Awenydd

I saw Happy Feet this weekend! And I have a thing or two to say about it.

Happy Feet is a wonder of filmmaking, really. The animation is incredible. All the wonder and beauty of Antarctica is captured in each frame. From the grand expansive scenes of (I guess it would be) the Southern Lights to the monstrous arctic blizzards, every detail is beautifully rendered.

The music of the film, for the most part, is a thoroughly enjoyable experience. John Powell’s score does a good job of capturing the mood and accenting the action with exciting and interesting cues. The songs are well performed. Especially Robin Williams’ Spanish rendition of “My Way.” Speaking of which, Robin Williams’ performance is pretty funny all around.

So. From an artistic and technical standpoint, it was worth seeing. Because of the wonderful views, it was worth seeing on the big screen.

It’s too bad the story is a blatantly anti-Christian allegory. Here. I’ll break it down.

Anti-Ecclesiastical

Besides the nasty indifferent humans (aliens) who are polluting the environment and stealing all the fish from the cute little penguins, the villain of the whole set piece is the group of penguin “elders,” and particularly the oldest penguin elder, who speaks with a thick Scottish brogue and uses archaic English in his admonitions like “the Great Wind is that which giveth and taketh away.” No, I’m not kidding. He actually says that.

It seems that there has been a fish shortage recently, and the elders are baffled as to what to do about it. They conclude that rigid conformity to a religious sort of singing ritual is the answer. The Great Wind (which giveth and taketh away) must be displeased with them, so they should sing better, louder, and more religiously.

The main character, Mumbles, dropped as an egg and unable to sing, does not quite fit in. Instead of singing, he dances. This does not fit into the religious practice as prescribed by the great penguin church, and so when his influence grows he is promptly excommunicated.

This subplot is a clear attack against the organized church and the ignorance and bigotry that the all-accepting liberal secular world accuses it of. In fact, the whole eldership of the penguins is a twisted caricature of the church. One might even be tempted to think that the Scottish penguin pastor is a personal slam against John Knox.

“Non-conformity” (revolt against morality) is glorified

Mumbles is different. He can’t sing. And he does this weird little tap dance. It’s different. It must be evil, the elders conclude. “But he’s not hurting anyone!” his defenders say. No matter, he must go. Sure, the particulars of Mumbles’ different-ness is basically innocent. I enjoy tap-dancing as much as anyone. But Happy Feet is no innocent Ugly Duckling story.

With the whole story context of the penguin church and the elders’ insistence that his tap dancing is immoral, Mumbles’ non-conformity is being used to attack any moral standard in society. As if to say, “See? It is all just a matter of being different. If it’s not hurting anyone, it must be okay. There is no moral standard beyond the comfort of your peers. All these ‘differences’ are as innocent as tap dancing.”

Religion vs Science

Mumbles believes that the aliens (humans) are causing the fish shortage. The elders dismiss this as nonsense. There are no such things as aliens, and that is that. After all, “it is the Great Wind that giveth and taketh away.” All use of empirical evidence is lost on the penguin elders, so Mumbles goes off to prove that his theory is true. In the end, science trumps religion, and the elders are exposed as the ignoramuses they are. In fact, they join Mumbles in dancing for the humans.

This is a clear assault against the Biblical account of natural history. “Those stupid Christians, they think God created the universe! When all the empirical evidence indicates evolution. Imagine that.” The implication, of course, is that anyone who believes in a supreme divine Creator is as stupid and blind as the penguin elders in the film.

EDIT: Paragraph on “adulterous penguins” removed. See comments.

Conclusion

So that’s the nature of Happy Feet. It packages a poisonous anti-Christian message into a dangerously cute candy coated form and markets it to children. The included props to environmentalism and illegal immigration are relatively benign compared to what the film is really telling us. Christians should exercise great caution and lots of instruction when allowing their children to view Happy Feet.

An hour and a half into the film, Tim, Matt, and I leaned forward to check the digital reading on the DVD player.  I looked at the back of the DVD case to see what the runtime was.

“Another hour and a half!”  Great.

One more hour and a half of Colin Farrell’s pointless, half-baked, and barely audible monologue interspersed between ridiculously random scenes of frollicking in the fields of Virginia with an unnamed American Indian princess of non-descript age.

Colin Farrell’s character, at least, has a name.  He’s Captain John Smith. So I assume we are meant to simply understand that the Indian princess (played by one Q’Orianka Kilcher) is Pocahantas. Her so-called character is obviously intended to be portrayed as innocent and at one with nature, but instead she comes across as painfully daft and just generally uninteresting.

