Remember, unlike live-action features, animated movies take years and years to make. Let the record show that Miller's interest in emperor penguins predates not only the French documentary (which, incidentally, put words in the penguins' mouths and pop songs on the soundtrack in its native release) but also Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge!, which rewrote the rules on movie musicals to permit Top-40 medleys in place of corny original tunes.

Here, inspired by the fact that every emperor penguin has a unique "heart song" ("Let's talk about egg, baby"), Miller crafts a music-filled "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" story in which a misfit penguin named Mumbles (Elijah Wood) is born with the world's worst singing voice, but an uncanny talent for tap dancing. From the moment he hatches, Mumbles can't seem to contain the rhythm in his feet.

If it were simply the story of how an adorable outcast uses his unique ability to reintegrate with his flock, Happy Feet would be a yawn, but Mumbles (and Miller, by extension) is far more ambitious. With his gift, this lone penguin will, quite literally, change the world as the movie takes a surprising — and effective — turn toward political consciousness, dovetailing nicely with the documentary.

March of the Penguins was quite possibly the best thing that could have happened for this project, spreading awareness and interest in the animals. Because audiences now know how these animals live, Miller doesn't have to worry about giving background details. Instead, he's free to develop the penguins as characters — and disciplined enough to tap into the comic abilities of someone like Robin Williams (who voices two characters and also narrates) without letting him run away with the show Aladdin-style.

With the exception of Mumbles' expressive blue eyes, these computer-generated penguins are virtually photorealistic. Take any still photo from the movie, and they look like birds, not cartoon characters, but the animators have so effectively melded the body language of both species, human and penguin, that you never question the parallel universe in which the story takes place (the tap dancing was actually choreographed and motion-captured by Savion Glover).

In a year rich with animation options, Happy Feet stands head and shoulders above its competition. The movie is not only a shoo-in for the animated feature Oscar (let this be a lesson to you, Pixar), but a cultural phenomenon in the making. Kids actually come tap-dancing out of screenings wanting to save the world, and that's a happy feat indeed.

[as featured in The Miami Herald]