I have to say, I am a huge fan of animated film, and one of my all time faves is "Happy Feet".
So naturally, when I saw that the new movie was coming out my first thought was, "Oh, goodness, please don't tell me they screwed everything up."
But alas, nothing was screwed up, in fact, everything was improved.
The movie was so lovely I think I cried tears of joy and sorrow and amazement throughout the whole thing. And it wasn't just that penguins are adorable (which they are), or that the songs were very well picked, or that Robin Williams is hysterically funny (which he is, by the way). What really touched me about this movie was the message behind it all.
[Note: If you have not yet seen the movie, you may want to watch it before reading this... or if you are like my bff Jess and you don't mind; read on luv ;)]
The whole movie felt so familiar to me. The message resonated so deeply in me because it is exactly how I see things. It is completely honest, and hopeful, and simple enough that we should all technically understand it.
See, the core message (or at least the message I walked away with) was that we are all one. [Very yogic, I know] We are all connected, we all depend on one another in one way or another and even the smallest, most seemingly insignificant of us can make a huge impact in everyone's lives.
It also speaks to the fact that we all, for the most part, forget all this. We tend to go through life ignoring one another, or mocking one another for being different. We even have a tendency to be selfish enough to turn away from one another even when we know we should help simply because we are afraid to show vulnerability.
It was simply amazing to me how every creature in this movie, even the humans, found it in them to participate in at least trying to help at one point or another in the movie. [Ok, the annoying birds may have been the exception to the rule, but there is always someone who simply refuses to see beyond group think or hatred in this world, so...] How they simply opened up their hearts and decided to take a chance. {Sure, some gave up, or were physically incapable to continue helping (e.g. humans having to leave because the snow storm took them far far away, and then turned the ocean to ice, which they could not get through)} But they all try to make a difference at one point or another, which is really lovely. The whole adventure was simply lovely.
It made me wonder what we could do, how we could all change the world if we ever even thought about how inter-connected we are, and about how we should all be there for one another.
It is a bit sad to know that most of us will never be able to break away from the group and think on our own, or let go of our egos to help some one in need, or be honorable enough to simply rescue a stranger at no benefit to our selves, or even that we will never be able to realize how singularly different and special we are as individuals and how we could all work as a whole.
The question of, "Can we as individuals make a difference?" "Can we see beyond our differences and our egos and simply see how incredible we all are?" "Can we honor our word, even when doing so may mean changing our perspective about something?" "Can we realize we are all one?"
I feel blessed to have seen the film. And it made my heart sing, and dance, and fly with joy from the very beginning to the very very end. I only hope that it impacts many. I hope one day we can all realize that these "differences" that we use to hurt and reject one another should be the same differences that could bring us all together.
And I will end this thought in progress (as I keep realizing how many things we need to learn daily... even from cartoons) I will end with this lovely, true quote:
"Human beings by nature want happiness and do not want suffering. With that
feeling everyone tries to achieve happiness and tries to get rid of suffering, and everyone has the basic right to do this. In this way, all here are the same, whether rich or poor, educated or uneducated, Easterner or Westerner, believer or non-believer, and within believers whether Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and so on. Basically, from the viewpoint of real human value we are all the same."-- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, from "Kindness, Clarity, and Insight."
Om Lokah Samastah Sukino Bhavantu
