Not So Happy Feet

I may be, quite possibly, among the last people on the planet to watch the kids’ penguin movie “Happy Feet.” My children have seen it during daycare, and I thought, hey, easy b-day present for the munchkin. I watched it today, and let me tell you, it was NOT what I expected. So, if you haven’t seen the movie and plan to, you may want to avert your eyes from this blog.

It’s not very often that I go off on a movie, but when they mess up the love story (e.g. as in Star Wars Episode II–I’m still not over that wooden dialogue), it really chaps my hide. I love kids’ movies, particularly feel-good movies (”Cars” comes to mind as a great kids’ movie). “Happy Feet” started out with a great deal of potential. Poor misfit penguin is trying to make his place in the world. And then comes Gloria, the lovely penguin with a beautiful voice who remains true to their friendship up until the middle of the movie.

**Spoiler Alert**

And then? Mr. Happy Feet, aka Mumble, DUMPS her in the middle of the movie. Presumably to protect her, and this happens in romance novels, too, so I was okay with it. Because later he would be the hero and she would understand that he only broke up with her to keep her safe. And though she would be majorly annoyed with him, they would manage to overcome it all and live happily ever after.

Instead, he comes back to find his girlfriend penguin MARRIED to another penguin with the personality of a sink. AND she has 7 children! I kept waiting for the Dream Sequence to end, only to find out that no, that really was part of the ending. You’ve got to be kidding me. So what they’re really saying is that, weird penguins with foot-tapping tendencies are left by their girlfriends and are doomed to be alone for the rest of their little lives. HOW is that a feel-good message, I ask you?? Forget the environmental plot. The love story in this movie just didn’t work for me. Man. The misfit penguin is SUPPOSED to get the hot penguin chick because he has grown as a character and she accepts him as he is. She’s supposed to love him anyway, not marry someone else.

So was it just me, or was anyone else disappointed by the movie?