NO.2: MOVIE REVIEW REVIEW: HAPPY FEET: ANIMATION WORLD IN FERMENT

HAPPY FEET INTRODUCTION 300K VIDEO LOAD

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From Rotten Tomatoes (HAPPY FEET)

No sense in being verbally cute; I liked this film and have no criticisms, therefore, much of the effort in this review presentation has gone into providing you with as much video and audio display as possible. There may be some overlap; for that I apologize, but in today’s computer world some things work on one computer and some on another, and I’d rather err on the side of redundancy as opposed to limiting the audience. Enjoy….

“Happy Feet" Videos

“SOMEBODY”
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"HEARTSONG"
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“CREATING THE TAP” - SAVION GLOVER FEATURETTE
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INTERNATIONAL TRAILER
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TRAILER #2
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'BABY MUMBLES' VIDEO
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TEASER TRAILER
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"Happy Feet" trailers provided by Warner Bros Pictures.

Exclusive Clip: "Charisma" - Ramon (Robin Williams) convinces Mumble (Elijah Wood) that he is charismatic.

Clip: "Mumble Hatches"

Clip: "Or You Explode"

Clip: "Somebody to Love"

Clip: "Accidentally Cool"

Clip: "Boogie Wonderland"

Theatrical Trailer

Red Carpet Slideshow

'Happy Feet' Trailer No. 2

'Happy Feet' Baby Mumble Trailer

'Happy Feet' My Way Theatrical Trailer

'Happy Feet' Teaser Trailer

"Flipper Boid"

"Good Morning, Class"

"Stuck With Me"

"Freaking Us With the Feet"

"All Birds Can Sing"

"Talisman"

"Mind-Boggling Mystery"

"Creating The Tap" -- Director George Miller, choreographer Kelley Abbey and tap dancer Savion Glover explain how motion capture turned human movement into penguin dancing.

MSN Movies.com (Trailers, Clips & Interviews)

"Happy Feet" Credits, News and Poster

"Happy Feet" Photo Gallery

Now, I’ll get down to the business of a HAPPY Review. HAPPY FEET is a unique animated musical comedy adventure set in the land of the Emperor Penguins in the heart of Antarctica. In this movie, in the great nation of Emperor Penguins, deep in Antarctica, you’re nobody unless you can sing! In fact, you’re in serious trouble if you are a poor singer. You see, all these Penguins sing, and for good reason. Each needs his/her own special song to attract a soul mate. Unfortunately, our hero Mumble (ELIJAH WOOD ), son of Memphis (HUGH JACKMAN) and Norma Jean (NICOLE KIDMAN ), is the worst singer,( if one can call the sounds he makes “singing), in the world -- but he can tap dance something fierce! The animation of Mumbles peculiar skill is something to behold, in and of itself.

Now I know there are people who don’t like animated films, and there even people who don’t like cats. I am inclined to believe there is something wrong with these people. They are missing some very special movies this year, and HAPPY FEET is one of them!

So if for some strange reason you can’t rationally explain; you just knee jerk instinctual reflex reject the notion of sitting in a theatre watching an animated flick; may I suggest that you take a break from out dreary war weary reality of the world; take a break from TV and video game sex, violence, death, mayhem and destruction and just sit back relax and watch what animation has come, and a wondrous animated production…”HAPPY FEET”.

HAPPY FEET has been digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® with proprietary IMAX DMR® (digital re-mastering) technology. Worth the links and a quick read, because this technology has real class and in some areas of production it has set a new standard.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, a Kennedy-Miller Film, HAPPY FEET, directed by George Miller . Written by

George Miller , John Collee , Judy Morris and Warren Coleman. Produced by Doug Mitchell, Bill Miller and George Miller. Executive Producers are Graham Burke and Bruce Berman. Music composed by John Powell .

HAPPY FEET: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE will be distributed directly and exclusively by Warner Bros. Pictures to IMAX theatres worldwide.

One reviewer I read said: “Happy Feet is a weird movie”. I don’t think I can accept that characterization. True. no one can accuse director George Miller and his co-writers of playing it safe or producing a “some what standard product, and true, there are some genres - such as family-friendly animation - where adherence to older techniques and appearance can be viewed as a positive trait, sort a safe Linus Blanket comfort zone approach that won’t hurt at the box office.

