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Happy Feet
Warner Bros. Pictures

Happy Feet reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 77 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
5.6 out of 10
based on 30 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 134 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG for some mild peril and rude humor

Starring Robin Williams, Hugh Jackman, Elijah Wood, Nicole Kidman, Brittany Murphy, Hugo Weaving, Johnny A. Sanchez, and Carlos Alazraqui

A tone-deaf, tap dancing penguin proves that by being true to yourself, you can make all the difference in the world. (Warner Bros.)


GENRE(S): Adventure  |  Animation  |  Comedy  |  Family/Kids  |  Musical  
WRITTEN BY: Warren Coleman
John Collee
George Miller
Judy Morris
 
DIRECTED BY: George Miller  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: March 27, 2007 
Theatrical: November 17, 2006 
RUNNING TIME: 87 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: Australia / USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
In the year of the animated movie, this one soars above them all.
Read Full Review
100
New York Post Lou Lumenick
Happy Feet is not only the year's best animated movie, it's one of the year's best movies, period. Go.
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100
New York Magazine David Edelstein
You should see Happy Feet--not only because it's stupendous, but also because it features the best dancing you'll see on the screen this year.
Read Full Review
91
The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
It's a gorgeously rendered marvel that pulls out all the stops to wow its viewers, but in spite of its crowd-pleasing ploys, it holds onto its integrity with a smart and surprisingly deep story.
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90
Washington Post Desson Thomson
What's truly surprising about Happy Feet is not its giddily brilliant entertainment, its intimate knowledge of the culture or its toe-tapping music. It's how commonplace these qualities have become in computer-animated movies… Happy Feet may be just one of the crowd, but what a great crowd it is.
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88
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
An animated film that challenges preconceptions about the genre and foregoes the usual romance/adventure structure.
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88
Miami Herald Peter Debruge
In a year rich with animation options, Happy Feet stands head and shoulders above its competition.
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83
Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
Miller's global harmonizing never feels preachy -- he's too busy cramming Happy Feet with enough entertainment for three movies.
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80
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
No film with as many elements as Happy Feet is successful with all of them, and the romantic-emotional elements of this story feel overly familiar. But the music and dancing are fresh and new, and this strong an ecological message has not been seen since Hayao Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke."
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80
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
This animated all-penguin musical is terrific fun.
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80
Variety Todd McCarthy
One of the very best directed animated films on record. Not surprisingly from the force behind the "Babe" movies, the attention to detail is phenomenal, the humor ample.
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80
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Antarctica is a beautiful blue paradise, and the final set piece, in which penguins and humans tap their way to a unity of green-minded spirit, is a small masterpiece of conciliatory wackiness.
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78
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The constant singing and dancing throughout is charmingly presented, and the CGI recreations of Antarctica are stunning.
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75
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
A lot of director George Miller's film is gorgeous and exciting. Its craftsmanship and ambition put it a continent ahead of nearly every other animated feature of the last couple of years.
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75
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Happy Feet ends on an upbeat note with singing and dancing, but the weaknesses that precede it deflate the euphoria.
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75
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
A moderately adorable, musically wacky, ecologically activist CG family comedy.
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75
USA Today Claudia Puig
The dazzling animation, catchy songs and Broadway-worthy dance numbers give the film even broader appeal.
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75
Boston Globe Ty Burr
The movie's an uncategorizable mixture of the tacky and profound, and on some weird level, you have to respect it.
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75
San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
Don't little ones have enough to worry about without ecological concerns popping up in family entertainment? Happy Feet should have stayed light on its feet.
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75
Premiere Ethan Alter
It's a movie that keeps flirting with greatness, but settles for being above average.
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75
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Offers dazzling cinematic family fun, and a mad medley of tunes.
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70
Film Threat Mark Bell
Overall, however, for a children's film, it hits all the major notes. Keep it musical, keep it lively, keep it cute and, you know, if you can, slip in a moral.
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70
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The essence of this inventive though erratic animated feature is joyous music and eye-popping motion.
70
The New York Times Manohla Dargis
While compromised by the uplift and affirmation that mainstream animation regurgitates like a mommy penguin, it also shows a remarkable persistence of vision. Even in a story about singing-and-dancing fat and feather, Mr. Miller can’t help but go dark and deep.
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67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Gianni Truzzi
Unfortunately, once the "be yourself" story line is resolved (singing and dancing go together, who would have guessed?), the film is only half over.
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63
TV Guide Angel Cohn
Funny moments can be found throughout, but it's mostly silly and scattered.
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60
Empire Helen O'Hara
Small kids will love the waddlesome dancing and colourful animation, but older viewers will likely be disturbed by the story’s darker elements.
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60
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
This curious ecological parable was directed by George Miller (Babe: Pig in the City), who still has an eye and a sense of humor but on this particular outing can't get the script he wrote with three others to make much sense.
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60
Village Voice Jordan Harper
Children, innocent as they are, may not yet have grown to loathe the actor's (Robin Williams) shtick, but you might like to know that he has two--yes, two--roles in this film.
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50
Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Let's just say this is a perfect film for penguin lovers who also are devoted members of the Green party - and leave it at that.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 5.6 (out of 10) based on 134 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

JC A. gave it a0:
What was this. More of CSI than Happy dancing.

Bryan H. gave it a2:
Robin Williams provides some cheap laughs as a small, Latin penguin, but the rest of the movie is deplorable. I really couldn't care less about "sexual overtones" (give me a break, I saw 'Pretty Woman' when I was little. Kids have NO IDEA what those comments mean. Use your head) I was more concerned with the banner-waving environmentalist agenda that the movie has throughout. My fiance wanted to see a cute movie about penguins, and I accidentally took her to see "An Inconvenient Truth (For Kids!)". In addition to all of this, a number of the actors involved don't seem to quite understand the nuances required to do voice acting well. Elijah Wood in particular. The characters felt flat and uninspired because of the rather drab voices that were lent to them.

Jared C. gave it a1:
I tried to laugh, but the giggles never came. Then I started to frown, to much sensual comments of course.

guy ! gave it an8:
Great movie. It's like a broadway musical animated into a movie by warner brothers. Like my brother said though, these penguins really are, "Sex-demons".

Lindsey L gave it a10:
This movie was adorable! Although advertised for children, there are catchy lines that keep adults laughing, and children dancing in their seats. The song choice, at large catering to the adults, were hilarious selections, and it's plot appeals to all ages. I took my four year old to see the movie and he loved it, kids don't lie. As far as sexual comments, first of all, these comments were not very recognizable to most and certainly not children and second, what movie does not have sexual suggestions? Not many. And third, what kind of people really allow these comments to cloud the rest of the brilliant animation? Come on, are you nuns?

Cory H. gave it a1:
The only problem I had with this movie were the sexual innuendos that went way over the line. I watched this movie for the first time with my 9 year old daughter, who I would not have allowed to see this movie had I known earlier that it should have been rated pg-13. I think the people that rate these movies must have fallen asleep through these parts to have allowed them into the movie with that rating. Parents beware.

Lisa S. gave it a1:
This movie was terrible!! This was advertised to be a children's movie so we sat down with our 4 year old only to find out it's loaded with sexual over tones and dark themes. As others have said the only funny part of the movie was when Happy Feet met up with the little penguins. This movie was a huge disappointment.

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