Last night I sat down with my daughter to watch Happy Feet, a wonderful kids movie that’s on payPerView now.Minor Spoiler!Happy Feet is about a group of penguins that are facing famine. The elders organize the group to sing in order to please their god “Gwin”, so that the god will end the famine.The protagonist “Happy Feet” is a baby penguin that prefers to dance. The elders banish him, saying that his dancing is displeasing to the god, and is therefore causing the famine. Happy Feet asks how his dancing would cause a famine, to which the vulture-like elder penguins reply “Of course it is — How else?”Happy Feet leaves, finds the real reason (hint: it had nothing to do with a god), and saves the tribe. Had he stayed and followed the order to serve the elders’ god, they would all have starved.What a wonderful message!
even penguins go on heros’ journeys. In this case the hero might be the writer or producer of the story. My daughter is a zookeeper in charge of birds; she says they’re smart.I’m sure she isn’t surprised by the penguin’s triumph over the superstitions of its society… she also says that some penguins are cliquish and form exclusive groups for years…they really do echo our society…we need a hero (other than peyton manning of course)
God dammity damn… I had successfully avoided having to watch this movie and now it looks like I have to.
I had the same response to the movie. We watched it in the theaters last fall and our kids loved it…this might be one we add to our library. It has a great message
I also found Happy Feet to be a kind of Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer (you remember, the stop-motion tv movie narrated by Burl Ives?) in the Antarctic. Other than both being song-filled polar adventures:
[sort-of spoilers below?]
- misfit kid is born to the shame of his father, an outstanding member of the community, who encourages him to be just like everybody else.
- misfit’s quirk is eventually discovered by classmates, who shun him, except for the loveliest female.
- kid finally leaves, meets kooky friends who respect and follow him
- what started as direction-less travel turns into a quest to save his family
- goes up against the greatest of dangers, ultimately bringing back that which caused the danger, reformed, to their aid
- misfit’s quirk becomes a valuable talent, and misfit becomes hero
I thought the movie had a great message, both about searching for the truth and not just accepting established authority (or religion) and about protecting the environment. Bit simplistic, but it was adorable
Reed:
Don’t bother. There really aren’t any religious (or anti-religious) overtones, and the dance/singing sequences are painful to watch. This was the first Pixar movie that I really disliked.
I saw this movie a couple of times, and I didn’t think of it like that until now. The religion is subtle, and though the god in it gets mentioned a few times, the overwhelming character situations are focused on the real animals involved. What strikes the viewer right away is where they are. It’s very desolate there, and the animators drove that home well. The rule of the day seemed to be, “This is all you’ve got, deal with it. That’s reality.”
The message of independent thought really works well, and of course the outcast mentality as well.
Now as a drummer, I found the dancing and the sound of the dancing to be a bit crass. Penguins can’t do that!
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@Apple_Christmas: “This was the first Pixar movie that I really disliked.”
Then you will be happy to know this wasn’t a Pixar movie!
I know all the right-wingers were terrified of this movie. Fox News even went on for a while about how it had a liberal agenda and endorsed homosexuality and separation of church and state. I haven’t seen it myself, but if Fox News hates it, it must be good.
Yeah, I actually intended to post something about this when it was still in theaters, but I forgot. Really, it was such a good movie that few people seemed to notice the way it spoke out against religion and for the separation of church and state. I actually saw it 3 times in theaters, the third time in IMAX, and each time that message jumped out at me more and more.
I would, however, like to point out one misrepresentation of religion: When Noah the Elder saw the helicopter in his face, he actually admitted that he was wrong on the basis of nothing but concrete, empirical evidence! It would really be nice if the Pope would do that too.
Didn’t you pay any attention to the reviews this movie got? I remember reading one that said something like, “better than an animated romp starring singing, dancing penguins has any right to be.”
No, the exact line was even better: “If thy kind of pagan display did not cause it, then what did?”