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— Review written by: Brendan Surpless —

Memphis (Hugh Jackman) and Norma Jean (Nicole Kidman) are anxiously awaiting the birth of their baby. When their child is finally born, Memphis and Norma Jean wonder if something is wrong with poor old Mumble (Elijah Wood) as every other emperor penguin is born with the gift of song. Unfortunately for poor old Mumble, he was born with another gift, the gift of dance (tap dancing in this case). Singing is crucial for our little friends as it is how the males win their female mates. In this case Mumble wants to win the heart of Gloria (Brittany Murphy), a penguin who he seemingly fell in love with the second he came out of his shell.

When a food crisis hits their homeland, the elder penguins blame poor old Mumble and his unique tap dancing abilities on the drought of food banning him from the homeland. Mumble soon runs into a few crazy penguins lead by Ramon (Robin Williams). Seemingly amazed by Mumble and his amazing moves, Ramon invites Mumble to a party where Mumble insists that something is taking the fish. Ramon suggests that Mumble go see the great Lovelace (also voiced by Robin Williams). Mumble isn’t satisfied with the answer Ramon gives and is determined to get the bottom of this mystery. The rest of the film follows Mumble and his new friends as they search for the answer to this question.

I’ll be completely honest and say that Happy Feet was an enjoyable film completely throughout, but I wonder if it’s the type of film I’ll be watching more than a few times over. Sure the film is charming and one can help but become completely immersed in the world of the penguins as they sing, dance and go about their daily lives (not to mention that their also so cute!). The problem I had with the film was the first half of the film was excellent (read four stars, 10/10, etc) as it presented amazing visuals and the type of story that seemed like a modern Rudolph tale with Mumble becoming the outcast of the penguins. The second half seemed like a different film with a few curious sequences. How exactly was Mumble able to get back from the place he was taken (I say place because I don’t want to spoil anything)? These sequences didn’t kill the film per-say, but definitely ruined the potential replay value the film may have had.

Video Quality on this release is 1080p in VC-1 on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte Dual Layer Blu-ray Disc). “Happy Feet” like most animated affairs today, looks absolutely amazing throughout. Color usage was a visual treat with solid whites, blacks and blues popping off the screen into our eyes. Visual experience after visual experience can be found with this transfer. Grain, video noise and EE is pretty much absent (with only EE becoming noticeable in some of the brighter sequences). Top-notch video quality here Warner!

Audio Quality on this release is in Dolby Digital 5.1 @640kbps. While not as impressive as the audio here, Happy Feet still sports an impressive Dolby Digital 5.1. Dialogue is crystal clear especially during many of the film’s song sequences. Surround usage was pretty active throughout (check out the sequence where Mumble and Ramon ride down a few hills as an avalanche cashes them). Dynamic Range felt somewhat absent here as I noticed a few discrete effects during the chase sequence with the sea lion and Mumble, but many other potential key sequences felt lost. The score by John Powell felt rather subdued as well (possibly I’m use to his more robust scores like The Bourne Supremacy). The only real disappointment here is that the HD-DVD release was given a Dolby TrueHD track. Otherwise from that, this is a fine effort from Warner.

Bonus Materials

• Mumble Meets a Blue Whale: This feature serves as a tribute to the late, great Steve Irwin (who had a cameo in the film as an elephant seal). Here Director George Miller informs us that Irwin originally recorded a voice demo as an albatross that never made the final cut. The scene is fully presented here.
• A Happy Feet Moment: This one is a short animated feature about two penguins treating each other as soccer balls. Another funny feature follows entitled [b]I Love to Singa[/b]. This 8 minute feature plays off the main plot point in the film, except this time a young owl sings jazz (the rest of the film sings classical music). A short, funny feature that will amuse many.
• Dance like a Penguin: A little feature where choreographer Savion Glover shows us the basics of tap-dancing.
• Music Videos: Here we’re given two music videos. The first by Gia entitled Hit Me Up and the second by Prince entitled The Song of the Heart

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