Problem: 1. The long march across the Antarctic wasteland ... sometimes feels just as arduous as the real thing.
2. Looks good, has important 'messages,' but repetitivenessmakes this appear like a drawn-out 30-minute animated feature.
3. It's uncanny... how looking into Mumble's face you can see Elijah Wood's bright eyes.
4. A toe-tapping 'happy feat' of remarkable animated movie-making.
5. Animal Logic ices Pixar in the animation department
6. The best animated film of 2006
7. While the film's visual inventiveness and technological innovations can be daunting at the start, Miller chose his featured animal well. No creatures are more irresistible than penguins, even when they sing disco.
8. I think kids will love it, because the penguins are cute.
9. While I wish it had been more solid in its story, I still like the movie and recommend it. There's enough here that's great to offset the shakier stuff.
10. As an avid movie musical fan, I became enchanted with those spectacular singing and dancing sequences in 'Happy Feet.' Way to go, penguins!
What is the consensus?
****
Answer: Visually dazzling, with a thoughtful storyline and catchy musical numbers, Happy Feet marks a successful animated debut from the makers of Babe.


Problem: 1. Tom Tykwer reunites with Franka Potente for another exploration of fate, chance, and metaphysics, but what sounds like a surefire recipe for success ends up falling short.
2. The Princess and the Warrior is an unpredictable, mythic tale about haunted outcasts that is both dazzling and disquieting.
3. An inquisitive, aggressively stylistic film, sympathetic to its characters and eager to take risks.
4. one of those rare movies that continually reinvents itself while building on what has gone before
5. Tykwer bails himself out with a strong, imaginative conclusion that delineates his themes of salvation and grace.
6. Doesn't lack for ideas, nor for images that will sweep you up in their boldness and have the resonance of dreams.
7. Formalistically elegant and meticulous, yet ultimately unengaging.
8. This is a love story, but it isn't one you've ever seen before.
9. Nowhere near as dynamic as the title implies.
10. What's special about the film is at a deeper level, down where [Tykwer] engages with the souls of his characters.
What is the consensus?
****
Answer: More slow-moving than Run Lola Run, this film nonetheless offers an intriguing storyline about love and fate.


Problem: 1. Will probably just feel beyond the pale to anyone more discerning than the average 8-year-old.
2. Ultimately Hedge is déja vu all over again, a computer-generated work of wonder that could have come out last year, last month or two months from now, a film so reminiscent of other films it almost immediately dims in the memory.
3. DreamWorks is still no Pixar, but the laughs are definitely there, and the defiant jab at conspicuous consumption is utterly satisfying.
4. There may be only so many ways you can spin a computer-generated animated feature about a gang of animals and their grand project against an evil adversary.
5. Its own animal, a spirited and intrepid critter that mooches our affection along with the garbage.
6. Manages to illustrate the perils of greed and the benefits of friendship, loyalty and group effort, and without hitting anyone over the head with it. It's environmentally friendly. It will make you laugh out loud.
7. It's all a bit underwhelming.
8. Ultimately, the movie's smorgasbord approach to story works because it contains enough humor, cleverly conceived characters and capers to compensate for its dramatic shortcomings.
9. The script is fast and funny, keeping the focus on the story and avoiding the stream of pop-culture wisecracks that these days pass for humor in most animated films.
10. No doubt the people at DreamWorks who made Over the Hedge would prefer that their film bring to mind animated classics like Disney's Bambi (or, as Hammy suggests, Ice Age), but no such luck.
What is the consensus?
****
Answer:
Even if it's not an animation classic, Over the Hedge is clever and fun, and the jokes cater to family members of all ages.