You can forget an entire collection of tried and true animation formulas and techniques. This is one of those films where not long into it (105-minutes), you are jolted with the realization that there is something very new happening on the screen. I saw the film twice. The first time I was impressed and thoroughly entertained. The second time around I had some time to examine/study what the creators had fashioned.

Some reviewers have remarked in various terms that they were of the general opinion that they were watching the first great animated film since The Incredibles. I don’t know about that. The historian in me balks at making “Great Definitive Turning Point Pronouncements” without some passage of time for perspective to settle to the bottom of the keg.

The sediment has not settled yet, but I can say this: “ Happy Feet contains enough solid entertainment to be well worth the price of admission and introduced some new high standard elements into the art of animation, the impact of which can only be fully evaluated with the passage of a couple of years. I find that the detractors from this film fit into two categories: those who are not animation aficionados, and those who don’t like the slightest hint at social commentary that they happened to disagree with, i.e., the possibility that we humans are screwing up the environment and the world’s ecosystems.

Happy Feet, moving on the wave of new animated movies and commercials starring the tuxedoed birds, takes us to the playground of the penguins, Antarctica, faithfully reenacting a sequence from March of the Penguins, (I liked that one too, and loved the cinematography work of the Nat’l Geographic folks), the mothers go off fishing while the fathers stay behind and warm the eggs. I guess we are at least learning a bit about one of the world’s creatures that heretofore has been merely a pleasant zoo inhabitant.

With the fishing expedition over, Norma Jean (voice of Nicole Kidman) returns home to her hubby, Memphis (Hugh Jackman). She then meets her baby boy, Mumble (Elijah Wood), who's a little abnormal. Instead of singing like most Emperor penguins, he dances.

To make matters worse, when he tries to sing, the sound that emerges is more like the in agony death cry of some horribly injured creature. Convinced he has no chance to win the love of Gloria (Brittany Murphy), he leaves the conclave of the emperor penguins and hooks up with Ramon (Robin Williams) and his crew. Now there is a colorful fun bunch with an easily identifiable ethnic back ground.

They belong to a different species and are more open to Mumble's "happy feet." Soon, accompanied by his new friends, he sets off to solve the mystery of why the supply of fish has dried up, threatening to starve the penguins.

The early part of the film might seem like pretty, albeit well executed, standard animated stuff presented with lots of attention holding energy. But like a great symphonic composition there are those subtle well-nuanced hints of the crescendo that lies ahead. You can’t turn away, because there is some visceral link that says “don’t blink!”

The penguins are cute (especially the chicks) and presented with sufficient photo-realism that they could easily, at times, be mistaken for their March of the Penguins counterparts.

The musical numbers carry the viewer right along with the film’s pacing nicely. They are lively, although some of the songs are very different, even curious at times. (The big, show stopping numbers are "Kiss" and "Boogie Wonderland.") Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, Nicole Kidman, and Hugh Jackman do their own singing.

For me, where Happy Feet soars is in the sheer adventure of the camera work. No previous animated film to my knowledge has done as much with the vantage point as this one, keeping things intense as it soars in for close-ups and zooms out for panoramic shots.

There are first person action shots that zip through ice tunnels and down steep embankments. In large part because of the innovative way in which Miller has shot Happy Feet, it's wondrous to observe and seat gluing to experience. I don’t think you have to have a photographic back ground to appreciate what has been accomplished!

Some reviewers find the inclusion of non-animated (live action) human beings in the the conclusion of the film to be “ jarring”, “annoying” and “damaging”. Sorry fellows but your colors are showing. Happy Feet offers a strong pro-conservation message without a lot time spent on how we humans behave, and those scenes were limited to what I would class the bare necessity to make the point.

Let us look at the language of one detractor who is obvious in his stance and cynical in his outlook on film work. That’s called criticizing the critic. I sometimes think just because they have the title of “critic” that they have banished the word “compliment: from their vocabularies. Follow the box office, follow the film goers, examine their work and the public’s response and often you will find they are as accurate as weather forecasters and accorded the respect of politicians. Enough said.

