not particularly depressed feet

Last Friday, I took advantage of the cheap-skate AMC price before noon to check out HAPPY FEET, the animated penguin adventure. I loved the first half of this movie...but the second half really lost steam. In the story, penguins find their mate by singing....and the penguin whose song speaks most to you is your life partner. (Strangely, this is how I plan to find my mate...) Anyway, Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman get together, and produce Elijah Wood. Poor Elijah can't sing, but he can tap-dance like no ones business. (They based it on Savion Glover's movement. He is officially a tap-dancing G-d!) Anyway, he ends up being sent away, seen as a threat to the penguin community. Off he goes, and ends up meeting different penguins (led by Robin Williams) and ends up in a Hispanic community, where racial slurs abound. Anyway, Elijah is ultimately blamed for the fish shortage and goes to find out where the fish are. This is the point where I lost interest. The tap-dancing is awesome though, and worth the price of admission. One thought: There are two very scary sequences involving a seal and orca that might be too scary for real little kids.

Final thoughts: It's not that I don't care about saving the environment, I would just rather watch the penguins tap dance.

photo credit: www.movieweb.com