March 30, 2007
Review Corner Red Alert
Don't. Don't. Don't purchase or rent "Happy Feet." Resist the allure of adorable, dancing animated penguins.
I found this to be the most offensive movie I have ever seen. Watching nature shows and kids' cartoons, one frequently is hit with an unmistakable subtext that people are bad and that we should extinct ourselves or move back to caves. In this movie, it is not subtext, it is the actual plot.
When you're not offended, you will be bored to tears. Dancing penguins are cute for a few minutes, then the film jumps among dull, disjointed, and offensive -- with a little abject terror thrown in to make it inappropriate for toddlers who would otherwise be the only demographic intellectually unoffended.
A half a star, and I am being kind.
Did you see "The Family Stone?"
There's a movie that can get a guy mad.
A ensemble cast of liberals are a typical liberal family for Christmas (what? not winter-fest) who welcome the prodigal son and his very square conservative fiancee to their home.
Hilarity ensues as they "tolerate" her conservatism.
Posted by: AlexC at March 30, 2007 2:53 PMMy previous aggravation king was "Wall Street."
I contend that "Happy Feet" is still more insidious. "Family Stone" sounds bad but it targets one political group, Wall Street targets our economic system, Happy Feet attacks the entire human species! ("They're like Penguins but with featherless, fat faces...")
Also, the attempted inculcation of children is worrisome. Try to get your daughter to eat a fish stick after seeing Happy Feet, you vicious family of penguin starvers, you!
Posted by: jk at March 30, 2007 3:32 PMDon't Penguins eat fish?
Posted by: dagny at March 31, 2007 7:24 PMNot to give away the ending, but overfishing by people (filthy disgusting beings!) don't leave enough fish for the penguins -- or the gulls, forcing the gulls to eat penguins and the penguins to starve.
The DVD cones with a card of responsible fish choices from seafood watch.
Overfishing is a real concern and the archetypal explanation of "The Commons Problem" in economics. I hate to make light, but the enviros solution is, of course, to program children to nag their parents about consumption.
I should do a "mash up" video and turn the story into an economics lesson for the little young-uns. Penguins, dancing or not, face one of the most Hobbsian existences on the planet. I'd love to use the same footage to show the benefits of comparative advantage, innovation, trade, and, yes, commercial food harvesting and production.
I just read an article in Reason, however, where RIAA jacketed agents participated in a no-knock SWAT-style raid on a NYC hip hop studio. So I am suppressed by the Government from voicing my beliefs.
Posted by: jk at April 1, 2007 2:04 PM | What do you think? [4]