Last night I attended to the IMAX premiere of Happy Feet, the new socially conscious CGI feature from Warner Bros. with animation from the Australian company Animal Logic.  The animation is breathtaking– it is so good that it almost looks real– and since the story line borrows a lot from March of the Penguins, sometimes it actually looks real (although I just learned this morning that the color of the snow in March of the Penguins was actually doctored to look white because of the inevitable result of thousands of penguins standing around in the no-longer-pristine snow for weeks on end…).

The problem, as with so many CGI movies, is the story line.  The movie was about 30 minutes too long for my taste and the loose ends of the plot were tied together hurriedly in the last 5 minutes (my guess is that the Director wanted it to be 30 minutes longer!).  A little less CGI and a better crafted story line would have worked better.  It would have also better illustrated the plight of the penguins.

Oh yeah, more music too.  The music and dancing was very entertaining– I particularly liked the Barry White and Chaka Khan pieces (I’m showing my age…). It’s kind of like a laser show where the laser images gets old but the music keeps you engaged.

Bottom line:  go see the movie and bring your kids for sure– best idea, see it at an IMAX theater for the full CGI majesty.