Through the frozen polar winter, it is the male’s job to protect the egg and nurture it under his warm fold, while the female goes off to fatten herself up to return to feed the newly hatched egg in the Spring. The two are meant for each other, and, as our narrator explains, “…the song became love and love became The Egg.” Out of the crowd of beaus swaggers Memphis ( Hugh Jackman sounding just a bit “Elvis”), singing her song in perfect harmony (and a little hippy hippy shake). Vivacious penguin Norma Jean (the voice of Nicole Kidman, doing a breathy Marilyn Monroe), complete with Marilyn’s beauty mark, sings her way through the male population of Emperor penguins, sifting through each male song, searching for the mate of her dreams. A grand scope, a little long in the middle, but “Happy Feet” provides loads of lush audio and visuals. Narrator, Robin Williams (doing his best “ Morgan Freeman” from “ War of The Worlds”) takes us step-by-step (pun intended) from the penguin’s enraptured love dance of summer through the harsh cold of the Antarctic winter and on out into the human world of over-harvesting arctic fish for man’s consumption, noting just how that effects the population of animals who’s survival depends on this source of food, and back to the polar “summer of love” song (and dance). It is also the story of a quest to find a place in this world, of love and forgiveness, of friends who hold you up and try not to let you down, of sacrifice, courage and fun. “Happy Feet” is basically a musical with a rather strong environmental message. If you paid attention while watching last year’s “ The March Of The Penguins,” there is no escaping the parallels or the absolute brilliance of “Happy Feet”’s CGI animators’ attention to detail, especially in the sweeping longshots of the Antarctic vistas, making us wonder “is it real or is it CGI?”
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