I walked out dazed by the sheer weirdness. I was somewhat disappointed because I was expecting from Miller, after Babe: Pig in the City, another divisive children's classic. Well, it's not that.

But I'm liking it more and more as the days go by (I saw it Saturday). Some sequences really work (The huge tap dancing sequence when he returns with the little Hispanic Robin Williams (WTF?) penguins to woo whats-her-face; the out-of-left-field live action bits that I really thought were cool). Others don't (anything, ANYTHING with the Jackman/Kidman characters).

Monster House is officially the animated film of the year.

I like the movies... But I didn't like the ending. It was dumb. And it's not an ending suitable for this film... It just clashes with the tone that film sets in the beginning... And the thing with the penguin god started to get on my nerve after a while... But still, the movie is so cute, so I gave it a B.... I'm just a sucker for large dancing sequences. And when cute penguins do it...

A little heavy handed and preachy at times, but I still loved the overall story and music. When will someone cast Brittany Murphy in a real musical? My grade: A-.

So I finally got around to seeing it, and I saw it the only way it should be viewed.........IMAX. In hindsight, if I had saw this on a regular screen it would've driven me nuts, and mostly because of the last twenty minutes. More on that in a sec. The first hour and twenty minutes are absolutely stunning - visually. The dancing and singing penguins got old after a little bit, especially when you put the actual lyrics to the songs together, and you realize you have a bunch of penguins talking about fucking one another. Perfect for a children's film. But the visuals and the performances keep the film alive. Although for an animated film, there is almost no trace of comedy to be found, which I found a little weird. As I said though, the visuals and performances keep things going.

Then we are introduced to the zoo/aquarium environment surronded by real human beings? Why? Why are real people in this film? To drive home Miller's point? To be visually staggering? It's staggering alright, but it takes the viewer right out of the film. And then how about that scene where the humans fight over one another about whether fishing should continue or not, and with all that quick cutting through the scene. What the hell? What is a six year old suppose to take out of that scene. The film is marketed towards kids, and how many of them are going to actually understand the message? That in itself pisses me of to no end. Although I get and somewhat agree with Miller's all around message, to promote it in a childrens film is kind of, cold. If you promote the film by having a bunch of animated dancing penguins, you're going to get little kids in by the dozen. I guess what I don't like is that for the first 75 minutes, it's a family film for families. For the last 25, it's an adult film for no one in particular.

Three-fourth's of the film is beautiful and entertaining. The last fourth almost ruin a perfectly good film. I'm giving it somewhat of a passing grade though, because of those first 80 minutes.

C+

The whole alien/environmental thing was really unnecesary and completely killed the movie. I really hated that, didnt feel right expecially for this kind of film. From the moment Mumble gets to the zoo the movie becomes sooo wierd. The rest was awesome.

C+

An excellent, mostly flawless, animated film, then the third act comes along. A-

B+ ;sits was perety good bu st jus toto damn mother scuksin cute, ames me fil all eick y in siede and shit suon

A very cute film that I didn't expect to be too great based on WOM I heard. I don't know that it deserved the Oscar over Cars, but it was not an undeserving winner by any means.

B+

Bleh... I was very underwhelmed by Happy Feet. I thought the first half hour was a snoozefest with a heavy dose of boring musical numbers. And then the last half hour was way too preachy and message laden, not to mention it was far too unbelievable even for a kids movie that has talking animals.

There were a few chuckles in the middle - specifically from the hispanic Penguins, but overall the characters were bland and unintersting to me, and the movie felt overlong by about 20 minutes... actually make that 108 minutes too long.

D

I watched HAPPY FEET today with my mom and niece. I wasn't as interested this time around (which doesn't surprise me because animated movies usually only work for me the first time around and then I don't care enough to watch them again). It was more fun in theaters during the holidays. The animation was so much more beautiful on the big screen. I still am not fond of the last 20 minutes. They're so unrealistic. It should have took a darker approach and ended with the main character, Mumble, in the zoo, otherwise he should have washed ashore somewhere that they eat penguins and we could have seen his feet on a plate. It would have been more disturbing and realistic, even if it would have caused an outrage among parents taking their kids to it. Oh well, it would be a better wake up call. The ending now is just too unbelievable, not to mention so odd and trippy (especially for this kind of movie). I'll still stick with my 8/10 (B+) rating and it's last year's best animated movie.

C+


I am pretty much with Dkmuto on this one. It was WAY too out there for me. Probably the unexpectedly weirdest film I have seen in a while. There were several scenes of me simply thinking "...the hell?!". The use of actual humans in the final act of the film was very unusual and the ending was simply, uh, crazy. Not in a good way either. A shame since I liked the beginning quite a bit. There were some funny moments and the animation is wonderful. It's nowhere near George Miller's Babe. I can see, however, how this won the Oscar as unlike most CG-animated flicks it really went with something quite "different". That just didn't click with me.

It's a mess. A big sloppy mess, but in some ways a beautiful one. The messages and themes are communicated and the allusions to religion and revolution is quite brilliant. The animation is also attractive and crisp. However nothing really meshes. There is simply too much going on and the lack of focus does not work. Also the ending is not fleshed out at all and feels far too sudden.

I thought it was pretty great. In that sea of CGI misery in 2006, this rose above mostly everything else.

Not that that was a tough feat. Cars was mediocre and I fucking hated Monster House.

I kinda hate this movie.

I think the ending kinda ruined it. I don't like it much.