Happy Feet Review

Went to the cinema this afternoon to see Happy Feet. I had heard a lot about this film, both good and bad, but I tried to clear my mind of it when I entered the film so I wouldn't be prejudiced. Unfortunately, due to a sudden and unexpected rush of traffic in Dundalk we were about 10 minutes late and missed the beginning, but I don't think we really missed anything and I caught up quickly. The natural inaccuracies bothered me a little at first, but I thought they would build up a realistic penguin world to bypass them, but they didn't. Nicole Kidman's voice work as Mumbles mother really irritated me after a while. Mumbles never moulting got under my skin as well. He was visually different enough for the animators not to need that as a visual clue as to which penguin was Mumbles. I didn't think the animation was that good, and when they showed the penguins swimming, it really paled in comparison to the real thing. I suppose the biggest problem I have with the movie is that it had no story and after 10 or 20 minutes of looking at endearing fluffy penguins, I got bored and started to pick holes in the animation and natural inaccuracies because I had nothing else to occupy my mind. I liked the idea of the heartsong though, and all the penguins singing together with the Aurora Borealis over head was a cool scene. The end was particularly laughable. Overall, I came away from the cinema bored, brow beaten by illogical environmental propaganda and glad that the movie wasn't very long (although it felt it) because I didn't have to pay for parking. One other thing of (mild) interest - I was sure the leopard seal was supposed to be voiced by Steve Irwin, but it certainly didn't sound like him. Did the Irwin family pull his voice after his tragic accident?