Happy Feet (UK - DVD R2)
Chris Gould checks out the new Warner release of the recent animated feature...
Feature
Emperor penguins Memphis (Hugh Jackman) and Norma Jean (Nicole Kidman) are anxiously expecting their first-born, but when he arrives their son, Mumble, isn’t quite what they expected. For hundreds of years the penguins have used their heart songs as a way to find their soul mates, but our little Mumble has a problem: he can’t sing! Instead, Mumble exhibits a talent for dancing, specifically tap dancing, but this just doesn’t sit well with the elders of the penguin community.

Blamed for the famine that is threatening the colony and branded an outcast, Mumble decides to leave his family behind to discover the real cause of the fish shortage. On the way he meets a number of colourful characters including the Amigos, a quartet of Adelie penguins led by the outrageous Ramon (Robin Williams). Together they travel further than any penguin has gone before in search of the mysterious ‘aliens’ that are stealing the fish, and Mumble learns to embrace his individuality to win the heart of his own soul mate, Gloria (Brittany Murphy).
It must have been a slow year in the animated movie world, because this Oscar-winning film is decidedly average. While I’m fully aware that I’m not really the target audience for such a cutesy film, I am fully capable of judging it by the standards set by other animated efforts. Simply put, when you take Happy Feet and compare it to something like, let’s say, The Incredibles, it just doesn’t hold up. It’s as though the filmmakers couldn’t make up their minds as to what sort of film they wanted to make, so they made two and just forgot to split them up.

The first seventy minutes or so are your standard animated fare, albeit incredibly longwinded and set to cheesy R&B music, while the final thirty minutes see the film morph into some kind of preachy cautionary tale about Man’s disrespect for the environment. That could have been kind of interesting, but at the last minute the filmmakers bottle it and we’re back to the stock happy ending where our anthropomorphic buddy Mumble saves the day with his mad tap dancing ‘skillz’.
I mentioned above that the film takes around seventy minutes to get going, and I wasn’t exaggerating. I understand the need to introduce the characters and set up some sort of obstacle for the protagonist to overcome, but seriously, there’s a limit to the amount of time I’m willing to give to that as a viewer. There are just too many self-indulgent song and dance numbers in this section of the film. I wouldn’t mind if they actually went somewhere or if the quality was a little higher, but they don’t and it’s not. It doesn’t help that most of the songs are simply covers, rather than original pieces composed for the film.

As for the actors, well they do their best with what they’re given, but that’s about it. Wood and Murphy are fairly bland in the lead roles, while Nicole Kidman’s Marilyn Monroe impersonation had me reaching for my imaginary rifle. Robin Williams delivers his usual ‘whacky’ performance, but it’s nothing he hasn’t done before and to greater effect in Aladdin. He performs dual roles in Happy Feet, which is cause for great delight or tremendous despair, depending on your point of view. Had the dialogue been snappier and the narrative less confused things might have been better, but it seems that the filmmakers thought this one could sail by on the adorably cute penguins doing adorably cute things.
Video
Presented in its theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40:1 and enhanced for 16:9 displays, Happy Feet looks very, very good indeed. The animation is simply breathtaking, with thousands of penguins littering the screen, all looking about as photo-realistic as you could want (from an animated penguin). One of the most visually impressive sequences sees Mumble and the Amigos ‘body-surfing’ over the Antarctic landscape and crashing through huge banks of snow before plummeting into the ocean, but the digital-to-digital transfer handles this with comparative ease. Obviously there are no film artefacts to contend with, but neither are there any other major issues. In fact, the only negative comments I can make relate to a little posterisation and some minor edge enhancement. Still, these ‘flaws’ weren’t particularly obvious when watching on a 32” display, and I had to examine the video closely to spot them. It seems churlish to deduct points for such minor blemishes, so I’m going to go ahead and award top marks for video.

Audio
The disc features a solid Dolby Digital 5.1 EX track that takes a little time to get going, but manages a few surprises when it does. Even in the early stages everything is perfectly acceptable, with some nice discrete effects creating a generous amount of ambience (such as the chattering of penguins in the rears in large group shots). Dialogue also remains perfectly clear throughout, which is especially important in a musical, where vocals can often be drowned out. I was initially a little concerned by the relative weakness of the bass (this is a 384Kbps track), but as the film progressed the howling, all-encompassing blizzards and creaking, cracking ice flows restored my faith. It might not be reference quality stuff, but all-in-all this is a decent track.
Extras
We open with two deleted scenes, 'Mumble Meets a Blue Whale' and 'A Happy Feet Moment'. The first features a short introduction by director George Miller, in which he explains that the scene was completed for the DVD as a tribute to the late Steve Irwin, who voiced one of the characters. The second is only around thirty seconds long, and features Mumble being kicked around by another penguin. It's very odd.