As it is, it is presented with the subtlety of unanesthetized hammer-and-tongs dental work - dumped on viewers with a few moments' strident preaching. Oddly, it's so perfunctory that kids probably won't notice or, if they do, they will quickly forget. The way to get children to care about issues presented in animated films is to embed them in the subtext throughout the narrative, not do a core dump over a two-minute span at the climax.

So much for that guy!

The film's director is George Miller, the driving force behind the popular 1990s features Babe (which he co-wrote and produced) and Babe: Pig in the City (which he directed, co-wrote, and produced). Earlier in his career, he helped launch Mel Gibson's career with the Mad Max trilogy: Mad Max, The Road Warrior, and Beyond Thunderdome. For Happy Feet, Miller incorporates decades of experience. This movie runs on visual and audio high octane with a nice story board to boot. It has even appealed to the non-animation crowd.

Happy Feet ends on an up beat notes with singing and dancing, and a happy note. We can use a few of them now and then. The ingredients for greatness are there and what change has been spawned in the world of animation by this film, we’ll just have to wait and watch. If there a simple truth to be carried away from the distillation; it is one with which I agree: that by being true to yourself, you can succeed and make a difference. Vision and conviction still have meaning, still have value, and they always will.

IMDB.com (Full Cast Credits and Research Links)

Review By Ed. Dickau

FILM REVIEW NO.1: LABERINTO DEL FAUNO, EL (PAN'S LABYRINTH) (2006

LABERINTO DEL FAUNO, EL (PAN'S LABYRINTH) (2006)

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Official Site http://www.panslabyrinth.com

Movie Stills by AllMoviePhoto.com

Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro delivers a unique, richly imagined epic with PAN’S LABYRINTH, a dark gothic fairy tale set against the postwar repression of Franco’s Spain.

An ambitious film, PAN’S LABYRINTH combines the historic and moral themes of his acclaimed Spanish Civil War ghost story THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE with the brutally splendid visual creativity and gripping dynamics of such previous films as HELLBOY and BLADE II.

This viewer with his orientation and penchant for artistry with a camera could find no flaw, no pretense of visual pretension.

The cinematography is flawless and is never over done for the sake of proving: “look what I can do.”

Successfully harnessing the formal characteristics of classic folklore to a 20th Century landscape, del Toro delivers a timeless tale of good and evil, bravery and sacrifice, love and loss. One cannot but discern, if familiar with the existential writings of the French and

Spanish, that film flows with that blood as much as the film flows with the human blood of those times and events of early Franco Spain.

PAN’S LABYRINTH unfolds through the eyes of Ofelia, a dreamy little girl who is rudely uprooted to a rural military outpost commanded by her new stepfather. Quite powerless, all things beyond her control, as often the skelton of existential writing, and lonely in a place of unfathomable cruelty, Ofelia lives out her own dark fable as she confronts monsters both other worldly and human.

As Ofelia, the young Spanish actress Ivana Baquero holds the screen with a remarkable combination of innocence and maturity, vulnerability and strength.

Unknown to me before this film; she is an actress I should enjoy seeing again.

She is joined by a that should be proud of their effort, a cast that includes international stars Sergí Lopez (DIRTY PRETTY THINGS), Maribel Verdú (Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN) and Ariadna Gil (BELLE ÉPOQUE), as well as frequent del Toro collaborator Doug Jones (HELLBOY).

A lone automobile travels a narrow road in the Spanish countryside in 1944. In the back seat, a little girl named Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) and her mother Carmen (Ariadna Gil) are on their way to their new home. A bright and dreamy little girl, Ofelia keeps her precious books of fairy tales close at hand, despite Carmen’s gentle admonition that it may be time for her to put away these childhood favorites.

It is unlikely that such pastimes will meet the approval of Ofelia’s new stepfather, Captain Vidal (Sergí Lopez). And Carmen, who is pregnant with the captain’s child, is anxious for her daughter to get along with the man to whom she has entrusted their future.

But for Ofelia, fables of good and evil, magic and danger are more than simple entertainment. They are her window onto the world, awakening her to life’s everyday possibilities and mysteries. When a dragonfly captures Ofelia’s attention during a roadside stop, it is not a gangly insect that she follows into the woods but a glistening emerald ambassador, welcoming her to its domain.

