happy feet
I’d like to start off by saying i don’t like musicals or children’s movies fairly consistently. I figure i’d get that out of the way before going into this because it was hard for me to get into this one. But, with that said, i did. The graphics were top notch as you’d expect at this point. The main issue is how a film that’s so heralded can be so tired. There is nothing original about this movie.
The soundtrack is pretty decent. Annoying in the way of moulin rouge in that it’s all upbeat and pop-esque jams sung by people who can’t sing without intense voice training. Speaking of voices: Kidman’s is horrendous. I can not emphasize enough how absolutely distracting and painfully creepy her voice comes off in this. She sings decent throughout, but as she speaks my skin attempts to peel away. The voices are ridiculous because there’s some sort of weird accent situation going on. By that i mean there are random australian, scottish, and mexican accents scattered throughout.
The story isn’t bad. I mean it’s not good. It’s predictable and absurd. But for a kids’ story it’s not the worst i’ve seen. It’s your basic retard to hero storyline. [[ man that’s rough ]] the reason i liked it was the abundance of subplots. You have your religious conservatives rejecting the new and different, the backward father shunning the oddball son, and the impending doom of global climate change. Oh, and there’s even a minor tidbit of immigration commentary when the mexican penguins try to chill with the much better emperor crowd. These mexican penguins are the the partying penguins. I’m sure that doesn’t tap at all into a stereotype somewhere.
This seems to be a metaphor for the battle between big business and a new generation tired of the status quo. It’s a great way to introduce kids to global warming issues and maybe things will stick. [[ haha. Yah right, but it’s a great batch of optimism ]]
as far as the movie in general i must say that robin should stick to dramas, smart comedies, and voice-overs. It keeps his growing insanity in check and he does a great job. Brittany Murphy is terrible, and that’s sort of impressive considering she only had to lay down the voice. The movie is like footloose with fins.
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