Next up is a featurette entitled 'Dance Like a Penguin: Stomp to the Beat'. This is hosted by Savion Glover, who acted as a dancer and co-choreographer on the film. Glover gets off to a bad start by mispronouncing the word 'especially' (sorry to be so picky, but it's a pet hate of mine), and then goes on to tell us how we can sing with our feet. Now I know this DVD is aimed at kids, but I'm pretty sure 'singing with your feet' is more commonly known as dancing. Anyway, there is around five minutes of footage of Glover tap dancing and chatting, and he's even joined by Mumble near the end.
Oh joy, another featurette on tap dancing! 'Creating the Tap' runs for a little under five minutes and includes more interview footage with Savion Glover, George Miller and choreographer Kelley Abbey as they discuss the process of bringing the tap dancing penguin to life. This is your typical promotional featurette, so you can expect lots of self-congratulatory backslapping with very little insight into the actual creative process.

'Behind the Scenes of Happy Feet' is a thirteen-minute featurette that details the film's story through various interviews with the cast and crew. This featurette is slightly more revealing than anything else on the disc, with behind-the-scenes footage of the actors recording their dialogue and such, but don't expect anything too insightful. Basically, it's fluffier than Mumble himself.
'Somebody to Love' is the music video for the song sung by none other than Brittany Murphy, who played Gloria. The piece is basically a mixture of scenes from the film and behind-the-scenes footage of Ms. Murphy performing the song in the studio (pulling some interesting faces as she does so), and she actually has a half decent voice. It’s not really a music video, but what the hell.
Finally, the disc mentions some DVD-Rom content, but at the time of writing I couldn’t access it. Now that’s either because it hasn’t gone live yet or because the crappy Interactual software isn’t working properly (I suspect the latter), but either way I don’t know what the content is.

