Go See Happy Feet

Happy Feet is the best movie I've seen this year.

This movie is so great, on so many levels, I'm hard-pressed to know where to begin.

Animated tap-dancing penguins: Mumble, the penguin protagonist of Happy Feet, dances like Savion Glover. For good reason. Glover's moves are Mumble' s. The geek in me has read how this is the product of sophisticated "CGI" and "motion capture" technologies. Feh! It's magic.

Glover also choreographed a couple of old-style movie-musical production numbers for the movie that simply cannot be described. They're raucous and precise at the same time. You've gotta see them to believe them.

Robin Williams: The various characters he voices (especially Lovelace, the evangelical penguin guru and Ramon, a latin hip-hop penguin who helps Mumble get his groove on) are Williams at his manic hilarious best.

Kick-ass soundtrack: Besides tap, this is a movie about rhythm and blues, soul, funk and about 53 other kinds of cool music. I wish there was a radio station in DC that played this wide a variety of tunes.

Slapstick: 1st rate, inventive slapstick. And lots of funny voices. I enjoyed both elements as much the two 9-year-olds in my party.

Sophisticated themes: Mumble's banishment by a rigid council of elders, simply because he dances instead of sings, and their eventual comeuppance. The romantic notion of one true love. The classic arc of a child who sets out on a journey wins a battle and returns home a man. The hazards of over-fishing in the waters off Antarctica. The complicated relationships we have with our mothers and our fathers. Motown vs hip-hop.

I'd go see it again tomorrow.

Update: Rachel just reminded me that someone else posted on this first, including a very funny picture.