There is little sense of welcome, however, when Ofelia and her mother finally arrive at their destination, a Spartan abandoned mill in rural Spain that Vidal has converted into a military headquarters. Though Captain Vidal is there to greet them, his annoyance at their late arrival gives early evidence of the demanding miserable human being we watch develop. Indeed, there is nothing in the officer’s cold, exacting demeanor to suggest that he wishes to be a parent to Ofelia, whose own father died several years ago. What Vidal wants is THE SON that Carmen is carrying, not a family.

On the grounds of the mill, armed soldiers are everywhere. Charged with rooting out resistance fighters in the nearby mountains, Vidal and his troops zealously pursue any and all signs of their opponents. Thus far, the rebels have managed elude capture, though fascists have solidified their power in the region. Those local people who clean and cook for the soldiers do their work quietly, speaking only when they are spoken to. Carmen, her condition already precarious, grows even sicker and is soon confined to her bed.

In this tense uncertain and fearful environment, Ofelia finds a sympathetic presence in the housekeeper Mercedes (Maribel Verdú), who shows her a rambling, neglected old garden near the mill. With its winding paths, it is a lovely place to wander, though one can easily become lost there after nightfall.

That garden labyrinth will become Ofelia’s haven, a dark refuge from loneliness and sorrow. It is a place of fantastical creatures and powerful talismans, presided over by a teasing, inscrutable Faun (Doug Jones). Here, Ofelia will come to terms with the world as she now knows it – and with the monsters that live not only in her imagination, but in her daily life.

If there is but one sentence that can be written to define the riveting nature of this compelling film, it is that, thought it is subtitled, two to three minutes into the film you are no longer aware of that fact. This film works from the moment it begins to the great, near final scene when.

Dying, Vidal expresses his desire to have his son know of his fathers great military valor; he is sent to his existential hell with Mercedes words: “He shall never know your name!”

I know not if more awards await this film, but that matters not, for I would venture that this film has already entered into the hallowed film ground of those that will be taught in film classes as a masterpiece of the genre.

A FEW LAST ITEMS:

Pans Labyrinth Sketch Book

Ivana Fan Site

Movie Critic.com (Pan's Labyrinth)

A Bit of Side Line Chatter: (PAN: Philosophical content)

Existentialist Intro

Sartre VS. Camus


SFdiplomat.net_The failure of Pan's Labyrinth for me was that it was completely lacking in moral ... then I really get a kick out of Sartre's Existentialism is a Humanism. ...


I seriously doubt he'd interpret it as athiestic existentialism, either. ... My reading of Pan's Labyrinth is that it has elements of Catholicism in it, ... www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showthread.php?t=533179&page=1 - 195k - Jan 20, 2007 -

Written, produced and directed by Guillermo del Toro.

Produced by Bertha Navarro, Alfonso Cuarón, Frida Torresblanco, and Álvaro Augustin.

Director of photography Guillermo Navarro, ASC.

Edited by Bernat Vilaplana.
Production designer Eugenio Caballero
.
Set construction by Construcciones Escenicas Moya S.I. Music by Javier Navarrete.

Sound designer Martín Hernandez, sound by Miguel Polo.

Special effects make-up and animatronics by DDT FX, digital effects by CafeFX, and physical effects by Reyes Abades.

Executive producers Belen Atienza and Elena Manrique, co-executive producer Edmundo Gil, associate Producer CafeFX.

Produced in association with Sententia Entertainment.

Casting by Sara Bilbatua.

Wardrobe design by Lala Huete. Starring

Sergí Lopez,

Maribel Verdú,

Ivana Baquero,

Alex Angulo,

Doug Jones,

Eusebio Lazaro,

and Paco Vidal.

With the special collaboration of Federico Luppi and, in the role of Carmen, Ariadna Gil.

This review prepared by Ed. Dickau

ANNA'S MOVIE MAVEN REVIEW #1

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The First Movie Review: LABERINTO DEL FAUNO, EL (PAN'S LABYRINTH) (2006)

NO.2 Film Review: Happy Feet: Animation World In Ferment


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