Overall
I don’t hate Happy Feet, I’m just extremely indifferent towards it. There’s nothing here that hasn’t been seen before in superior movies ( Finding Nemo immediately springs to mind), and I just didn’t find myself caring for the characters and their plight. As I’ve already acknowledged, I’m not the target audience for the film, which is why the last thirty minutes or so are so confusing. My four-year-old niece loves it, as do my friends’ kids of a similar age, but they’re not really up on social issues. I guess it can be argued that the message has been included for all of the adults that take their kids along to the film, but it sends a very mixed message. Are we only to care about the penguins because they can tap dance?
Technically the DVD is actually pretty good, with excellent audio-visual presentation and a smattering of passable extras. I’ve become so disenfranchised with the rubbish that passes for bonus content these days that I’m probably not as critical as I should be, but the fact of the matter is that a few fluffy promotional featurettes and a couple of deleted scenes is about par for the course nowadays. The filmmakers saw fit to make a film with a half-arsed environmental message, but it’s not reflected in the supplemental material. Had there been some in-depth information on the plight of the penguins it might have helped to improve the overall score. Still, this is a no-brainer purchase for fans of the film (the under tens), and I fully expect to see it rocketing up the sales charts in the coming weeks.
Review by Chris Gould
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Existing Posts
Happy Feet was pretty good in my opinion. It started to feel kinda wierd for me towards the end though. There was this odd, uncomfortable energy about the atmosphere. And I couldn't help but notice the DTS-ES symbol at the end of the credits; what window did that fly out of? I mean, when I look at Happy Feet it just screams DTS. It seems to me that Warner Bros. doesn't really embrace DTS soundtracks on many of its films.
This was pretty painful to sit through, and I usually love these movies. 4/10 for me. As for Nicole Kidman, that voice was damn weird. Monster House should've gotten the Oscar.
My Missus loves penguins, and I was dragged along to see it at the cinema - the movie is very average, relying far too much on the premise that everyone loves penguins and to see them singing and dancing would be just the sweetest. As cool as Jackman is as Wolverine, he was really annoying in his cod-Elvis guise, and the whole thing seem so damn calculated and cynical that it left as taste as bad in the throat as a penguin/baby-seal burger. The more interesting material was the darker stuff concerning the old whaling station - if they had kept to that line, then it would have made for a much better film with a more potent message.
It's certainly popular, as the cinema was packed, bringing the kind of people who would usually wait until it comes on SKY, but this induced my pet hate of folks who treat cinemas like their living-rooms, and two middle-aged women in front of me were constantly talking with no regard for everyone else - for the record, leaning forward and intoning "If I wanted a running commentary, I'll wait for the f***ing DVD works a treat" with the right amount of menace in your voice, but with the DVD not coming with one, it made it a bit redundant.
A very nice review, Mr G, and good to see that there are others who saw through the cynical nature of the enterprise. Haven't seen Cars yet, and from the trailers, it would be disheartening to watch Pixar's track record go sailing downhill after the peerless The Incredibles, but there must have been something more worthy to have snagged the statuette. George Miller chose to do this when he couldn't get Mad Max: Fury Road off the ground? I'll paraphrase Sid James from Carry On Girls in the above debate: "If you think that 42" is average, you've been spoiled - na ha, ha, ha!"
WILSON BRO (Singular)
It's certainly popular, as the cinema was packed, bringing the kind of people who would usually wait until it comes on SKY, but this induced my pet hate of folks who treat cinemas like their living-rooms, and two middle-aged women in front of me were constantly talking with no regard for everyone else - for the record, leaning forward and intoning "If I wanted a running commentary, I'll wait for the f***ing DVD works a treat" with the right amount of menace in your voice, but with the DVD not coming with one, it made it a bit redundant.
A very nice review, Mr G, and good to see that there are others who saw through the cynical nature of the enterprise. Haven't seen Cars yet, and from the trailers, it would be disheartening to watch Pixar's track record go sailing downhill after the peerless The Incredibles, but there must have been something more worthy to have snagged the statuette. George Miller chose to do this when he couldn't get Mad Max: Fury Road off the ground? I'll paraphrase Sid James from Carry On Girls in the above debate: "If you think that 42" is average, you've been spoiled - na ha, ha, ha!"
WILSON BRO (Singular)
Bloody hell, how did I miss "the penguine and "my cock is bigger than yours" " thread.
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scottmck wrote: Just a 32" screen Chris? I do my reviews in my private 200-seater cinema with an army or trained monkeys bringing me caviar-topped popcorn and a selection of fine wines.
To be honest, I think it's difficult to give a 10 unless you do the same. No offence.
**********
Hehe class.
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scottmck wrote: Just a 32" screen Chris? I do my reviews in my private 200-seater cinema with an army or trained monkeys bringing me caviar-topped popcorn and a selection of fine wines.
To be honest, I think it's difficult to give a 10 unless you do the same. No offence.
**********
Hehe class.
Arse, spelling mistake.
So you have a 32" and have size issues? Hmmm - I worry about my 3.5" in the car.....
Not a bad review Chris but since yourQuote: four-year-old nice loves it I might have to get this for my son...
Not a bad review Chris but since yourQuote: four-year-old nice loves it I might have to get this for my son...

