Rated: PG
Released: 2006
When I have actually watched this movie several times in the past and I have watched this on occasion with my niece and nephew who are 7 and 5. When it first came out I thought it was so cute with a nice story line it had some funny characters.
Happy Feet is a story about a penguin named Mumble who wasn't good at singing but is a great tap dancer. Since tap dancing wasn't the norm in their community of penguins and Mumble's father says "it just ain't penguin" making him feel shame and embarrassed because he didn't have a great singing voice like the rest. Since Mumble was just too different with his strange "hippity-hopppity" ways the leader of their community casts him out. Mumble leaves his home and meets un-emperor-like penguins the Adelie Amigos. The Adelies instantly embrace his cool dance moves and invite him to party. At the end of the movie the moral of the story is to stay true to yourself and you can make a difference in the world. I think that many of these children when they are watching this movie they get the message that its okay being different and unique. Also to stay true to yourself no matter what anyone says.
Now during the film I noticed that the Adelie Amigos had Spanish accents and spoke some words in Spanish. Ramon who was one of the main characters and was part of the Adelie Amigos was played by Robin Williams who is not Latino. After doing some research people believed that they had incorporated racist stereotypes of Latinos into the characters. "The characters that lived in the what I can only describe as the "ghetto" part of the Arctic. There was bad accents throwing around words like 'mami' and 'homies'. " (punkrockparents.net) This comment was in a personal blog post and many of the comments from other people agreed that the Adelie Amigos were portrayed negatively. According to the Telegraph it made a list of 7 surprisingly racist children's films in an article on October 1, 2014. I agree with what many of these parents have commented and I think its a film that many of us take notice because it is a comedy and we don't pay attention to the characters way of talking or how they are being portrayed as. A review by Manohla Dargis in the New York times she makes a very good point on how "it’s discomfiting that so many children’s films depend on voices that are funny only because they exploit ethnic and racial stereotypes." We as parents just laugh it off because it's funny but we don't realize that these are the films that our children are watching and it quickly turns into mockery that children will emulate was has been portrayed.
Refrences
"7 Surprisingly Racist Children's Films." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 1 Oct. 2014. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
Dargis, Manohla. "Bring in Da Hoofers on Ice." The New York Times. The New York Times, 16 Nov. 2006. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
L, Elisa. "Punk Rock Parents: Happy Feet? More like Racist Feet." Punk Rock Parents: Happy Feet? More like Racist Feet. N.p., 7 Mar. 2007. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
