I really liked the movie. And I loved the music and the way they integrated it into the movie.
Saw it tonight. The music itself was very well performed throughout, Cunctator, though I’m getting a bit sick of kid’s movies using popular adult soundtracks – don’t they write regular kid’s music anymore?? Anyways, good job as far as the performances go.
The movie itself was…eh. Too many morals, not enough humor or adventure. I pretty much agree with auntie em’s link. The animation, though, was incredible – CGI stuff just gets better and better!
I couldn’t figure out who was supposed to be the audience for the movie. It isn’t really a kids movie, and kids won’t care about all the pop and classic rock songs worked into the movie. And it doesn’t really work as an adult or teenage movie either.
The animation was fantastic though. A whole generational jump from “Shrek” and such. But how many scenes of thousands of penguins dancing in perfect time does one movie need? With CGI it’s easiest to make everyone move exactly the same way.
Thoroughly loved the movie. Got the soundtrack before I saw the movie though and was a bit disappointed that a couple of songs on the soundtrack were nowhere to be heard in the movie (except as a short song montage at the beginning). But I haven’t taken it out of my CD player yet 
My personal favs are Norma Jean’s song, the lullabye and track 2, the one done by Gloria’s voice actor.
And just because I’m a dork, Lovelace isn’t saying ‘couch of eternal pleasure’ but “couch of perpetual indulgence”. Just enough big words to go right over the heads of most kids.
Then you must have ducked, j , 'cause I got hit full on with it!
Cunctator , your choir did a very good job. Kudos to you and yours!
Other than the music and a couple of funny bits involving Robin Williams, I’d have to say it was one of the most disappointing animated features I’ve seen–and I saw Barnyard !
Follow up:
I saw Happy Feet this morning. It’s obvious that a lot of the music that we recorded didn’t make it into the final film. I suppose that’s par for the course. But I thought that our bits that did make it in sounded pretty good.
Otherwise I thought it was rather a tedious film. The dancing penguin scenes and “sliding down the ice” scenes got very tired very quickly and the ending was ludicrous. It seemed to me to be an excuse for a 90 minute soundtrack.
I agree entirely.
We saw it a couple of days ago and I agree. I kept looking over at my kids to see how they were responding and they looked bored and wilted.
It seemed like it was trying to be too many different things at once. Part of the movie was “the most important thing is be yourself”, part of the movie was “we all have to work to save the planet”, plus a heroic quest, plus big production numbers. It just felt jumbled and confused without much humor or emotional weight.
As we walked out of the theater I leaned over and said this to my wife: “And the moral is … You better learn how to tap dance for the Man if you don’t want to starve.”
Somehow I don’t think that’s what they intended … .
Nice music though. Good job.
Oh, now I MUST see this movie!
My companion came to much the same conclusion this morning. As we were leaving the cinema she said “so really the message is that as long as animals continue to perform for us humans, they’ll be OK”.
Maybe the problem is you’re all trying to find some great meaning from the movie. It’s not a New York Time’s Best Seller or some classic literature. It’s a cartoon. I dont think it’s supposed to teach or preach anything. It’s just there to entertain. Try watching it with that in mind and you might enjoy it. I did.