posted
I saw Happy Feet last night, and sat there in absolute astonishment as one of the most bizarre films I'd ever seen played out in front of my eyes. I guess I don't want to spoil it for everyone, but please let's discuss it when some of you have seen it.
I think this movie is going to infuriate a lot of parents. I think they'll leave the theater feeling like they've been tricked, cheated, and had their kids indoctrinated to a dark - maybe even a bit sick - worldview.
I think this film is going to make people angry.
It is *so* not what they have advertised it to be.
*I* liked it -- but I'm a single adult with no kids who likes horror films.
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posted
I'm curious. What, is it like a tap dance of death? Are they, like, those Japanese demon penguins?
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I did hear that the first half and the second half seem like they belong to completely different movies.
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Okay, now you have to explain this. My mom was planning on taking my nephew to see this, and I'd like to know what makes it so disturbing to you.
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At least one of the reviewers on imdb said they didn't feel comfortable with their 4 and 6 year old children with them. There's at least one scene scary enough for little kid nightmares.
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(The penguins, they wear nothing but their feathers. I mean Naked birds dancing. What is scarier than that.)
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Christy was thinking about taking Sophie to see this; she's two and a half. Is the film too scary?
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Go ahead and post spoilers (with a warning). I'm not planning on seeing it, but I'm really curious now.
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posted
Sorry for double posting but it seems like the reviewers are saying it has some scary bits are indicating that its because the movie brings reality of nature to the screen. Maybe I am wrong because nobody has flat out said anything other than, "The Seal Chase" scene, I can only assume this had to deal with either Leopard Seals (Who prey on penguins) or perhaps Killer Whales, I have no idea I'd love some illumination on the matter. For me at least, my kids will have plenty of exposure to how nature really is.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Okay, I found a fairly comprehensive review here. It does reveal some plot info, so don't click if you want to avoid spoilers.
Looks like there's quite a bit of socio-political messages and the reviewere mentions some pretty blatant Latino stereotypes as well. Even with that said, she gave it 4 our of 5 stars and said her six year old loved it.
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It is movies like this that perpetuate the myth (apparently strongly held by some) that there are actual real penguins in the world and they they are not just made-up fantasy creatures.
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There are too real penguins! They wouldn't put them in my Zoo Tycoon game if they weren't real. I have an exhibit of them right beside my Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I'm mad because though I have the exact clip I was thinking of on VCD I cannot find it on the internet. Imagine the encounter between Albatross and Tiger Shark lasting about 45 seconds, where the Albatross keeps rearing its torso backwards and pecking at the tiger shark as the shark continues to swirl around and around, but being unable to get a purchase with its jaws. The Albatross eventually gets away but man that was one of the most tense moments of documentary history that I have seen. The albatross certainly deserved to get away after such an effort. It should be noted that nature usually does not care about justice.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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The trailers and promotional material for Happy Feet made it look as if the film was about a tap-dancing penguin learning the importance of being himself in a society of singing penguins...and even finding love.
Wrong-O. That's just a tiny sliver of the actual film, which basically boils down to this: Human influence of any kind in Antarctica is -evil-! Cease fishing now!
Belle: The article neglects to mention that one of the "gay" penguins left his "male mate" for a female penguin some time later IRL. Which sort of ruins the story. Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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quote:That's just a tiny sliver of the actual film, which basically boils down to this: Human influence of any kind in Antarctica is -evil-! Cease fishing now!
I have to wonder if that aspect of the movie could possibly be any worse than it was in Hoot.
quote: First we have tapdancing penguins, now gay penguins.
Yeah, how dare someone write a book about an actual event involving a couple of male penguins. Obviously part of a vast conspiracy.
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I was planning on taking my 11-year-old brother and ALMOST three-year-old son to see it next weekend, but now I'm having second thoughts. He has recently started seeing "mosters" everywhere, and I don't want to take him to a movie that's going to make it worse.