Gabe Powers wrote: I can't wait for Paprika to get a release in the States. I still say Monster House was robbed, and I hope it doesn't dissapear over the years.
I've heard Monster House was one of the really must-see films of last year, animated or otherwise. I wouldn't mind giving it a look at some point.
I've heard Monster House was one of the really must-see films of last year, animated or otherwise. I wouldn't mind giving it a look at some point.
I can't wait for Paprika to get a release in the States. I still say Monster House was robbed, and I hope it doesn't dissapear over the years.
Great review, Chris. I agree with you fully. It does annoy me how this film went on to triumph over Pixar's much better Cars, though.
"A disappointing year for animation"
Eh? Amongst the many mediocre (and outright bad) there were as many interesting and good features as other years.
I really dug "Cars", and one of the highlights this year for me was "Paprika". Not nominated for the Oscar of course (not released yet Stateside), but good nevertheless. I also found "Brave Story" to be so much better than I expected that I consider it to be very good as well.
European efforts "Princess" and "Free Jimmy" were very interesting and surprisingly adult-oriented.
In my opinion "A Scanner Darkly" also counts as animation and is worth mentioning.
On this movie:
"Happy Feet" was reasonably entertaining and certainly had its moments. I regret not seeing it in a 3D-Imax, as the 3D trailer I saw there looked amazing.
But definitely not one of the years' best.
And no offence (haha), but if it looks good on my old CRT 32'' it'll look good anywhere! ;-)
Eh? Amongst the many mediocre (and outright bad) there were as many interesting and good features as other years.
I really dug "Cars", and one of the highlights this year for me was "Paprika". Not nominated for the Oscar of course (not released yet Stateside), but good nevertheless. I also found "Brave Story" to be so much better than I expected that I consider it to be very good as well.
European efforts "Princess" and "Free Jimmy" were very interesting and surprisingly adult-oriented.
In my opinion "A Scanner Darkly" also counts as animation and is worth mentioning.
On this movie:
"Happy Feet" was reasonably entertaining and certainly had its moments. I regret not seeing it in a 3D-Imax, as the 3D trailer I saw there looked amazing.
But definitely not one of the years' best.
And no offence (haha), but if it looks good on my old CRT 32'' it'll look good anywhere! ;-)
nice rev Chris..although u rated it very low..i'd go with 7/10 -realy nice film..and i think OSCAR should go to "Monster HOuse"..."Cars" by far the worst of the nominated.
I kinda wish I'd never mentioned my display size now, cause you can bet we wouldn't be having this 'discussion' at all. I dunno, maybe I should also have awarded a 9 as I originally intended, but then I'd probably have gotten grief for not being consistent with my previous reviews. I love this job.
Just a 32" screen Chris? I do my reviews in my private 200-seater cinema with an army or trained monkeys bringing me caviar-topped popcorn and a selection of fine wines.
To be honest, I think it's difficult to give a 10 unless you do the same. No offence.
To be honest, I think it's difficult to give a 10 unless you do the same. No offence.
Fight! Fight! Fight! - Just kidding, dont actually fight - or if you do at least release it on DVD with high enough spec to be viewed on a 42" TV!
I agree it was a poor year for animation, with only Monster House really impressing me. People started going crazy for this and i couldnt quite understand it. I will rent it to see what the fuss is about. Not sure if I can stomach the 'Message' mentioned in the review. They're always pretty heavy handed in kids films.
And Pengulns are bloody everywhere! Still!
I agree it was a poor year for animation, with only Monster House really impressing me. People started going crazy for this and i couldnt quite understand it. I will rent it to see what the fuss is about. Not sure if I can stomach the 'Message' mentioned in the review. They're always pretty heavy handed in kids films.
And Pengulns are bloody everywhere! Still!
Quote: Wow!But i really meant it.It was just a note man,nothing else.If i wanted to be offensive,trust me i would and could be.
That really wouldn't go down well. I take it you are watching on an HD display at that size? If so, anything you watch is being upscaled to the native resolution of the panel. So with this film you would be taking a 720x567 image and stretching it to 1366x720 (at least). This in itself can introduce artefacts (as it does on my 37" HD panel), so the 'bigger is better' line of thinking doesn't always hold true.
As for biting your head off, put that down to my intolerance of people finding fault with the silliest little things in our reviews. At the end of the day reviewing is subjective. I might see things that you don't on a 32" set, and conversely I might miss things that others see. I'm just giving an opinion, and nowhere do I state that it is the only valid one. Someone popping up and saying that my opinion is somehow less valid because they have a problem discerning flaws on a display smaller than 42" is never going to go down well. I don't just look at these things once and go 'Oh that looks nice, I'll give it a ten'.
The top and bottom of it is that compared to most DVDs I've seen, this image is exceptionally pleasing. It's not 100% perfect, a fact I pointed out in the review, but in comparison to other films I've previously reviewed it is at the top end of standard definition DVD presentations and therefore deserving of the awarded score. I hope that explains my reasoning?
That really wouldn't go down well. I take it you are watching on an HD display at that size? If so, anything you watch is being upscaled to the native resolution of the panel. So with this film you would be taking a 720x567 image and stretching it to 1366x720 (at least). This in itself can introduce artefacts (as it does on my 37" HD panel), so the 'bigger is better' line of thinking doesn't always hold true.
