Disney encourages (unrealistic) faith in 'the system'

**spoiler about ending of Happy Feet, the movie.

Over the holidays - like many of you, I'm sure - I seemed to have a lot of time on my hands. It was simply glorious to do nothing at all for hours. Nearly every other night my family and I would sit down in front of the TV to enjoy a movie together. One of the movies my sister insisted upon watching was called Happy Feet, an animated film that had been released nearly three years prior to my first viewing of it.

The movie begins quite like March of the Penguins, a captivating and moving documentary about the lives of Antarctica's creatures. The story follows the penguin character known as Mumble, whose parents are shocked and helpless as they come to realize that unlike all penguins in their group, Mumble couldn't sing. Every penguin had a heartsong, but no matter how hard Mumble tried, he was lucky if he could hit even a single note. So, Mumble resorted to the only thing that he felt came naturally to him: dancing.

The waddle elders did not agree with this monstrosity. It was unnatural - they even blamed Mumble and his curious defect for the lack of fish in the waters of Antarctica. After being banished by the elders and determined to prove his worth, Mumble ventures into the unknown to find the 'aliens' who he believes are behind the shortage of food.

While this film is, without a doubt, a loveable addition to Walt Disney's collection of animated tales, something about it bothered me: The ending of the film was, in a word, happy. I don't pretend that this is what I had hoped for, but the satisfaction came with an air of impossibility. Impossibility and shame. While I admit this resentment could be a result of my getting older and more accustomed to/accepting of the harmful and unjust ways of the human race, it was the first time that I had deemed the ending of what should be a childhood movie as immoral and deceiving.

In the end, Mumble learns that it is indeed the 'aliens' (humans) who are responsible for the shortage of fish. He teaches the entire waddle - hundreds of penguins - to learn his otherwise 'unnatural' dance abilities to communicate with the humans, as he recognizes that they seem to respond this this activity. And surprise, surprise - Disney offers a child-friendly conclusion to Mumble's plight.

My problem with this is that creators might as well be telling children that the world would have no problem whatsoever in suffering a blow to the international fish industry in order to save penguins (who, by the way, will probably be killed by Climate-Change-related causes anyway). I sat there, caught between my desire to be happy for Mumble and his family and my anger at the seemingly caring, globally-concious and misleading response of the people.

The fact is, the United Nations (conveniently featured in the initiative regarding the shortage of fish and its affect upon penguins like Mumble) would hardly be so willing, cooperative or efficient to go out of their way for the Antarctic creatures. They refrained from stepping in to save even their own people in Rwanda during the atrocious genocide in 1994; why would they waste resources tacklign the fish industry?

It seems to me that Disney is taking subtle steps to instill a faith in governments and international organizations. And perhaps it will encouage activism at a young age - but calling upon my inner Orwellian, I think it is a clever tactic to plug faith and support for the powers within society and to instill a false sense of humane "political morale".

Cheers.