Mumbles and Erik in "Happy Feet Two"; photo courtesy of Warner Brothers

“Happy Feet Two” (Warner Brothers)

Sequels can sometimes be hard sells. You have to go up against an original that was fresh and fun and somehow try to be fresher and funnier. Or maybe you try a different take all together. The latter is what the makers of “Happy Feet Two” tried to do. This time out we get fewer musical numbers, less Robin Williams, and an ecological lesson in global warming. They should have gone with funnier and fresher.

In this sequel Mumbles (voiced by Elijah Wood) is a grown up emperor penguin. He is married to a wonderful female named Gloria (Pink) and they have a son Erik (Ava Acres). Mumbles still has those dancing happy feet and he tries to instill his love of dance in Erik. Erik just doesn’t get it and when he tries he ends up embarrassing himself.

Feeling ashamed he heads off to see new sights. He ends up finding another tribe of penguins. They have something extra going for them. They have among their group a penguin named Zen (Hank Azaria) who flies. Erik is very impressed with this special penguin.

When Mumbles comes to bring him home they have some perilous adventures along the way back. Then when they get back to their own group of emperor penguins they find that group is in peril due to glacial shifts. It is going to take a miracle of sorts to get them to safety.

All the perils Erik and mumbles face drag down the fun of the film. These are life and death situations so you can’t just laugh them away. And you can’t just break into song either. During one tense segment Erik delivers what sounds like an operatic aria and it goes over like a lead balloon.

You also have two sea creatures called Krills. Will and Bill Krill are voiced by Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. Will wants to move higher up the food chain and Bill goes along with his buddy. They also have their own set of adventures which have absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the film. It appears the two actors agreed to voice some roles and the makers of the movie just stuck them in for their star power.

The film is rated PG for tense situations.

It should be noted that there are moments of pure joy in the film and the animation is first rate. The voice talent is also good. However there are periods of time in the film where the plot just drags. The story becomes too heavy and the magic of “happy feet” is missed.

“Happy Feet Two” is a case of the sequel being less than the original. This film tried to change the basic formula and it just didn’t work.

I scored “Happy Feet Two” a sad 5 out of 10.