  In his words, "I just saw a kids movie about penguins."  However, our youngest was bored after the initial singing and dancing...meaning when they got into the complex issues and our 5 yr old didn't understand the movie at all, thus he kept asking if it was over.  One penguin has a platic can carrier stuck around his neck, which almost kills him.  Even though they showed where he got this with a litter filled water area, our kids didn't know what those were, since soda usually comes in a box.  The older kids made the connection when I connected with the carrier that the beer cans come in foe fondue.  The cgi was very good.  We also liked when they brought in other animals (such as a seal, killer whales, and elephant seals) they were true to their nature, as opposed to acting like nice little cartoon characters. 

Overall, we felt as though this was the biggest waste of money for our family. 

These are my thoughts.