Happy Feet Two (2011)

Mumble's son, Erik, is struggling to realize his talents in the Emperor Penguin world. Meanwhile, Mumble and his family and friends discover a new threat their home -- one that will take everyone working together to save them. Happy Feet Two is a sequel we didn't ask and we unfortunate got and the end result is long and boring and it's plot is like Ice Age 2 but the boring version instead. The animation is great and so is the voice cast but that isn't enough for to make a well structured movie. (5/10)

The kids will love it because of couple of sing along songs and a few good laughs; but for adults there is not much in this movie. Same old theme we've seen in many animated movies before. A guy who is different, is lonely, is a misfit and ends up saving his own folks. The pros of the movie are the music and the upbeat songs which can really get you going particularly'the mighty Sven'. Hank Azaria's voice over for Sven is marvelous and is one of his better performances in recent times.It appears that the movie was made in a haste. Many characters such Bill and Will are completely superfluous and uninteresting. If it's supposed to be an animated movie then why aren't the humans animated.

'Happy Feet' was about the little penguin who didn't have the singing talent all others of his species had, instead he was a natural dancer, a wonderful dancer.Elijah Wood is back as the voice of Mumble but the story is much different. There is one about a Puffin bird who claims he is a penguin, and flies, and tells the others they can too if they 'believe.' The bigger overall story is about a large ice cave-in that traps most of the colony so that they can't get food. Mumble has to enlist the help of some elephant seals to free them.But my favorite characters were the tiny krill, Brad Pitt as Will the Krill and Matt Damon as Bill the Krill. After they narrowly escape a feeding whale Will the Krill decides that he wants a better life, he will 'evolve' into a meat-eater. His attempts don't exactly work out the way he wants them to. But they too eventually help save the stranded penguins. The dialog between Will and Bill is very witty and funny.Sadly Brittany Murphy died after the first 'Happy Feet' where she was the voice of Gloria. The singer known as 'Pink' takes over that role and does a superb job, and her singing of several songs added greatly.Overall a cute and mostly entertaining movie, but not up to the entertainment level of the first one.

Even though I'm way over the hill, I enjoyed the first Happy Feet movie. The originality, visual impact, music, story and technical aspects all worked for me. I thought it was movie magic. One aspect of the first movie that I really liked in particular was that at the start I felt like I was watching a penguin documentary. And in that movie the song and dance number that was done at the appearance of the Aurora Australis was fantastic. That was the best part.I saw this sequel on the tube though. I suppose that's one reason why it didn't work so well for me.In general, it's always difficult for the sequel of an original movie to outshine the original.Don't get me wrong: this movie had most of the good stuff from the original film - and more. I suppose the problem was that the themes and ideas no longer seemed so original. The story line seemed less interesting, the characters less engaging. The plot was a little forced and too busy, the message a little too confused. I didn't experience a "magic" moment akin to the one I felt with the Aurora scene.Also, it disturbed me to see the devastation of the Antarctic portrayed so starkly in this film. I can't watch nature shows depicting this either. It felt like an environmental disaster cartoon to me. If you're going to show us how much we've destroyed the earth, it will only appeal to me if it's done with a fairly light hand and there's some sense of hope at the end. It was laid on too thick.Not that this movie isn't worth seeing. It is, particularly for the visuals and the music. But for those of you who saw the first film, this one is not as good as the original. I hope the producers and writers are willing to make a third movie, perhaps this time exploring their Happy Feet universe in a new and fresh way. Look at Toy Story. The third movie was the best of them all.And next time I'll do my best to see it in the theatre, in 3D if possible.