On its surface, Happy Feet Two is a cutesy sequel about a young penguin who is reluctant to dance. But could there be a radical left-wing agenda lurking below the arctic ice?
Some conservatives think so, The Hollywood Reporter reports, suggesting that the movie’s politics might be a reason why the film has been off to a sluggish start at the box office.
The New York Post’s Kyle Smith called the movie, in a review, “Kiddie Karl Marx.” He writes:
“Happy Feet Two” has a broad, lefty political agenda. It briefly brings up global warming (though, tellingly, only for a minute—Hollywood’s interest in stoking global warming fears seems to have peaked, which is convenient because the public has, after some frightened moments, decisively rejected the alarmist viewpoint) in a scene in which polar bears are shown clinging to shrinking icebergs. It also makes the case, somewhat half-heartedly, for vegetarianism (the penguins see humans roasting chickens, and get spooked). This doesn’t go very far, though, because penguins aren’t vegetarians though I suppose they’re pescetarians. And I’m sure I won’t be the only viewer who thinks that two male krill in the movie (played by Brad Pitt and Matt Damon) have now joined Oscar and Felix and Bert and Ernie as pairs of unusually close confirmed bachelors.
That’s a lot of rhetoric for one movie. While not overtly political,a Christian Movie Review at Movieguide.com writes that the movie promotes “radical environmentalism,” “global warming hysteria” and pro-homosexual and pagan messages.
As the Reporter writes, Happy Feet Two isn’t the first children’s movie to allegedly insert leftist themes into its script. Newsbusters’ Iris Somberg writes that the new Muppets movie conveniently pits a villainous oil tycoon against the muppets.
TPM readers will remember when right-wing bloggers in January freaked out over Batman’s new “Muslim sidekick.” And conservatives last December called for a boycott of the Marvel comic-inspired movie Thor, because Idris Elba — who is excellent, by the way — was playing a norse god in the film. And bizarrely, the Discovery Channel recently passed on a BBC documentary episode focusing on climate change. The channel, which co-produced the series, cited scheduling complications.
Warner Brothers declined TPM’s request for comment.
Read more here.
David Taintor
David Taintor is TPM’s News Editor. He contributes to TPM’s Livewire coverage, among other areas. David is from Chanhassen, Minnesota, where, yes, it gets very cold. Reach him at taintor [at] talkingpointsmemo.com
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