Pros: Good harmless fun
Cons: It's too easy, but it's for kids too.
The bottom line: Again, this game is good harmless fun. If you don't have kids, rent it. If you do have kids, buy it for them and play it yourself.
Given my penchant for enjoying games that most people my age would consider childish, I just had to write a review of Happy Feet for the Wii.

The first I thing I have to say before even writing the review is that those penguins are just do darn cute it's hard to resist them. I was driving to the courthouse for work today, and I got an image from the game of a baby penguin dancing to KC and the Sunshine Band, and I just had to laugh. Hey, when you're driving along with no company except the horrible overplayed songs on the radio, your mind tends to wander. Is it sad? Yes.

Anyway, let's face the facts. Happy Feet serves two purposes: first and foremost, it's a movie tie-in that's supposed to attract the kids who will undoubtedly flock to see movie, and for the Wii, it shows off what the controller can do. However, where most movie tie-ins fail to deliver anything more than mediocre gameplay at best, I must say that Happy Feet brings with a certain charm that makes it somewhat irresistible. Is it simplistic? Sure, but it's for the kids. Can adults enjoy it when their kids force them to play? As long as they're not too jaded, they sure can.

Basically, there's three basic types of levels in the game. You can "dance," which means that you either hit the corresponding D-Pad button on the Wii remote, or you flick the remote in the corresponding direction. For the dancing, I prefer the D-Pad. The Wii remote is just a little too sensitive. You can slide in races and such, and tilt the remote in the direction you want to go, for which I prefer the motion sensor on the remote. Finally, you can swim. Each mode builds new challenges. For example, the first dance is really easy, and the rest get hard. That kind goes without saying, doesn't it? For swimming, you start off just trying to grab items or just ensuring you have enough air to make it, but eventually you'll start dodging seal and sharks and other predators. For sliding, you race, or pick up a certain number of items. For each level, you're graded based on how well you did, and will receive a bronze, silver, or gold medal, and therein lies the replay value. If you don't get that medal, you'll want to go back and get it for all the unlockables.

The graphics are decent. They look like the movie, but they're nothing to really write home about.

The sound is though. The voice acting is great, and even amusing. I can't say with any degree of certainty that the voices are done by the cast from the movie, as I haven't seen the movie, but in any case they're great.

Here's the deal. A skilled gamer could beat this in a weekend (my fiance is really mad at me because I'm way ahead of her, and this is her game), but you should have a good time doing it. While this game doesn't entirely break the movie license curse, it certainly takes a step in the right direction. Because of the difficulty level, I wouldn't necessarily buy this, unless you have kids, than you should by all means get it. It's harmless fun good for killing a few hours.

Happy Feet is rated E, and unless they find the lyrics to "Shake Your Booty" too suggestive, parents will have no problem plopping their kids in front of this one.