GEORGE Miller's "Happy Feet" may be the 10th animated film this year with talking critters - but, trust me, you're probably going to want to see the best feature-length cartoon since "The Incredibles," no matter what your age.

Mixing darkness, cuteness, music and dance in a way that recalls Disney's Golden Age - with stunning visuals to boot - the inspired director of "Babe" and "Mad Max" brings photo-realistic computer animation to another level with this disarming, toe-tapping tale of a heroic misfit penguin.

Though "Happy Feet" has been in the works for many years, the gorgeously rendered opening scenes of this cartoon - depicting tens of thousands of penguins on an Antarctic ice floe - look astonishingly like "March of the Penguins."

The mating process focuses on Norma Jean (Nicole Kidman) and Memphis (the ubiquitous Hugh Jackman), whose vocal performances were authorized, the credits inform us, by the estates of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley.

Memphis does a terrific "Heartbreak Hotel," but is less accomplished at taking care of their resultant egg while Norma Jean is off fishing - so he blames himself when their offspring Mumble (Elijah Wood) turns out to be the only penguin in the flock who can't sing a mating song.

But Mumble's a helluva tap dancer - courtesy of Savion Glover, employing the same computer motion-capture technique employed less impressively in "The Polar Express."

This cuts no ice with the elders - led by the crotchety Hugo Weaving - who blame him for a famine of fish.

Mumble wanders off an outcast, at least until he meets a hipper bunch of Latino penguins (led by Robin Williams, who as usual is better heard than seen) and an extravagently feathered penguin named Lovelace (Williams again, in Soul Brother mode) who serves as a sort of guru.

Our hero's salvation comes in finding out what's happening to all the fish - though he's warned by an elephant seal (the late Steve Irwin) that it will be a very perilous quest.

Eventually, he's held captive in darkest civilization (integrating some live-action footage) before providing mankind with an eloquent lesson in global ecology and an uplifting ending.

It's "Dumbo" meets "Footloose," crammed with a great selection of mostly R&B tunes, including a surprisingly good vocal performance by Brittany Murphy as Mumble's childhood friend.

"Happy Feet" is not only the year's best animated movie, it's one of the year's best movies, period. Go.