As for biting your head off, put that down to my intolerance of people finding fault with the silliest little things in our reviews. At the end of the day reviewing is subjective. I might see things that you don't on a 32" set, and conversely I might miss things that others see. I'm just giving an opinion, and nowhere do I state that it is the only valid one. Someone popping up and saying that my opinion is somehow less valid because they have a problem discerning flaws on a display smaller than 42" is never going to go down well. I don't just look at these things once and go 'Oh that looks nice, I'll give it a ten'.
The top and bottom of it is that compared to most DVDs I've seen, this image is exceptionally pleasing. It's not 100% perfect, a fact I pointed out in the review, but in comparison to other films I've previously reviewed it is at the top end of standard definition DVD presentations and therefore deserving of the awarded score. I hope that explains my reasoning?
Wow!But i really meant it.It was just a note man,nothing else.If i wanted to be offensive,trust me i would and could be.Hey I don't have a 1080p Tv,the ones I have are very reasonably budgeted(and had to give blood to buy them),but you have to admit it's hard for someone who has a bigger televison to "trust"what someone says when he's watching it on a small one.I know this by experience,films i thought looked perfect on 32 looked complete c**p on 42.The proof of a good transfer is how good it looks no matter what the size,but on smaller screens artifacts are usually invisable.
Notice the tone:this is not some screw you post,its more of an observation,no need to bite my head off.
Notice the tone:this is not some screw you post,its more of an observation,no need to bite my head off.
By the way, along with the excellent Peter Pan review, it's nice to see informed opinions on animated films. By and large, I do use reviews from this site as part of my decision-making process in choosing rentals/purchases, so it's nice to see an assortment of genres being reviewed.
I love the fact that people think sticking 'no offense' in front of an offensive comment will somehow negated the offended party's reaction. There's been a lot of that going around lately.
Don't post an offensive comment and then tell me not to take offence. I've been reviewing on a 32" display for years, I made it perfectly clear that's what I was using, and I know what to look for. Anyone reading the review can make an informed decision based on that information.
I noticed the minor 'flaws' in the transfer just fine on my display, and I also went over the video in PowerDVD using the digital zoom just to see if there was anything nasty lurking. The fact that standard definition video was never intended to be viewed on such big screens is something you might like to consider - if you blow it up to huge sizes of course you're going to notice problems; that's why we now have HD.
It may also come as a surprise to learn that this site doesn't just cater for 'enthusiasts'. As it is, most people watch DVDs on displays of a similar size (or smaller) to my own, so I'd say my experience is fairly representative of the average viewer.
If you want to throw me a couple of grand to buy a new 1080p set, be my guest, but until then please read the caveats in the review and stop with the hardware snobbery.
I noticed the minor 'flaws' in the transfer just fine on my display, and I also went over the video in PowerDVD using the digital zoom just to see if there was anything nasty lurking. The fact that standard definition video was never intended to be viewed on such big screens is something you might like to consider - if you blow it up to huge sizes of course you're going to notice problems; that's why we now have HD.
It may also come as a surprise to learn that this site doesn't just cater for 'enthusiasts'. As it is, most people watch DVDs on displays of a similar size (or smaller) to my own, so I'd say my experience is fairly representative of the average viewer.
If you want to throw me a couple of grand to buy a new 1080p set, be my guest, but until then please read the caveats in the review and stop with the hardware snobbery.
We're not all millionaires. I either watch DVDs on my 17 inch widescreen PC display, or my 28 inch widescreen TV, so for me and I guess a large number of others, this review is fine in every way.
I agree, disappointing year all round for animation last year. Cars was probably the best of the bunch from what I saw, but that wasn't really saying a lot.
I agree, disappointing year all round for animation last year. Cars was probably the best of the bunch from what I saw, but that wasn't really saying a lot.
I don't want to be mean but 32 inches is too small to notice many deficiencies.For a credible transfer review the DVD's should be watched on 42'Tv's and upwards.If they look awesome in these there is no doubt they will look great in smaller ones,but the same does not applie in reverse.
As I said,this is a technical review so it should be done using equipment that will instruct and more properly represent the enthusiast(and if you're in this site you are one).
Don't take offense,it's just a note.I have a 32,42 and 50 tv and notice that in the 32 format the tv is too small so it hides problems that arise in bigger televisions.
As I said,this is a technical review so it should be done using equipment that will instruct and more properly represent the enthusiast(and if you're in this site you are one).
Don't take offense,it's just a note.I have a 32,42 and 50 tv and notice that in the 32 format the tv is too small so it hides problems that arise in bigger televisions.


Suitable for all
Disc Details
Release Date:
26th March 2007
Discs:
1
Disc Type:
Single side, dual layer
RCE:
No
Video:
PAL
Aspect:
2.40:1
Anamorphic:
Yes
Colour:
Yes
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 EX English
Subtitles:
English, English HoH
Extras:
Deleted Scenes: 'Mumble Meets a Blue Whale' and 'A Happy Feet Moment', 'Dance Like a Penguin: Stomp to the Beat', 'Creating the Tap' Featurette, 'Behind the Scenes of Happy Feet' Featurette, 'Somebody to Love' Music Video by Brittany Murphy, DVD-Rom Content
Easter Egg:
No
Feature Details
Director:
George Miller
Cast:
Elijah Wood, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving, Robin Williams, Anthony LaPaglia
Genre:
Adventure and Animation
Length:
104 minutes
Ratings
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