Skip This: Happy Feet 2

Movie Poster for Happy Feet Two

So I was bored tonight, trying to find something fun to do, and I was browsing through the movies I had at my finger tips. I saw that I could watch the sequel to Happy Feet, Happy Feet Two, and was undecided if I wanted to watch it or not. So I kept browsing, hoping that maybe something a little bit more luscious or intuitive would pop-up before I got to the list, never-the-less nothing did.

Now I will not lie when I say that I saw the first Happy Feet and loved the movie. The dancing and the music was exceptionally wonderful for a children's animation; as well as the ideas behind the movie where beautiful ones to teach kids. But I had my doubts about the second movie, feeling they would not be able to pull off the same unique, compelling story that was seen on the first go around. To say that I was not far from right would be only have the story. At any rate, here's my review of Happy Feet Two, and why I think you can skip this one.

Happy Feet Two [2011]

The movie starts off sometime after the first one ended. Mumble and Gloria (voiced by Elijah Wood and Pink, respectively) have had a child that they named Erik (voice by Ava Acres). Now, I was not sure exactly what was wrong with Erik at the beginning of the film, he was an outcast that had the most famous father and a respectable mother. Still, many of the other penguins did not like him and laughed at him, which left me confused. We also do not know what exactly is wrong with him, we are not sure if he cannot dance, sing, or both, but instead, we are just told there is something wrong with him. I did not like this aspect of the movie, especially after creating such an interesting little character.

Okay, I'll let that first idea that we do not know why he is different fly because I like journey movies. So of course, for whatever reason may be that he was unlikable, our feathered friends end up going on a journey. Well, they just keep going from point to point in the rest of the film not really explaining things and kind of just creating an unbelievable story. Not to mention there is this problem that just seems to big to solve for these little guys, but in all honesty I did not think the problem really mattered when compared to the problem in the first movie. If anything, the problem really comes down to being the exact same as the first movie, which was the penguins were all going to starve to death. I will not give out exactly how they run into the same problem twice, but that is it at the core and let us just say I was not too thrilled with a duplicated problem.

There are a TON of characters in this film, none of which I really felt evolved or gained any sort of personality as the movie went along. In the first film this was one of the biggest aspects that made it so great. We get to see Mumble as he becomes better, we get to see Ramon (voiced by Robin Williams) as he solves his problems, and there are a whole set of other characters that need help too. But in the end they all end up learning and changing. The sequel drops this aspect in favor of just adding more and more characters but not enough time to give them the balance they needed. So you get left with is this large amount of animals that really just fulfill each-others gaps over time, but no one really learns much. I found this disappointing. If I had to put it out there, these are the reasons I would rather watch the first one twice than tell my friends to sit through the second one.

The Trailer for Happy Feet Two

On the good side, the film has the same wonderful set of classical songs that the children will love as the characters sing them. And in fact I felt the film actually excelled even better than the first at hitting a whole new range of genres and dances than the first one could not, incorporating a whole slew of new types that could make it bigger and better. So to that effect the director and producers did a wonderful job of stringing together a whole new set of songs. Beyond that, the animations and the character designs are phenomenal; with each one cute and making believable movements as they swim, dance, and whatever else around the world. Finally, I loved the backgrounds and I loved the use of real film footage with the animation parts, which was cool.

To put it down, everything that made the first one great and original was there but the story was lost and the character development was lost as well. If this review seems a bit all-over, that is what the movie felt like. It never really hit the points I wanted to see but it did a good job of going around everything in style. Because of that, I am actually going to say skip it.