This is an animated all singing and all dancing "March of the Penguins".

Just seeing the trailer it was easy to imagine these little penguins would be the must have stocking filler this year; they are just so delightfully tactile.

Among all the big star voiceovers is the late great Steve Irwin appropriately voicing one of the elephant seals.

In this world of emperor penguins a beautiful singing voice is essential: it is called the Heart Song.

Unfortunately that is a gift that has passed by little chick Mumbles (voiced by Elijah Wood).

We are led to believe this has something to do with his late hatching.

While his dad (voiced by Hugh Jackman) was in charge of tending the unborn chick, he accidentally let the egg roll into the freezing Antarctic ice.

But Mumbles oddly does have another asset, he can dance.

The trouble is the penguins are worried about their food source, because they think that Mumbles's constant tapping has frightened all the fish away.

Though his mother (voiced by Nicole Kidman) loves him anyway, his dad disparagingly says, "It just ain't penguin".

Before we know it Mumbles is an outcast, but undaunted the little chap sets out on an adventure to find out where the fish have gone.

He meets all sorts of dangers like a leopard seal and whales, who are both known to be more than a little fond of penguin for their dinner.

But at least he is aided by a group of small Adlie penguins, who love his dancing and eventually also help him win the affections of Gloria (voiced by Brittany Murphy), the penguin of his fancy.

Technically this is a truly wonderful animation and really does benefit from the big screen.

The story has much the same theme as most children's films.

But as we want our young to learn tolerance and how to fit into society, its unoriginality is not such a bad thing.

It is directed and co-written by George Miller who co-wrote the screenplay for the hugely successful Babe (1995), and directed and co-wrote the screenplay for Babe: Pig in the City (1998).

The music is very cheerful and full of variety, which adults will thoroughly enjoy, with tunes from Queen, The Beach Boys and Steve Wonder.

Like this year's delightful Over The Hedge, the story is also cleverly politically contemporary.

However I do question its conclusion, which is that humans are eating the fish that the penguins need to survive.

The same could just as well be said about the likes of the leopard seal, which after all looks to a good juicy penguin for his dinner.

But I digress -there is a more important problem: some very young children might find a few of the scenes frightening, so be warned.

For everyone else, though it is a trifle long, it is still a gem.