Happy Feet
I went to the cinema yesterday with my husband and daughter, who is almost four, to watch Happy Feet. Big mistake. Twenty minutes into the movie she declared it was boring and proceeded to busy herself with constantly asking to go to the toilet, requesting for more popcorn, trying to stretch out across the seats and finally, enquiring every 5 minutes ‘is it over yet?’. It was her first ever visit to the cinema and it will be her last for the next couple of years.
I don’t blame her for coming to the conclusion that it was boring. It was plain to see why. It was very grown up with jokes that would fly over any four year olds head. Even a ten year old will struggle a bit with the jokes and double entendres. But that seems to be the trend these days; most of the animated movies are targeted more at the adults than the kids.
As for me? Well, I am not quite sure how I feel about the movie. I loved the soundtrack because it took me back to the good old days, and the theme of the film was good as well – over fishing and how it affects the animals who share the planet with us. But there was something a bit off putting about watching penguins sing. I am not a big fan of birds and to watch one of their species singing at me from a huge screen for almost two hours left me feeling a bit overwrought. And it didn’t help that the main character, Mambo, reminded me of a friend’s husband who has that clumsy air about him. Will I be watching it again? I don’t think so
I don’t blame her for coming to the conclusion that it was boring. It was plain to see why. It was very grown up with jokes that would fly over any four year olds head. Even a ten year old will struggle a bit with the jokes and double entendres. But that seems to be the trend these days; most of the animated movies are targeted more at the adults than the kids.
As for me? Well, I am not quite sure how I feel about the movie. I loved the soundtrack because it took me back to the good old days, and the theme of the film was good as well – over fishing and how it affects the animals who share the planet with us. But there was something a bit off putting about watching penguins sing. I am not a big fan of birds and to watch one of their species singing at me from a huge screen for almost two hours left me feeling a bit overwrought. And it didn’t help that the main character, Mambo, reminded me of a friend’s husband who has that clumsy air about him. Will I be watching it again? I don’t think so
Labels: Movies
posted by hundred and one at 11:12 am
4 Comments:
101,
Happy to beat feet outa there? ;-)
rel
awww i liked the movie... although the mothers voice irritated the crap out of me.
I also thought some of the dialogue in the movie was inappropriate for children.
Bizarrely enough, I went to see this because the Guardian reviewed it as a deeply profound film, a cross between March of The Penguins and 2001: A Space Odyssey. I was intrigued and excited, but was sorely disappointed. Not only was it formulaic, overly slick and tiredly predictable, the "message" in it, which is bad enough in a hollywood production full of artificially produced cutesy penguins, seemed to amount to this: save the penguins because they sing and dance. Hardly realistic. I doubt it's going to do much to bolster the real work that environmentalists do out there. As if any film of this sort could in the first place. At least it's encouraging that your daughter had the sense and good taste, even at four, to see through it!! Well done her!!
P.S. I also think that it's not so much that the animated films are more targeted as adults these days, as that there seems to be this strange attitude especially present in American films that children are just growing up a lot faster and behaving more and more "adult like" and less and less child like as time goes on.
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