Happy Feet/YMMV

• Adult Fear: For a horrible minute in the sequel, it looks like two adorable seal pups are going to lose their father when he falls into the crevice and all they can do is hear their father tell that he is going to die. Fortunately, Mumble manages to rescue him.
• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: There's the Green Aesop about overfishing, pollution, global warming and animals in captivity. And then there's the Aesop about being yourself. And then there's the Aesop that you should not put all your faith in religion but also need to take action yourself. And then there's the Acceptance Aesop, where you're encouraged to accept others for who they are. While many Acceptance Aesops in children's films recently have been the Gay Aesop (and that is still some people's interpretation), Happy Feet seems more about accepting people on the Autistic Spectrum.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Perhaps the whales were just trying to get the plastic holder off of Lovelace's neck the whole time, then chased them onto shore and left? Would explain why they focus on him in particular when the others are perfectly fine meals in and of themselves.
• Anvilicious: the "save the penguins" message is too heavy-handed.
• Better Than It Sounds/Film: Dancing penguins. Tap dancing penguins.
• Crowning Moment of Awesome: Mumble encouraging the entire penguin population to dance for the "aliens".
• Crowning Moment of Funny:
  • Several, but basically anything The Amigos and Loveless say.
  • The conclusion of the chase scene of Mumble and the leopard seal. "Oh no, he's coming! We'd better move in half an hour!" And then slow-mo running. Yeah.
  • When Mumble first displays his awful singing to the Amigos. "Yeah, I knew an animal who made that noise once. But then we turned him over and he was dead."
  • When baby Mumble asks about the GPS tracker on the lead skua's ankle, the skua (which for some reason has a Boston accent), launches into a story about how he was "abducted by aliens" (tagged by researchers and released). The others in his band kvetch about it to no end, and it's strongly implied that they've heard this story many times-- to the point where they're mouthing along with his spiel behind his back.
  • In the sequel, any scene with Will and Bill.
• Cliché Storm
• Crowning Music of Awesome:
  • Gloria's rendition of "Somebody to Love" and "Boogie Wonderland" deserve mention. Then again, all the music in the film had the same unique sound and great energy to it. The actual score - as opposed to the songs - has some particularly breathtaking moments.
  • The sequel has the ultimate rendition of Queen's "Under Pressure," for its climax!
    • Come on, admit it: You got chills when you heard Erik singing the bassline.
• Family-Unfriendly Aesop:
  • Oh boy, this is another place where things get awkward for some viewers. Pick one! (But please no Edit Wars, thank you.)
  • Animals are only interesting when they act like humans.
  • If you eat fish, you are indirectly making baby penguins starve.
  • If something new and different comes along, everyone must ditch their old traditions and go along with the new thing. Or else...
• Family-Unfriendly Violence: The seal and the whale scenes are often cited as just plain terrifying. And they are.
• Ho Yay: Will and Bill have a lot of it. Special mention goes to Bill wanting to start a colony together.

Will: We're both male.
Bill: We'll adopt!

• Nightmare Fuel: The zoo scene, as well as the two attacks from the seal and whale listed previously.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: There's a baby penguin on the DVD case. Need we say any more?
  • The baby seal twins from the sequel.
• Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: The last wild places in the world are worth protecting and preserving.
• Tear Jerker: Mumble's months in the zoo. Especially since, for a minute or two, it honestly looks like the film's going to end there.
• Uncanny Valley: During some of the more obvious motion capture sequences, as you may have noticed that human anatomy and penguin anatomy is wildly different. Plus there's something unsettling about seeing Elijah Wood's eyes looking out of an otherwise realistic penguin face.
• Unfortunate Implications:
  • The Adélie penguins are VERY sterotypical South Americans. Which makes no sense as all penguins are in the South.
    • Several people involved with the production have said that the reason for this was that one of the most famous and earliest contemporary accounts of Adelie penguins described them as similar to a swaggering, rambunctious gang of Latin American youths.
  • There are several Elders (but not the main Elder) with fairly pronounced Yiddish accents. The implications come into play when said Yiddish elders are also obviously shorter and uglier than the other penguins and have excessively hooked beaks. Yeah.
    • There appears to be a mix of accents within the Elders, actually - one of them is Yiddish, but there's also one with a more pronounced English accent, as well as the aforementioned Noah character, who is Scottish.
• WTH Casting:
  • Guess who's doing those impressions of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley! Wolverine and Satine, that's who!
  • Tyler Durden and Jason Bourne as the comedy relief shrimp? You heard me!