Happy Feet Two (2011) Review: Ranking Robin Williams’ Exhausting Sequel
Is Happy Feet Two (2011) a good movie? No, Happy Feet Two is a frantic, exhausting 2011 animated sequel. Despite featuring great voice acting from Robin Williams, its lack of narrative structure drops it into the lower tier of our ultimate movie ranking and review.
The Premise: What is Happy Feet Two About?
Years after the events of the first film, the Emperor penguin colony faces a new crisis when a massive iceberg traps them, cutting them off from food. Mumble struggles with leadership while his son, Erik, wrestles with self-doubt. As they search for a way out, help comes from unexpected places—including a group of tiny, determined krill challenging the social order of the ocean.
What Works: Existential Krill
The most enjoyable part of the movie is the B-plot following two existential krill (voiced by Brad Pitt and Matt Damon). Their story actually has momentum and personality, but it is sadly underdeveloped and loosely connected to the main plot by random coincidence.
What Doesn't Work: Frantic Dead Ends
The first Happy Feet was messy, but interesting. The sequel is relentlessly busy and exhausting. The story is basically a series of dead ends: humans show up to help, but leave; other penguins bring fish, but it freezes; a puffin pretends to be a penguin, but it goes nowhere. Nothing builds, nothing pays off, and nothing feels earned. Furthermore, the camera is constantly in motion, leaving the audience begging for it to just stop for a second.
The Robin Williams Ranking & Performance Score
Robin Williams Performance Score:RETIRED Out of respect for Robin's battle with undiagnosed Lewy Body Dementia, we have officially retired our performance score rating.
Good Mourning Robin Ranking: In our ranking, it sits very low, just above Man of the Year. It is a sequel that fails to improve on the original and actively makes it worse.
FAQ: Happy Feet Two (2011) Movie
What is the plot of Happy Feet Two? A massive iceberg traps the penguin colony, forcing Mumble and his son Erik to find a way to save everyone with the help of other Antarctic creatures.
Does Robin Williams return for Happy Feet Two? Yes, he returns to voice the characters Ramón and Lovelace, providing much of the film's comedic relief.
Why was there never a Happy Feet 3? As noted in our review, the sequel was an exhausting, narrative mess of dead ends that failed to capture the charm or box-office success of the original.
