The law of diminishing returns has unfortunately hit the creative minds behind Happy Feet, as the sequel to the 2006 surprise hit fails to deliver on the same level as the original. Where Happy Feet had a well told and rather epic story that grew in an organic and surprising way, the events of Happy Feet Two feel forced and constrained to a small area, failing to reach the same epic scope or clear cut character development that made the first film work so well.
In Happy Feet Two, Mumbles (Elijah Wood, Back to the Future Part II, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) is all grown up and has a little family of his own. All of the penguins are dancing and singing and generally having a good old time when the forces of climate change sends a glacier crashing into their little alcove, blocking them in and separating them from their food supply. Mumbles and a few other penguins happen to be on the outside when this goes down, so they go off to get help.
Meanwhile, in a completely separate movie that is happening at the same time, there are two little krill going by the names of Will the Krill (Brad Pitt, Oceans 12) and Bill the Krill (Matt Damon, The Bourne Supremacy, Che Part Two) – we are introduced to Will as he is swimming against the other krill in his swarm, trying to find the edge of the world, or what he perceives as his world, since all he’s known is the swarm. Bill tries to talk Will out of it, trying to convince him that there is only more swarm and it won’t end, afraid himself to find out if it will. But soon Will, with Bill in tow, finds the edge of the swarm and gets his way out of it, only to find out that the krill swarm’s purpose is to exist as food for larger animals. This sends Will on a mission to actively evolve and move up the food chain, with Bill tagging along and being scared about it the whole time. It’s a funny storyline and it sounds like Mr. Pitt and Mr. Damon had fun providing these voices, but the story itself doesn’t really link to the main story about the penguins and their plights. I kept waiting for Will or Bill to interact with the other characters somehow and for their stories to intertwine and make a cohesive narrative, but it never happens. The story of Will the Krill and Bill the Krill are its own movie, slapped into the middle of this Happy Feet movie, seemingly in order to get it to a proper feature length runtime (for the record, I would gladly have watched a feature length Will and Bill movie).
The same elements of the first Happy Feet are present here – big name actors to supply the voices, overacting from Robin Williams, big musical numbers consisting of pop songs, a green message (first about over-fishing, now about climate change), but it just doesn’t come together the same way. The story goes in circles here and there, and there is a strange subplot about a flying penguin with a Scandinavian accent named Sven (Hank Azaria, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian) and that does tie a little into the character development of Mumbles’ kid, but this subplot doesn’t get a satisfying payoff and doesn’t come together as I am sure they hoped it would.
Of course there are some funny jokes and some of the songs they choose are good choices (with Queen’s "Under Pressure" being a standout), and the animation is quite beautiful, but it’s just not enough to overcome the half-baked story. Happy Feet Two is actually quite disappointing, and it might be smart to just stop here and leave those penguins alone.
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