Gareth Bezett

I was told, just before the movie, that Happy Feet has some sort of left-wing bias/agenda and the greenie message came through loud and clear. What was less clear was the film's position on religion. On the surface, it seemed to be fairly critical.

The Emperor Penguins have a sort of religion. It involves a great mystical force that provides bounty (or not) and must be prayed to. The religious leaders are unwilling to accept any explanation for the loss of the food supply other than that the great penguin in the sky is angry. Their answer to adversity is to stick harder to their ways. This may well echo the "science vs religion debate".

It turns out that actually humans are responsible for the loss of fish (who would have guessed?). In the end, the religious leaders have to "mend their ways".

However if you look at the "wisdom" that is the basis of the religion, which mainly seems to be about sticking together to survive the long winter, none of it seems to be disproved or made reduntant in light of the events in the movie. As far as I can see, the problem is that religious leaders couldn't separate their "wisdom" from the other social constraints that seems to have been added. Let's not forget that not too long ago dancing was considered evil by some Christian groups.

So, I'm with Happy Feet. Let's dance, but we don't have to give up our wisdom to do it.