huffg Reviews

Flying Wild Alaska (2011–2012)

Superb Series!

[10/10 · 5 March 2011]

For anyone interested in flying, culture, science, geography, and just people, this is a must-see series. It is a broad portrayal of people who live in Alaska, their living conditions, opportunities, and challenges, all centered around the essential air transport operations of Alaskan life.

This series is a wonderful balance of beautiful cinematography, flying technique, Alaskan society and geography, human interaction, Alaskan cultural diversity and characteristics, family relationships, and technology.

Do yourself a favor and try watching this series. The series is not strictly sequential, so you can watch it in almost any order.

Happy Feet (2006)

Boring! Buy a good children's movie instead.

[1/10 · 16 November 2008]

I bought the Blu-ray version of this movie after reading a positive review in a home theater magazine. This movie was so un-involving that I quit watching it after about 30 minutes, and just gave it to our grandchildren. I've been feeling guilty ever since--too much like giving children a bag of potato chips to eat.

This movie is not good enough to warrant a discussion of its technical merits (Blu-ray video and audio). In fact, it would be charitable to say that the characters in Happy Feet are two dimensional (as opposed to three dimensional). It is difficult to care about what they are doing or saying. They never jump off the screen and become real to the viewer.

Then there is the music. What a disappointment! Audiences have become accustomed to the wonderful soundtrack music of movies like The Lion King, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (TV 1997), and Monster's Inc. What we get instead with Happy Feet is unsophisticated, artless, and often crude, especially so for a children's movie. At best, the music is un-involving, at worst repugnant.

Don't waste your money on Happy Feet just to get a Blu-ray children's movie. In fact, just don't waste your money at all.