John Smith gets himself lost in an early scene (and by ‘early’ I mean it only felt like we’d been watching for an hour), and maintains the deer-in-the-headlights look for the remainder of the film, even when he finally arrives back in England.

Christian Bale plays John Rolfe, who Pocahantas eventually marries.  When John Smith’s monologue exits with his return to England, Rolfe takes over.  He does seem to at least know what his own name is, though it would be nice if the viewer was clued in on that count…

But in all honesty, at this point one just wishes the whole thing were already over.

Instead of employing the usual devices of dialog and plot to drive the film forward, director Terrence Malick elects instead to use random shots of scenery, long silences, and unexplained, sometimes incomprehensible actions.  The result is a film that is not about its own story.  It has no emotional arc, and seems to consciously avoid creating one.  Rather than make the viewer feel for the characters of the story, Malick would rather his viewers feel numb.

This end would have certainly been achieved if not for the inexplicable jump cut editing and James Horner’s magnificently inhumane score.  Usually one knows what to expect from Horner.  And admittedly there are moments of the typical Horner self-plagiarism.  These are uncommonly welcome, since the alternative is a very subtle, very annoying theme of a single chord, which is sustained as it grows and grows in volume until you want clap your hands over your years and yell, “AHHHH!!!  Make it stop!”

Sort of like the movie in general, except for the volume part.

Well, I’ll spare you all.  Enough said.  If you are looking for a trial in patience and endurance, this film might be for you.  But I would recommend you try Chinese water torture instead. 

I have added the Phantasia suite to my Flash player.  It is basically all the major themes of Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber reorchestrated and arranged into a 35 minute concerto for violin and cello.  Sarah Chang on violin, Julian Webber (Andrew Lloyd’s brother) on cello.  Excellent musicians both of them, especially Sarah.  Wonderful arrangements.

What more can I say?  Listen to it!

NOTE: It is a big file, so make sure you have a fast connection.  And…you might want to clear your cache after listening.

Hello, all!
I just received a blanket email from The Center for Reclaiming America for Christ.  The director, Dr. Gary Cass, has written a letter to the Hollywood industry head honchos, taking them to task for their favoring of the film Brokeback Mountain, particularly in light of the “shoving aside” of The Chronicles of Narnia, a blockbuster success that unequivocally presents the gospel message.
I sent him a reply (though I have no idea whether he will actually ever see it), and to make it short, I’ll just post what I sent him…

Dr. Gary Cass,

I received your e-mail/letter against Hollywood, and had to comment.
I also believe that Brokeback Mountain is an abomination.  I have made a point of not seeing it, of course, and I completely agree with your assessment of the film.  If left at that, I would sign your letter with enthusiasm. 
However, there is that bit about Narnia.  While I agree that Narnia carries with it a distinctly Christian worldview, and I have a great appreciation for the message it conveys, I also do not think that it is award-winning material.  As a film, it was merely “pretty good,” which places it right in the category of mediocrity for me.  Granted, it’s on the higher level of mediocrity, but it cannot rise above that.  And the simple fact is, mediocre films should not win awards.  Period.  A good message does not necessarily make a great film.
The fact that Narnia was a box office success does not make it a great film either.  I think the enourmous success of a merely “okay” movie like Narnia reveals a deeper issue.  A problem, shall we say.  American Christians have grown accustomed to mediocrity.  Only the secular world is supposed to be able to rise to artistic greatness.  Any possibility that a Christian message might be produced by even slightly competent hands is good news.  No, it’s great news. 
But in the end, “slightly competent” isn’t going to cut it.  If Christians want to see tales and films with good messages entering the mainstream of the culture, they must rise above mediocrity.  A truly great Christian film must meet or rise above the artistic standards of a film like Brokeback Mountain without compromising its message.  Christians must stop thinking that the good message can somehow compensate for substandard method.  Mediocrity in method makes it easy for the world to ignore the message.

~Christopher Kou

Having written that, I promptly went and signed his letter anyway.  If we could win any sort of victory here, it might pave the way to better quality in Christian filmmaking.

Everyone might like to visit the new website for Like White Elephants, a film that I worked on with my brother Timothy.  I had a little part in the shooting (the camera work in the opening sequence is mine) and the sound.  Tim directed and edited, and I think the result is quite nice.  Check it out!