I can honestly say I've never in my life seen a film quite like George Miller's Happy Feet. I can't imagine writing a proper review of it ( I know, I said that about The Fountain too, but really these are 2 of the most original (if not bizarre) films you'll see this year, maybe ever). I just wrote a synopsis of it, that ended up taking forever because it is that complex. Reading what is it about will determine for you whether you should see it or not because it is impossible to understand what it's gonna be without seeing it, and after reading it you may think you know what you're in for when you do see it, but as they say, "You think you know...but you have no idea"
Before I get to explaining, I have to say the animation is incredible and eerie. The penguins are rendered wonderfully, each one unique, but they are almost too life-like and at times can be creepy. And Robin Williams voices a Latino penguin and a Barry White type character and is the narrator in another Barry White type voice, but not the same one, so he is sort of ever-present, but neither of his characters is the narrator, so that's odd too.
The film itself is bizarre because it plays as about 4 different films in one.
It starts as a standard animated film, with the outsider character, Mumble, trying to earn respect while still being himself, incorporating rousing musical numbers (originals and covers of Beach Boys, Queen, Ricky Martin, Boyz 2 Men, and more... a real mish-mash of top 40 history). In this case, all the penguins can sing, yet Mumble can't sing at all despite the fact that his parents are penguin equivalents of Madonna and Elvis, and he is shunned, despite his incredible dancing skills (hence the title). After his graduation from penguin high school where he is given the ultimate brush off because of his poor singing, Mumble is chased away by a sea lion and ends up in another part of Antarctica with small pengiuns (led by Robin Williams' 2 characters) where he gains a small group of apostles who tell him his dancing is awesome and he gains the courage to eventually returns to his own part of the continent. Upon his return, he is declared a curse because the fish have started to disappear and the elder penguins say it is because of him.
Mumble vows to clear his name and find out what has happened to the fish, beginning the second film within the film: his quixotic journey to discover what has happened to the fish. He goes across the whole continent with his little penguin friends, passes through the land of the elephant seals (which are not as convincingly rendered as the penguins) and ends up finding a large fishing vessel. He is determined to go talk to the people on the boat to tell them to stop stealing the fish. He can't get up on the boat (no surprise) but won't give up. His character is something of a Christ-like figure in sacrificing himself to save the other penguins who had cast him out as a heretic, even his father, the Elvis penguin, had turned his back on him. Now, stay with me. Where was I, oh yes, the fishing boat.
He chases the boat all across the ocean to no avail, long after it disappears from sight, and he eventually winds up on a beach somewhere in what looks like the U.S. Which leads into the 3rd phase of the film: a Twilight Zone episode. Mumble finds himself in a zoo where he tries to talk to the other penguins on display, but they are all catatonic or lobotomized into malaise, and he starts to go crazy. He tries to talk ("speaking perfect penguin") but all the people visiting his exhibit hear is squawking. It is effectively eerie and heartbreaking and would have been an incredibly interesting way to end the film. But it doesn't end there. He hears a little girl trying to get his attention tapping on the glass rhythmically and it gets him to dancing and pretty soon he is a main attraction and somehow ends up getting taken back to Antarctica with a homing device implanted so they can see if he comes from a herd of dancing penguins. He ends up finding his way back home where the traditional old penguins are angered that he's led "aliens" to them, but when they arrive, they are fearful and all start dancing in hopes that it will make the people leave them alone or be friendly.
The human explorers transmit video of the penguins singing and dancing back to the US via satellite/internet (I guess) and it sets off a brief non-animated 4th segment of the film that is eco-propoganda with the UN and congress and newspaper headlines saying things like "We need to stop stealing their fish" and "we must stop overfishing in the Antarctic" or some such. It comes out of nowhere and is completely over the top......
I guess they managed to work it out diplomatically, because the film ultimately ends with the penguins all singing and dancing together, with fish aplenty in the ocean for them to feast.
Like I said, fascinatingly curious with everything possible thrown in. I recommend everyone see it, just because you've never seen anything like it, and probably never will again. Oh, and Mumble gets the girl in the end, too.
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