“Everything’s connected,” says the voice-over at the beginning of Happy Feet 2, “in ways we never expected.” This isn’t just a New Age-y spiritual statement, it’s also dramatic justification for a film that ranges far and wide, from penguins to krill (i.e. shrimp) and puffins to elephant seals. Mumble, the tap-dancing penguin from the first Happy Feet, is still (just about) at the centre of the action but more as a master of ceremonies, linking the fragments while doing nothing very memorable. The memorable bits fall to his young son Erik, to a flying penguin named Sven (voiced by Hank Azaria, with cartoon-Scandinavian accent), an elephant seal named Bryan and a pair of krill named Will and Bill (Brad Pitt and Matt Damon), who seek adventure while making awful puns – “one in a krillion”, “goodbye, krill world” – and gay-marriage jokes. Are they all connected, in ways you never expected? More or less, though the film remains loose and wildly enjoyable.
The trouble with Happy Feet (2006) was that it was schizophrenic: it began as the usual kids’-cartoon homily about being nice to people who are different – Mumble was an outcast, because he loved to dance while his brethren loved to sing – then turned halfway through into an apocalyptic thriller about penguins dying out altogether due to over-fishing. The sequel works better, because it starts off demented and just keeps going. The plot pays lip-service to the structure of the earlier film – Erik is also an outcast, because he’s now the only penguin who doesn’t like dancing – but in fact it’s overshadowed from the start by rumbles of climate-change. Icebergs crack. Mini-tsunamis sweep across the Antarctic. “The world is changing,” says Will, the more adventurous of the two krill. “Adapt or die!” he tells his partner.
The obvious eco-Message is ingrained in the movie (“Everything’s connected”) and reflected in the central situation – Mumble’s penguin tribe are trapped when the ice collapses, he and Erik being the only ones who can save them – allowing director George Miller to relax on plotting and go off on some wild tangents. Sven is one such tangent, with his “Sven-think” (“If you vill it, it vill be yours”) which sounds a lot like ‘The Secret’, the self-help bestseller about positive thinking. Will and Bill are another tangent. The film is a little insane, reckoning (correctly) that kids are open to anything, however jaw-dropping: the most amazing moment comes when Bryan the elephant seal reneges on his promise to Mumble – and little Erik, moved to indignation, launches into opera. “Where is the hon-ooooooour / When a solemn promise / Is just a pretty lie?” he trills, lamenting the state of the world. It’s the damnedest thing I’ve seen in a multiplex movie all year.
Mr. Miller is a maverick, being the Greek-Australian (born George Miliotis) who gave us Mad Max, Lorenzo’s Oil and the Babe movies – and the most intriguing part of Happy Feet 2 for non-kid viewers may be how snugly it fits with his other work, especially his fascination with the Individual vs. the Community. Mad Max was a loner, a man apart – but in Mad Max 2 (1981) he helped a community of settlers, and found redemption by doing so. Erik (like Mumble before him) is also a loner, fleeing the tribe in Happy Feet 2, and there’s also Will the krill who’s determined to think for himself and “swim against the swarm” (“One small step for krill,” he declares, “one giant leap for spineless invertebrates”). The film has sympathy for these brave individualists – but also knows there are limits. Erik wants to fly, but some things are just impossible; Sven is inspiring but in fact he’s a charlatan, a puffin posing as a penguin. Ultimately, Erik must rejoin the tribe, just as Will must rejoin his swarm to a hero’s welcome – though a voice at the back says “I thought he’d be taller”, the kind of offbeat throwaway that makes this film so treasurable.
So much for subtext. Happy Feet 2 is still a kids’ movie, and the kids at my screening seemed to be having a fine time. Robin Williams does Ramon, his pot-bellied Hispanic penguin with the orange tuft and garbled patter (“Let me tell something to you!”). The elephant seal has a couple of cute baby seals. The tribe dance to Queen and David Bowie’s ‘Under Pressure’. A penguin yodels. Yet we never lose sight of the food chain, topped by “the aliens who rule the seas” (i.e. humans) followed by seals, penguins, krill and the rest. Rescued by a ship, Sven sees the ship’s cook roasting chickens on a spit – and suddenly knows the truth about life. Everything is food. Everything’s connected.
DIRECTED BY George Miller
WITH THE VOICES OF Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Hank Azaria
Australia 2011 100 mins
