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This isn't technically a review, because I'm only going to cover audio/visual/diologue combinatorial effect. (edit: actually, it did turn into a review- whoops)

This movie has great potential for musical effect and used it very well, but only for very short periods. It would have been advisable for John Powell, who wrote the symphonic score, to make longer sequences. As it is, he created a few very good, very short musical pieces incorporating tenor percussion and long, nearly atonal/non-vocal sounds. The artistic blend of musical styles was phenomenal, except for Mumble's little "mating dance" with Gloria, which bordered on falling apart for a short time. Also, every chant section was pleasant and dark, with an admirable incorporation of English (not normally good for chanting, with Latin and Spanish taking the lead for cantoral mastery) into, as has been said, nearly atonal music.
The music as it is remains laudable, but I think at least two or three decent, six-minute pieces are in order, at least for the released soundtrack, if not the movie itself.

Thematically, the movie was tremendously well-done. Each character or character set (i.e., the pebble penguins with their Spanish feel) had a distinct sound quality accompanying them. Messages were conveyed with proper visual, musical, and tonal stresses, allowing the simple elements to easily resonate with any age. It neither frightened small children with larger words nor drove away older viewers with annoying voices, save perhaps Robin Williams, who, to the great sorrow of all, appears to be slipping. The main point this movie has running for it is that nothing inutterably stupid happened, to be blunt. In kids' movies, recently and sometimes in the past, the trend has been to have a stupid main character do stupid things without sufficient reason. Instead, in "Happy Feet," the writer/producer combination revived old Disney flare (as has happily begun again, primarily in "Pirates of the Carribean" and parts of its sequel) in presenting a full plot line understandable by children and with enough hidden jokes, though some were not so hidden, to hold the interest of adults.
- I must point out that two scenes in the movie threatened to lose validity, but somehow managed to hold strong (these being the graduation party and Mumble's first return to the emporer penguins) as viable scenes.

Individually, the characters were mostly remarkably portrayed. Mumble's father was perhaps the only annoying character, with young Mumble coming in a close second (though Elijah Wood did some amazing things with voice-acting for a penguin). As the story progresses, Mumble becomes a likable character, rather than a nuisance, as some main characters tend to do (if he does remain somewhat one-dimensional), but his father continues to be just a little annoying with his Elvis impersonation. However, even that was not so bad when compared to, say, the entire cast of "Shark's Tale."

Visually, the greatest problem was blandness of features, and this was the fault of whoever chose penguins, which generally find it difficult to express emotion without looking odd. However, they were a good choice for tap-dancing, given their bipedalism. Another problem was that the animator tried to make penguin dancing look a little too awkward, whereas it would have been relatively simple, using computer graphic ingenuity, to make the movements just a fraction more fluid than they were. On the whole, the general effect of mo-town style singing carried the visuals strong.

All of these elements combine to create powerful moments, which are really the only important parts of movies. The Guru's line, "I'll be telling your story long after you are dead!" is accompanied by the astonishingly well-animated waves, retreating "camera," and appropriate music. Likewise, at all points when the five Amigos act in tandem with Mumble, the visuals leave a strong impression on the viewers' psyche. Finally, there were multiple periods of extremely high energy throughout the film, primarily those in which the penguins all acted in sync, which are intrinsic to a kids' movie.

Overall, the movie was memorable and goes on my Top Ten list.