Religious People Are Mean and Stupid

tried responding to Sarah's post about Happy Feet, but I couldn't give a good pop. music critique because I wasn't looking at it through the eye of a pop. music critic. I may try to see it again and watch it from that perspective. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

In the review linked above I want to comment on "Religious people are mean AND stupid" critique. I'm just not sure I agree with that. That is what I began to think the writers, producers, and director was trying to say. Maybe they were, but that's not what I thought by the end of the movie.

(1) The elders ask Mumble to repent of his dancing, unpenguinlike ways

(2) He does not repent BECAUSE he knows something that the general population does not.

(3) The only reason he knows anything about the "aliens" is because he was born different.

I saw more of this as a struggle between older generations vs. newer generations. Mumble and his parents didn't deny any of the things that were upheld by the elders and general population about "The Great Being" (or whatever "God" was referred to as), they just disagreed with the elders on why there was a famine.

One of the elders actually did have some knowledge of "aliens", but didn't let on until towards the end of the movie. My guess was that his knowledge was so limited that in his eyes there was more to fear about the "aliens" than there was reason to trust them for anything. That element of the plot is never expanded on.

So, back to "The Great Being" or whatever it was labeled. Nobody explicity, outrighly denied It's existence. They just denied whether or not they were really being punished for something.

You know, the more and more I think about it. I think its more of a social commentary on why bad things happen. The whole "being born different" got my attention right away. Immediately, I thought it was a commentary on homosexuality. What's interesting is why was Mumble born different? Was it genetics? Or was it because the egg was dropped during the incubation period? You never know. Its because there was no way of really knowing, especially as a penguin who never takes a science class, that I thought it was