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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 3177
Released: March 27, 2007 |
| Our Price: $4.92 |
| Used Price: $2.58 |
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
In the great nation of Emperor Penguins, deep in Antarctica, you're nobody unless you can sing - which is unfortunate for Mumble (ELIJAH WOOD), who is the worst singer in the world. He is born dancing to his own tune...tap dancing. As fate would have it, his one friend, Gloria (BRITTANY MURPHY), happens to be the best singer around. Mumble and Gloria have a connection from the moment they hatch, but she struggles with his strange "hippity- hoppity" ways. Away from home for the first time, Mumble meets a posse of decidedly un-Emperor-like penguins - the Adelie Amigos. Led by Ramon (ROBIN WILLIAMS), the Adelies instantly embrace Mumble's cool dance moves and invite him to party with them. In Adelie Land, Mumble seeks the counsel of Lovelace the Guru (also voiced by ROBIN WILLIAMS), a crazy-feathered Rockhopper penguin who will answer any of life's questions for the price of a pebble. Together with Lovelace and the Amigos, Mumble sets out across vast landscapes and, after some epic encounters, proves that by being true to yourself, you can make all the difference in the world.
Description of Happy Feet (Widescreen Edition):
For anyone who thought the Oscar-winning documentary March of the Penguins was the most marvelous cinematic moment for these nomads of the south, you haven't seen nothing yet. Happy Feet is an animated wonder about a penguin named Mumble who can't sing, but can dance up a storm. George Miller, the driving force behind the Babe (and Mad Max) movies, takes another creative step in family entertainment with this big, beautiful, music-fueled film that will have kids and their parents dancing in the streets. From his first moment alive, Mumble (voiced Elijah Woods) feels the beat and can't stop dancing. Unfortunately, emperor penguins are all about finding their own heart song, and the dancing youngster--as cute as he is--is a misfit. Luckily, he bumps into little blue penguins and a Spanish-infused group (led by Robin Williams) and begins a series of adventures. Miller has an exceptional variety of entertainment: Busby Berkley musical numbers, amusement-park thrills, exciting chase sequences (seals and orca lovers might like think otherwise), and even an environmental message that doesn't weigh you down. Best of all, you don't know where the movie is going in the last act, a rare occurrence these days in family entertainment. A fusion of rock songs, mashed-up and otherwise, are featured; this movie is as much a musical as a comedy. Mumble's solo dance to a new version of Stevie Wonder's "I Wish" by Fantasia, Patti, and Yolanda may be the most joyful moment on camera in 2006. --Doug Thomas
On the DVD
There are two new animated sequences, which aren't incorporated into the film. One's a half-minute hackysack-themed bit, but the other is a good-looking, two-minute scene featuring the late Steve Irwin as an albatross, who, with Mumble, encounters a blue whale. "Dance Like a Penguin: Stomp to the Beat" is hosted by Savion Glover, whose dancing was motion-captured for the film, but other than a couple basic tips, it's pretty much a demonstration rather than a lesson. In addition to the two music videos (Gia's "Hit Me Up" and Prince's "The Song of the Heart"), "I Love to Singa" is an appropriately matched 1936 Merrie Melodies cartoon in which a young owl ruffles feathers by wanting to sing jazz for his classical-music-loving family. --David Horiuchi
More Happy Feet
Blu-ray | 
Combo HD/DVD | 
More Penguin DVDs |
Happy Feet (Widescreen Edition) Reviews:
DVD Movie 
2009-12-06 - A excelent Movie!!! Mumble is the Best, along with Ramón! Definately worth watching over and over again.
Going in the garbage 
2009-12-03 - I believe in environmentalism. I like dancing and music. I am not a prude. I cannot recommend this movie to anyone with a small child - or anyone, period.
Everything the other negative reviews has said is true.
- The singing and dancing numbers are inappropriately sexual. My son kept asking if Mumble's penguin girlfriend was his mother because they kept caressing each other. That was embarrassing. The song lyrics are not appropriate for kids and the mishmash of music is just hard to listen to. My husband and I were cringing through most of the musical numbers because they were so cheesy.
- Nicole Kidman and Brittany Murphy's voices bugged the crap out of me. For such a "progressive" movie, the female penguins were very stereotypical female roles. Compared to, say, Shrek 3, which has very strong female characters, this was a big disappointment.
- The plot is all over the place. It's very hard to figure out what the heck is going on when all the penguins look the same. Mumble's here, then he's there, then there are some inappropriately ethnically-stereotyped Mexican-sounding penguins, then there's Robin Williams, doing what he does in every movie. Then, all of a sudden, it becomes all about overfishing and the destruction of the environment and there are real people. Then somehow Mumble is back with his penguin friends dancing. What? I couldn't follow it. My 3-year-old didn't have a chance.
- The ending is ridiculous. My son got really confused when all of a sudden the movie switched from dancing penguins to a bunch of people yelling around a conference table. No fish for penguins? Let's stop all fishing! Yeah, that'll work. My son is THREE, he does not understand issues like overfishing, and there's no way for me to explain to him that the movie's proposed solution was facile and unrealistic. They took a an inoffensive mess of a plot and made it into a distasteful trainwreck in the last 15 minutes of the movie.
We watch a LOT of kid movies in our house. This is not a kids' movie. It's a movie by adults who thought they were making a movie for kids, but really they just ended up with a masturbatory paean to their own liberal sensibilities. Who in their right mind thinks that a movie with sexual song lyrics, an incomprehensible plot, and a heavy-handed environmental message will be fun for kids? Blech. I wish we had gotten "Surf's Up" instead because while that movie was also not totally comprehensible for small children, it was more fun and entertaining than this. This movie is about to develop a HUUUGE scratch and have to be put in the garbage. Not recommended for anyone.
Great Movie and Quality DVD
2009-12-01 - Great movie. My less than 2 year old is glued watching this. Not sure if it is quality of the show or he just love nature or fish or animal shows. He does love to dance so the music in this movie is really great entertaint. He loves it. The quality of the DVD played on my PS3 and shown in a 1080p tv is excellent. I can't say much but excellent quality. I've seen other DVD's upconverted and they are bad.
Posthumous film
2009-11-03 - I like how Steve Irwin was in this film playing an elephant seal and it's dedicated to his memory.
Family fun 
2009-10-31 - If you have been living in a cave and haven't seen this DVD have no fear. Good family fun.
