Happy Feet 2
Review by
Anthony Morris
The singing penguins are back, only this time they
don't have a
whole lot to sing about: global warming continues to wreak havoc to the
Antarctic ice shelf, and when a massive iceberg the size of a small
country breaks loose, it's only a matter of time until it crashes into
the penguins nesting ground, cutting them off from the ocean – and
their much-needed food.
Fortunately, Mumble (the voice of Elijah
Wood), who's now all grown up and a father himself, was off bring his
non-dancing son Erik back from a nearby penguin colony ruled by The
Mighty Sven (Robin Williams), a penguin who can fly.
Being
the only ones outside the ice, they're forced to unite the penguin
nations – and any other animals they can find – in an attempt to free
their friends and family before it's too late.
This takes a
while to get going but once it picks up speed it races towards a truly
stirring conclusion, and while Mumble's story is a little flat, the
various subplots (including a pair of adventurous krill voiced by Matt
Damon and Brad Pitt) do a solid job of keeping the interest level
up.
Director George Miller (the Mad Max films) knows
how to
stage action and the music is (generally) well integrated into the
story, so while most of the tracks are from outside sources they do a
decent job of working with the characters' emotions and dramas – which
you'd think would be obvious in a musical but isn’t always the
case.
The first Happy Feet was an oddball hit, and this,
in it's own quirky way, is a worthy follow-up.
3 out
of 5
Happy Feet
2
Australian release: 26th December,
2011
Official
Site: Happy Feet 2
Cast: Elijah Wood, Robin
Williams, Hank Azaria, Pink, Brad
Pitt, Matt Damon, Sofía Vergara, Common, Hugo Weaving, Magda Szubanski
Director: George Miller
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