could have been if it hadn't decided to punch
audiences in the face with a political statement in the last half hour.
A beautifully rendered film about the world's favorite tuxedoed fuzzies
from Antarctica,
offers a dazzling collection of
elements sure to please the under-10 crowd. It's a musical on ice,
telling the tale of a young penguin unable to sing and therefore
alienated from the penguin society. As a tap-dancer, this penguin's
journey to acceptance follows chances, dance numbers, and sentimental
interludes, with critics noting that the fantastic camera work for the
animation will make the film tolerable for any adult. But
isn't without its flaws; some viewers have been bothered by the
film's handling of the idea of "being different," while others simply
can't get over the ending. As live action humans invade the picture,
audiences are treated to pro-conservation statements that are likely to
fly over the heads of the 10-year-olds and annoy the adults.
Nevertheless, music plays a pivotal role in the film, and composer John
Powell was involved with the film for several years as he helped shape
the production. In musical format, several songs were incorporated into
a few years ago, with a substantial blending of
underscore in between. The voices of the actors are employed for the
songs, which in the case of Nicole Kidman and Robin Williams have
already been proven. Powell had a direct hand in selecting and/or
arranging and producing the songs for the film, a good move considering
the potential disconnection that can always happen between the songs and
score in such a project.
While the songs are likely to be the most memorable
musical element of the movie for viewers of all ages, the amount of
score is significantly greater in running length, extending 50% longer
than the song usage. As you might expect, the demands of the film cause
the score to jump around in genre frequently, ranging from serious drama
to outrageous parodies of all kinds of world music. Performed by a
sizable group of orchestral players in Australia, as well as several
choral groups from that country and Powell's usual array of synthetic
elements evolved from basic Hans Zimmer constructs,
Happy Feet is
a massive score. It's the kind of effort from Powell that begs for
attention simply because of its organizational scope and the nightmare
it could have been to arrange. Whether you appreciate it or not,
Powell's work here is very admirable, and it serves at the very least as
an exhibition of the talent that has led him to great leaps beyond the
majority of composers graduated from Zimmer's fraternity. That said, in
both song and score,
Happy Feet is all over the map.
Interpolations from old songs, flamenco flair, loungey jazz, and hip hop
rhythms mingle with a surprisingly serious remainder of underscore.
Without a doubt, "The Leader of the Pack" will cause some due belly
laughs. A snippet of James Horner's
Zorro stylings work their way
into "The Hill." The ventures into comedy and parody are expected in a
movie like
Happy Feet, but the dramatic cues are the ones that
steal the show for listeners of strictly the underscore. The choral
layers in
Happy Feet are magnificent, from the penguins' chants
in "The Huddle" to the vocal accompaniment of the full-fledged
orchestral action.
Of particular interest is the secondary theme
representing the "aliens" in the movie, and for these wretched-looking
creatures and their vessels, Powell steals some blatant moves from David
Arnold's
Stargate (especially at the outset of "The Alien
Ships"). The tragedy in this theme is so thick that it almost spoils the
rest of the score, and when combined with the "Helicopter" and
"Communication" at the end (the latter of which has the heavily mixed
tapping sounds as a sort of source music inclusion), it's easy to
imagine that score collectors will take Powell's grandiose cues from
Happy Feet and put them aside in their own compilation. Some
listeners might hear too much influence from the Media Ventures library
of bass-heavy sampling; there are moments of majesty with direct ties to
Zimmer's
The Lion King. A few of the electronic rhythms in chase
cues in the latter half of the film can be a tad annoying. Further
connections can be drawn between the synthetic samples used in the major
action pieces here (as in "Killer Whales") and the sounds you regularly
hear in Arnold's James Bond writing. That said, the orchestral action
pieces and "cues of awe" are aided by an outstanding recording quality;
Powell's synthetics, which largely do not interfere with the live
players, are well integrated into a vibrant orchestra and the gorgeous
chorales. The situation of
Happy Feet's music on album leaves
much to be desired; this is a film that requires the musical numbers and
score to be presented together. The score-only album, however, is
offered at a whopping 68 minutes, and as rare as that length is for an
animated film, many score collectors will be glad to be rid of the
songs. Overall, it's a severely disjointed overall collection of cues,
but the dramatic highlights are more than enough to pleasantly surprise
you.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For John Powell reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.28
(in 50 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.16
(in 52,492 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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