Thankfully, and admirably, it manages to avoid pratfalls, slapstick, pee- and fart jokes and instead the finely-tuned humour rests on the wealth of meticulous animation, juxtaposition, absurdist situations and snaptastic one-liners from Ramon's crew as they take Mumble in and introduce him to their kooky, fun-loving society and social guru, "Lovelace". The emperor penguins all sing tunes you have heard before and it is not until Mumble encounters the eccentric party group of Adelies that Happy Feet receives a well-deserved kickstart and starts tapping into good fun. One third into 'Happy Feet', I found myself drifting ever so slightly into indifference as the sprawling surge of R'n'B on the ice wore off. When he finally finds friends in Ramon's (Robin Williams) foreign group of Adelie penguins, it becomes clear that there are more things threatening the penguin society on Antarctica the most prominent of which being human overfishing. The rest of the tight-knit, conformist community all rely on special heartsongs to appeal to mates, and not being able to carry a tune is a fatal misstep for Mumble. All that has been put forward in trailers and synopses is the lonely journey of the Emperor Penguin Mumble (Elijah Wood), who is an outcast owing to his poor singing voice and tapalicious feet. Advertising the film as a propaganda vehicle would have been grossly unwise, which is why the simple template story rings true to most people. Political messages about environmental problems was perhaps the last thing I expected to find rotating around in a happy, tappy romp like 'Happy Feet' but the fact is they are there, and they are superbly handled, as is much of the film. This begs an upsurge in quality for the market and the otherwise forgettable family fluff films have begun to interweave deeper, more salient issues in their stories. Animated comedies have become what Mike Tyson was to the boxing scene in the 1980's: a safe bet.
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