FILM: Happy Feet DVD Review

Set in Antarctica, this animated film was about a penguin, Mumbles (Elijah Wood), who was dropped as an egg and suffered such severe "damage" that he couldn't evoke his heart song to find his one true love, and instead danced like he was possessed. The shots of wintry landscapes, synchronized swimming and choreographed tap dancing were amazing—and truly worth an Oscar.

BUT...Ever since I heard Scooby Doo and Shaggy were always hungry, paranoid, and found emerging from smoky places because they were potheads, and the first Power Rangers were color-coordinated according to their race, I've always over analyzed the underlying implications of animated films.

First, Mumbles is established as the proverbial retarded kid, because he tap dances. He was an outcast whose only friends, besides his love interest Gloria (Brittany Murphy), were "Hispanic" penguins. They were the only ones who thought his tap dancing was impressive and worth applause. Ergo, *LOL* Hispanic people are retarded. [Side note: I am Dominican.]

Second, the elders of the penguin colony forced all the other penguins, including Mumbles' father, to shun him, saying that his skill was demonic. The way the elder penguin spoke was as if he were in Puritan times and he'd found himself a witch. It was like he was equating Mumbles' "deficiency" to an unwed teenager having a child at 16. Ergo, *LOL* Hispanic people are heathens. [Side note: Again. I. Am. Dominican.]

So, the moral of the story for all of you young kids out there: Stop listening to Dora the Explorer. She doesn't know what she's talking about and she's going to HELL.

Oh, and besides the fact that the studio buried this obvious storyline, they also failed to market how environmentally conscious this film is. It—seriously this time—teaches kids about how humans affect their surroundings and endanger other species. And like all animated films, it reinforces the idea that even if you're just one person, even if you haven't gone through puberty, and—in the special case for this film—even if you don't speak their same language, you can make a difference and change people's mind.

All in all, if your child isn't old enough to realize how subconsciously racist this film is, pop it in the DVD player and scroll through the yellow pages for a tap dancing teacher. Trust me. Making noise is every kid's specialty. Now they'll discover a name for it.