Curator Watchlist
A weird, ambitious kids movie with real visual imagination and a strong environmental streak, but also a messy structure and tonal overload. If you like animated films that are more eccentric than polished, it has enough personality to be worth a look.
Where to watch: Buy
Thu · 1h 48m
Director: George Miller
Starring: Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy
Into the world of the Emperor Penguins, who find their soul mates through song, a penguin is born who cannot sing. But he can tap dance something fierce!
George Miller
Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy
A weird, ambitious kids movie with real visual imagination and a strong environmental streak, but also a messy structure and tonal overload. If you like animated films that are more eccentric than polished, it has enough personality to be worth a look.
Happy Feet is a strange, oversized studio animation experiment that often feels more interested in movement, texture, and mood than in tidy storytelling. George Miller brings a restless energy to it, and the result is a kids’ movie that can be goofy, grim, and oddly spiritual all at once. The tap-dancing premise is the hook, but the film’s real identity is its willingness to get bizarre and big-minded.
It is also a little unruly. The plot can feel overstuffed, the emotional beats are uneven, and some of the comic material lands better than others. Still, the movie has a genuine visual charge, and its environmental message gives it a seriousness that keeps it from feeling disposable.
For viewers who enjoy animated films with personality to spare, this is an easy recommendation. For anyone looking for a smooth, elegant family film, it may be more exhausting than charming. But as a piece of mainstream animation that dares to be weird, it stands out.
hunter strawberry (3★) · 4660 likes
tarantino's favorite movie
Karsten (4★) · 2659 likes
baffled at how many people hate this movie on here. it has some duds, absolutely. but leave it to george miller to make a kids movie this weird and big and gross and spiritual. i mean there is BARELY a plot but i couldn’t care less as a kid and i couldn’t care less now, this thing is too bizarre to fail most of the time. the crane crashing into the ocean moment is just a striking and weirdly ominous
James (Schaffrillas) (1★) · 2289 likes
I hate this movie's guts
Mitsi F. (5★) · 1431 likes
If you have this below a 4 star rating unfollow me I don’t want your homophobic eyes on my LB page
Spencer Tye (2★) · 1294 likes
I opened the DVD case for happy feet and Nacho Libre was inside
Fast, absurd, and proudly unserious in the same way this film can be when it’s working best.
A big, colorful animated adventure with a playful, slightly chaotic energy and strong musical appeal.
Another animated film that balances spectacle, music, and spiritual weight with mainstream accessibility.
A polished animated story about talent, identity, and finding your voice, with more control but similar warmth.
A family animation with a sincere emotional core and a slightly offbeat sense of humor.
An animated film with heart, individuality, and a surprisingly serious emotional and thematic backbone.
Quirky, emotionally direct, and centered on belonging in a way that should appeal to fans of oddball family animation.
A mainstream animated comedy that mixes broad humor with real invention and strong visual design.
Another mid-2000s studio animation that leans on pop energy, big personalities, and mixed results.
A contemporary animated comedy with satirical energy, animal characters, and a busy, joke-forward style.
A family animation with a gentle environmental and moral message wrapped in colorful spectacle.
Inventive, eccentric, and family-friendly in a way that rewards viewers who like animation with personality.
individuality, self-expression, music and dance, environmentalism, community, coming-of-age, alienation, identity
animated musical, family comedy, ecological fable, offbeat tone, coming-of-age, surreal humor, dance sequences, 2000s animation, penguins, studio spectacle