![]() First, there is belly-sledding where you control Mumble sledding down a track trying to beat Ramon and the Amigos to the finish. The game consists of 3 types of gameplay. And while Mumble is cursed with being the worst singer in the world, he just happens to be a great tap dancer.įollowing the general story of the film, the game has you play as Mumble as he belly-sleds, dances, and swims through Antarctica on an adventure complemented by a playful and lively soundtrack. The game puts the player in the shoes of Mumble, a young penguin born into a nation of singing emperor penguins where each needs a heart song to attract a soul mate. When Mumble’s father (Hugh Jackman, doing an Elvis impersonation) tearfully confesses that “I was a backslider once myself,” well, one must wonder.The Happy Feet game features the voices of Elijah Wood and Brittany Murphy, who reprise their roles from the movie. When the emperor penguin elders demand that Mumble stop his “freakiness with the feet,” the young penguin gallantly insists that “there’s nothing wrong with me,” like a gay teen about to head off for Broadway. The lesson Mumble teaches us, naturally, is that everyone has a place in the world, even if it doesn’t fit squarely with the norm. The elephant seals are all Aussies, including one voiced by since deceased Steve Irwin. ![]() Later, by accident, he discovers a settlement of runty Adelie penguins who all talk like Spanish Harlem teenagers but are ruled by a Barry White-style waterfowl love god (Robin Williams, in stand-up mode). At one point, Mumble is harassed by hungry, goodfella-accented seagulls. Is it arch to observe that Mumble – in addition to being the most awkward and callow of the young penguins – also looks and sounds the whitest? Like the folks who made “Shark Tale,” Miller divides the animal world into ethnic fiefdoms. Elijah Wood provides the voice of Mumble, and fittingly so the one-time Frodo has become his generation’s Mickey Rooney, the perennial puberty case. Instead of carrying a tune, Mumble expresses himself by doing tap dance – a trait that inspires suspicion and bewilderment in his fellow penguins as the chick grows into an awkward adolescent who still has downy tufts where slick, waterproof feathers should be. (You have to hand it to Miller – it’s a striking image, if a tad preposterous.) And not just silly little Disney jingles, either, but full hymnal choruses of Queen’s “Somebody to Love” while back-lit, en masse, under the aurora borealis. You see, Mumble can’t sing, which – in the fervid imaginations of Miller and co-writers Warren Coleman, John Collee and Judy Morris – is pretty much the sine qua non of emperor penguin existence. ![]() More on that later.įor now, meet Mumble, a fluffy emperor penguin chick regarded as a pariah by his fellow flightless waterfowl in the South Pole. Oh, yeah – there’s also his bizarre “2001: A Space Odyssey” homage. It has lots of singing, lots of splashing and a vigorous pro-environment message, but one can’t shake the sense that director George Miller – the creator of “Babe,” here making his long-awaited return to directing – has exceeded acceptable levels of computer-animated pomp. “Happy Feet” is like “March of the Penguins” reconceived as a Super Bowl halftime show.
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