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Tuesday, April 30
The Indiana Daily Student

Cute animated penguin movie

"Happy Feet" is one hell of a visually stunning movie. As a film snob, I occasionally like to complain about every animated movie now being CGI, but when films look this spectacular, there's no complaining necessary. The penguins look great; the arctic scenery is stunning and the fast-paced, soaring cinematography and editing help even more.\nAnd those penguins -- they're just too damn adorable. The first 20 minutes focusing on the main penguin, Mumble, as a baby are the most enjoyable because, well, who doesn't love cute baby penguins (although I got a little creeped out when I realized young Mumble is voiced by 45-year-old E.G. Dailey, who is also the voice of "Rugrats'" Tommy Pickles)?\nMumble (later voiced by Dailey and Elijah Wood) is shunned by the penguin community for not being able to sing, and thus will never find a soul mate. Mumble instead takes up tap dancing much to the dismay of his father (an Elvis-impersonating Hugh Jackman, who comes off more like "Full House's" Uncle Jesse than the King). When the penguins' food supply begins dwindling, Mumble sets out to find out why.\nHere's where I should complain about Robin Williams ruining yet another kids' movie with his over-the-top rambling voice-work, but this time it's actually entertaining. The movie also takes cues from "Moulin Rouge" by using contemporary pop songs from artists like Queen and Stevie Wonder for its musical scenes.\nEventually "Happy Feet" lets the viewer know that humans are horrible creatures. We're screwing up the world and killing everything in our path. A good, eco-friendly message, but the movie pushes it a little too hard. At the end I wanted to kill myself just for existing as a human; how is an 8-year-old watching this supposed to react? \nSpecial features include an unnecessarily deleted scene that pays tribute to Steve Irwin (who has a brief role), music videos from Prince and Gia Farrell, a segment focusing on the tap dancing choreograph, and the theatrical trailer (plus there's one for the new "Harry Potter" flick). But on a film so technically fascinating, where are the features documenting the animation and sound process?

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