Pitt and Damon are feisty bottom-dwellers in animated adventure

It’s hard not to get drawn to the world of emperor penguins and elephant seals depicted in “Happy Feet Two.” After all, how can you resist flightless birds and humongous mammals who can dance like Janet Jackson or sing like Pink? In this frozen world, anything is possible – even krills that live near the bottom of the food chain underneath the boulders of ice and snow-capped hills can sound like…Brad Pitt and Matt Damon!

But, their problems aren’t much different from the ones that plague their human counterparts: Emperor penguin, Mumble (voiced by Elijah Wood), who’s now married to Gloria (Pink), is besieged with daddy issues. He doesn’t know how to help his shy son, Erik (Ava Acres), find his rhythm and groove—which is a problem when everyone around you knows his way around the icy dance floor!

For the young penguin, it’s easier to relate to the loquacious Ramon (Robin Williams), who’s an outsider like him. And, his wise-cracking “uncle” finds his source of inspiration when he crosses paths with the sexy, slinky Carmen (Sofia Vergara).

Expectations

Erik eventually finds his motivation when he meets the flying penguin, Sven (Hank Azaria), who inspires him to go beyond expectations (“If you want it, will it”). However, after a less-than-friendly run-in with an elephant seal, Bryan, a massive natural calamity strikes that endangers the entire penguin population, including Gloria! This forces Erik to team up with his dad in a race against time to save the waddle.

As collapsing glaciers close in on the penguins, the aquatic world underneath is also shaken by the impending doom. As chaos ensues, krills, Will and Bill (Pitt and Damon, respectively), are separated from the rest of the effusion. Away from the madding crowd, they’re left to ponder on the nature of their “relationship”: Are they just friends – or more?

George Miller’s animated adventure broaches a wide range of relevant themes –

global warming, racial diversity, identity, even gender issues – but, they’re used merely as narrative ploys to move a story that focuses on what happens when physical danger sneaks up on the protagonists. And, this is where the storytelling takes a dip – because the development is too languorous for a tale that requires urgency and a good dose of adrenaline.

The film perks up, however, every time Pink and her colleagues perform their show-stopping production numbers, channelling Jackson and Queen in their respective iconic anthems, like “Rhythm Nation” and “Under Pressure.” But, when the singing and dancing stop, the production’s energy level also slows down, despite Williams’ feisty wisecracks.

Parallel storyline

The terpsichorean and vocal showcases aside, it’s the events that take place in the aquatic underworld that sizzle and bristle with excitement and color – which is ironic, because we find this side-story a little too disparate from Mumble and Erik’s misadventures on land. (At least “Ice Age” managed to make heads and  tails of how Scrat figured – albeit in a parallel storyline – in Sid, Manny and Diego’s dangerous world!)

Pitt and Damon embrace their roles with cheeky abandon. Their banter provides welcome comic relief in all the doom and gloom – and we even hear them sing stanzas from “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and other ’80s pop tunes. But, while it’s amusing to hear them in rare displays of musical  “boldness,” they can serve their art better sans the singing!