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Brett Beach: What strikes me as an interesting comparison is how 2006 was the year of the penguins with a documentary on our fair-feathered friends going from art house hit to multiplex smash and grossing almost $80 million, followed by the near $200 million success of Happy Feet. 2011 could be considered an inverse of that with Mr Popper's Penguins doing okay business this past summer ($68 million) and Happy Feet Two being a sequel that wasn't really called for by fans. I would compare it to Cars 2 also by asking if the merchandising sales of Happy Feet is enough to justify another film to create a new wave of buys this holiday season? Either way, as someone who felt let down by Happy Feet, I had no interest in a sequel, and I haven't heard any reviews to make me think this is as unfairly maligned as one of director George Miller's other kids sequel, the awesome Babe: Pig in the City, though it is as perhaps as fairly maligned as his The NeverEnding Story II.

David Mumpower: Speaking for a different crowd, I was one of the people who enjoyed Happy Feet. In fact, it was one of my first HD-DVD purchases back before Blu-Ray bought their way to victory in the Final Physical Media War. I found the story of cute penguins daring to dream of a different way of life adorable. The real key for me, however, was the implementation of Prince's music, particularly Kiss. It delighted me and I guess the Academy agreed since Happy Feet did win the Best Animated Feature Oscar. When I heard that a sequel was coming out that would not include the return of the characters voiced by Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman and without the music of Prince, I did not understand the point. That's like making a Die Hard sequel with Argyle and Sergeant Al Powell but not John McClane. In a roundabout way, this is the same mistake that we have seen with Dumb and Dumber and The Mask. The sequel is missing the key aspect of the original.

I mean, George Clooney is waaaaaaay more attractive than Matt Lillard

Kim Hollis: The Descendants finished in tenth place this weekend, which may not sound impressive until you realize it was exhibited in only 29 locations. The George Clooney film's $1.2 million reflects a per location average of $41,038. Do you expect it to become a breakout box office hit? Do you believe this establishes it as an Oscar front-runner?

Bruce Hall: Probably. Clooney's stock continues to rise in this world and whether you like everything he does or not, he generally tends to associate himself with material that's either challenging to his audience or to himself. And for the most part, he's been very successful. The Descendants has been as well reviewed and received as anything Clooney's ever done. I wouldn't be surprised to see it do well in wider release, but I'll leave it to one of my esteemed colleagues to put a number on that. In my opinion, though, this movie smells like it has an outstanding chance to earn some hardware.

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