There’s nothing quite like a trip to London and the chance to see the Oxford Street lights to get you in the festive spirit just days before the big day itself. Of course we were completely unaware of this until the team at Kinder Surprise invited us to London for the day to watch a screening of Happy Feet Two.

We had a really lovely day topped off by a visit to Hamleys on the way home, but the film itself was less of a success. It is fair to say that we didn’t like it at all, although I can only base our feedback on the first 40 minutes of the film as we didn’t watch the rest.
In a nutshell, IJ simply found it too scary in parts, which overshadowed the stunning animation and some outstanding musical numbers. It is easy to assume, as I did, that Happy Feet Two is Certificate U like its predecessor. It isn’t. It’s Certificate PG and quite rightly so.
There is an awful moment when an elephant seal falls into a crevasse in front of his two pups and tells them to leave him to die, which we both found particularly alarming. There are also several fight scenes between various forms of sea life, which are noisy, threatening and catch viewers off guard.
For IJ, who is going through a particularly anxious phase, it was too much so we took ourselves away and tried out a few craft activities instead.
I am told the second half did get better although after 40 minutes I was unable to decipher the storyline and it seemed more than a little disjointed.
The official storyline is as follows:
Happy Feet Two returns audiences to the magnificent landscape of Antarctica in superb 3D. Mumble, The Master of Tap, has a problem because his tiny son, Erik, is choreo-phobic. Reluctant to dance, Erik runs away and encounters The Mighty Sven-a penguin who can fly! Mumble has no hope of competing with this charismatic new role model. But things get worse when the world is shaken by powerful forces. Erik learns of his father's "guts and grit" as Mumble brings together the penguin nations and all manner of fabulous creatures-from tiny Krill to giant Elephant Seals-to put things right. Happy Feet Two is directed by George Miller, who won an Oscar® as the creator of the original Happy Feet.
The film is marketed as ‘fun-packed laugh-out-loud adventure that the whole family will enjoy". Except we didn’t. We did enjoy the chance to take to the artificial ice-rink provided at the Kinder Surprise event and IJ was more than a little excited with her branded goody bag and supply of chocolate Kinder Eggs.
All in all it really was a great day out and we’ll be making a festive trip to London an annual event from now on. As for Happy Feet Two, the animation was brilliant but the storyline disjointed and we felt it lacked the happy.
Kinder Surprise paid our train travel to attend this event.