Review: Happy Feet Two (3D)***

More penguins, more dancing set-pieces is what Happy Feet writer-director George Miller gives us again, probably because they make for vibrant family entertainment. Short of the penguin musical, the second film that had some huge boots to fill after the Award-winning first is rather a colourful, sing-song whirl of incoherent plot-lines and snatched, throwaway character comments, even if it does spell mega cute in places. In Happy Feet Two, toe-tapping penguin Mumble (voiced by Elijah Wood) is all grown up with a young, incredibly shy son called Erik (voiced by Ava Acres) who has two left flippers and can’t join in with the Emperors’ routines. Like father, like son, Erik struggles to fit into this…

Carmen in 3D

Regardless of how it’s sold, opera is an acquired taste, and to see any such production suggests an initial glimmer of interest from the start. This is both the fascinating experiment of Julian Napier’s ‘RealD’ (3D)-shot film of the Royal Opera House’s production of Carmen and its Achilles’ Heel. It poses a vicious cycle to break, to rouse the interest of the average, non-opera-participant and cinema buff to pay to see it on the big screen. But Carmen in 3D should not be dismissed off hand as a ‘lost big screen cause’ as it offers awe-inspiring and striking depth of vision and perspective that really places the viewer in on the action on stage, helped…