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So the first forty minutes or so is what they advertised: funny, cute, dancing penguin named Mumble who struggles to find himself in a world of singing penguins.
Theeeeen... It goes off the deep end a bit, with Mumble defying the religion of the Penguins in his belief that aliens (humans) are responsible for taking all the fish -- and that the famine is not being caused, as the other penguins believe, by the great 'Guin in the sky.
Heavily anti-religious themes, here.
Mumble is cast out for refusing to follow the ways of the great 'Guin ("It doesn't make any sense!") and determines to trek across the mountains to the place where the aliens dwell.
There is an extended sequence in which he is captured and put in a zoo, and loses his mind. Actually loses his mind -- hallucinating that the penguins from his past are there, saying bizarre things. All the while these strange creatures (humans) are staring into the penguin habitat with blank expressions on their faces and a deep incomprehensible murmur of sound -- which I took to be human speech that Mumble couldn't understand -- plays in the background.
It is played like a horror film, and it is kind of sickening. The filmmakers play that up very much. Look how little we humans care for kind and gentle creatures such as penguins.
Finally when Mumble does return to his fellow penguins, he has a tracking device attached to him so the humans can find his tribe (or whatever) -
This all plays out in a pretty twisted way, with very little humor, and the audience feeling like it just got punched in the gut -
then we get a slapped-on happy ending that makes absolutely no sense in the context of the story we have just seen, presumably so the little ones won't leave the theater feeling as miserable and horrified as they've been for the previous 45 minutes ... There has to be some relief, in the end, from what is a very depressing movie with a very dark message.
The primary messages I took from the film were:
Religion is evil Human beings are evil There is no relief or comfort in this world for noncomformists
Posts: 2267 | Registered: May 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Libbie: hahahha @ Ferngully reference (worst animated movie of the early 90's).
I really want to see it now, just to see why it's so weird.
Shameful! Ferngully is the best movie EVER! Seriously I love that movie. You can call it badly animated if you want, which I don't think it was, but don't call it a bad movie. Way to try and ruin my childhood Libbie.
quote:Originally posted by Belle: I tell you the penguin controversies lately just won't go away. First we have tapdancing penguins, now gay penguins.
What has the word come to?
Yeah, I think we should start restricting access to Three Men and a Baby, too. Clearly it's the same sort of homosexual agenda pushing smut that we need out of our schools, and off our television screens! Seriously, what is with people these days?
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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TL, thanks for the summary. Based on what you've said and what I've seen in reviews, I won't be seeing it.
and I hope everyone knows I was being funny about the penguin book...I don't really think that a story relating a real incident about penguins adopting a chick heralds the end of civilization as we know it. Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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What's really surprising me is that this thing is at 80% positive on rottentomatoes.com, easily one of the best-reviewed of the many CG features this year! Between that and the reports like TL's of the bizarrely disturbing second half, I'm finding myself wanting to see this more and more. Which, come on, mo-capped penguins.... I never thought I'd be saying that. Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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See, my problem with the story of that incident isn't "OMG, GAY PENGUIN FAMILY!"...but the same problem I had with "March of the Penguins"...we keep applying human terms and emotions where they just don't apply.
Do I think animals have feelings and feel love? Yes.
However, to assume those feelings follow human patterns, in human ways is wrong-headed. The "couple" went their individual ways some time afterwards, with no evidence that their media-hyped "family unit" or "sexuality" were ever anything like what humans assign those terms to.
Let animals be animals. Stop trying to force them into being cute cartoon people.
Except in actual cartoons. Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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quote:Originally posted by kojabu: Fern Gully's a weeeird movie. The ending is so creepy...
I completely disagree on this one. Ferngully is honestly my favorite childhood movie. My best friend and I would watch it all the time, and I can still quote it extensively. ("You are one bodacious babe.") Lyrhawn is right, as usual. This movie rocks my socks.
Posts: 1789 | Registered: Jul 2003
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I loved Fern Gully as a child, even though it gave me nightmares.
