Happy Feet 2 starts off on a happy foot (pun intended!) with a grand opening montage of dancing and singing penguins. This film had us tapping our feet and singing to surprisingly cross generational selection of songs covered in the film. Mumbles (voiced by Elijah Wood) is now an adult penguin with a family of his own. His wife Gloria (Pink) is one of the most beautiful female penguins with an amazing voice who tries to foster a more positive relationship between Mumbles and their little penguin, Erik (EG Daly) who finds himself without “happy feet” and rather clumsy.
The message is the same, don’t be afraid to be different, and always put your friends and family first. However, the story bounces back and forth between the penguins plight of being trapped by newly formed avalanches, and their reliance on other penguin tribes, and a krill’s quest for independence and evolution. Bill the Krill (Matt Damon) and Will the Krill (Brad Pitt) added some of my favorite parts, with witty dialogue and fun bantering. The addition of these new characters and a puffin named Sven (Hank Azaria) certainly mixed things up a bit. However Sven’s accent left my 7 year old asking, “What did he say? He sounds weird!”
The music was fun, the energy was cool, and overall I was surprised that I liked the sequel just as much as the original, especially in 3D.
