Review: Happy Feet 2 in 3D

THE visit to the movies started as you would expect with everyone being given their own 3D glasses with specially designed "penguin" glasses for the younger members of the audience. Adding to the excitement were a couple of the stars of the show who made themselves available for photos. 

And to tell you the truth, spending the first weekend of the school holidays in a movie theatre filled with children was not on the top of "my things to do list", but by the end of the movie my kids weren't the only ones totally engrossed in what was happening on the big screen.

The movie welcomes everyone back to Emporia-land with Mumble, Gloria and friends returning with songs reminding us why Happy Feet was such a success the first time around.

In Happy Feet 2, Mumble and Gloria's son  Erik is seeking his true self.  When a crisis endangers his home land he makes friends with Lovelace, a rescued penguin; The Mighty Sven, a Puffin in penguin's clothes; Bill and Will, Krill on a mission; and Bryan, the Elephant Seal who learns that a promise made should be a promise kept.

While there are some messages about problems being experienced around the world in the story-line, they don't intrude on what was an entertaining movie experience, and the messages are easy for children to recognise and understand.

As an adult I found myself laughing at the one-liners delivered by Matt Damon as Bill the Krill and the jaded comments made by the love-scorned Ramon (Robin Williams). 

It was great to watch all the children in the theatre reaching out to touch things in 3D, sitting on the edge of their seats as things started getting interesting and chair dancing to the soundtrack that even had the adults humming along.

But what did my two children think? Putting it in once sentence will not work so I will leave you with a select few comments: the songs were great, you could sing along and everything; sometimes I forgot it was a cartoon it looked so real; Boadicea and Lil P Nut are hilarious; I like how everyone had to work together. But most importantly: "mum make sure you tell everyone to wait right till the end so they can play with the bubbles!!"

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