Mama Bear is NOT Happy with Happy Feet 2
I took my son to see Happy Feet 2 today. I think he partly agreed because I loved the original Happy Feet so much that I will watch it by myself. He is six going on seven, and seemed to be the oldest among all of the kids waiting in line to see it. He is also very tall for his age, so that’s where it’s hard to tell. But there were little munchkins and even littler munchkins with bright eyed parents waiting to take them in.
We didn’t arrive early enough for the 3:35 showing, so I had to pay the extra amount for the 4:10 3D showing. We sat through 30 minutes of previews with awesome 3D effects. The technology has come a long way. Christopher actually reached out to see if he could touch the nose of a plane that seemed to be right there.
At 4:40 on the dot, Happy Feet 2 was finally coming on. I was immediately saddened by Gloria’s new voice (RIP Brittany Murphy) replaced by Pink but she sounded good. The beginning of the movie started off really cute, with beautiful animation, singing and dancing penguins. Then it took on a weird dark turn.
There was a dark underwater scene with a Krill swarm that filled the entire screen.
Icky Krill
They are ugly pink shrimpy bug eyed squiddy looking things and coming at you in 3D was not cute.
Right after the swarm Christopher said, “Mom I wanna go.” I’m like, “What?!” thinking about the $17 I just spent for two tickets. So I didn't respond. I cut my eyes over at him and he seemed to sink lower into his chair and cover his ears when there was a shark scene.
There was a crazy scene with two penguins reminiscing about being on a ship and watching the crew eat chicken, a lot more singing, another Krill swarm and Christopher was done. I knew he was serious when he said, “Mom I really wanna go now”. I immediately said, “Okay” concerned now that I was actually going to have bad dreams myself. We were leaving the quiet theater at 5:17. I wonder if the mothers of the little munchkins followed shortly thereafter.
When we got into the hallway, Christopher said, “I’m sorry mom. I couldn't like it” as he tried to inconspicuously wipe a tear away. I said, “No, I’m sorry, let’s go do something fun and take our minds off of it”. So we hung out at the bookstore for a while. We each got something and I bought him an Angry Birds ceramic mug. We went by Walmart and got some marshmallows so he could have some hot chocolate and that’s how we ended our day together. He's snoring now.
Before you boycott Happy Feet 2 on my advice, I will say I think the 3D effects had a lot to do with how things appeared. But I am totally serious that in general it was not very good. I am pretty disappointed that five years from the original, they couldn’t do better than that.
Here’s the thing…I will not be surprised if I get a “MOM!”call tonight, and I’m sure I will not be the only weary eyed parent tomorrow resulting from the effects of Happy Feet 2.
This MBPSA (Mama Bear Public Service Announcement) has been brought to you by a concerned mom.
Kenya G. Johnson