I also loved Happy Feet. So much. So, so much. And I still don't understand the not taking your children to see it because it might give them nightmares. Everything might give a child nightmares. I mean, one of my greatest obsessive-compulsive fears is from something I saw in the kids' show Wishbone.
The point is, it's adorable, and I loved it. And I also loved Fern Gully, and I really didn't think it was too anti-anything, honestly. Not anymore than any other kids' cartoon.
posted
I have only two things to say to you 'Bam Bi'.
The movie 'Bambi' is one of the all-time scariest movies, and it is a kids animated movie. Oh sure it's all chirping birds and cute twinklie eyed forest creatures, that is, until the Hunters show up and then it's the emotional nightmare from hell. Probably turned more kids off to hunting that any other single source.
So, there's a big bad seal in the movie (Happy Feet); so what? Kids need to be scared. They need to experience it in the safe controlled format of movies to better condition them to deal with it in real life. You don't really protect your kids when you try to protect them from this kind of thing in the various forms of media. What you do is shelter them and make them more afraid of real unknown life and far less able to cope with it.
So, take you kids to see the movie no matter how young they are. Enjoy the physical, psychological, and emotional rollercoaster ride with them. Then come out of the theater happy and healthy, skin rosey red and aglow with the shared emotional ride.
posted
I'm going to presume anyone who's read this far recognizes they're in spoiler territory for purposes of discussion. Just to warn you.
(possible SPOILERS.)
I don't think it's particularly fair to call the movie anti-religion. At least, not if you take more than a very shallow look at it.
It does disapprove of a particular fundamentalist world-view that ascribes all good or bad that occurs to higher powers, refuses to take any sort of personal responsibility for change, and ostracizes those considered unusual without firm reason.
The "faith" of the penguins clearly binds them together as a community and helps them get through Antarctic winters; this is made clear in an early scene. And that faith itself is never overturned or disproven; rather, those who abuse that faith to bring themselves power are shown (and recognize) that they're wrong.
As far as "humans are evil" and "there is no comfort for nonconformists"- well, humans have done real damage in Antarctica, and only humans could possibly undo that damage. If anything, the film oversimplifies how easy it might be to undo that damage. But the humans do undo the damage. The only time human faces are actually on screen, they're either doing nothing harmful or doing something benevolent.
And the nonconformist does have his day. No big surprise there, what with being a child-oriented animated movie.
If one wanted to argue that the ending is rushed or unearned, there might be some ground there. And it definitely had more scary and sad moments than the previews would lead you to expect, though I don't think there's any individual moments as sad as, say, "The Lion King" or "Bambi", and the scariness is mostly from chases and near escapes. There are some Latino stereotypes; nothing especially negative. I suppose someone of hispanic background might be more offended than I was, I don't really know.
My three year old daughter thought it was great, and I don't especially regret taking her. And if you don't see it, I honestly think you'll miss some of the most beautiful computer-generated animation ever.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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I agree that you can't completely restrict your kids from fear and things like that, however saying "take them no matter how old they are" isn't really good advice. Children mature at different ages. Very young children don't easily grasp the idea of "fiction". The reason Bambi turned alot of kids off from hunting is because it made them believe (fuller belief as a child, but lingering even when logic says otherwise) that there really are happy little deer family out in the wilderness. This isn't exactly true, since most animals don't "really" have the same emotional bonds as humans, but the kids see it as true, and so can't bring themselves to kill the deer. It's like in Homecomming where Volya explains that killing diggers is wrong because they're "smarter" than mere animals. When they personify the animal on screen, children believe they are "human". As children get older, they understand more and more about how movies are just "make believe" and things they see on film aren't AS likely to traumatize them, espescially animated things.
My son, however, is only a pre-schooler. We're still having to talk ALOT about make-believe and things like that. I will have to seriously consider taking him to a movie that might be so emotionally involved.
As far as being one of the best animated movies this year.... I don't think ANYTHING could top Cars.
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