"Happy Feet" Talkback (Spoilers)

[James Harvey]

HAPPY FEET


http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/MMPO/505215~Happy-Feet-Posters.jpg

Release Date: November 17, 2006
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Director: George Miller
Starring: Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving, Anthony LaPaglia, E.G. Daily, Miriam Margoyles, Magda Szubanski, Carlos Alazraqui, Johnny Sanchez III, Jeff Garcia, Lombardo Boyar
MPAA Rating: PG (for some mild peril and rude humor)


Plot Summary: In the great nation of Emperor Penguins, deep in Antarctica, you're nobody unless you can sing—which is unfortunate for Mumble (Elijah Wood), who is the worst singer in the world. He is born dancing to his own tune... tap dancing. Though Mumble's mom, Norma Jean (Nicole Kidman), thinks this little habit is cute, his dad, Memphis (Hugh Jackman), says it "just ain't penguin." Besides, they both know that, without a Heartsong, Mumble may never find true love.As fate would have it, his one friend, Gloria (Brittany Murphy), happens to be the best singer around. Mumble and Gloria have a connection from the moment they hatch, but she struggles with his strange "hippity- hoppity" ways. Mumble is just too different—especially for Noah the Elder (Hugo Weaving), the stern leader of Emperor Land, who ultimately casts him out of the community. Away from home for the first time, Mumble meets a posse of decidedly un-Emperor-like penguins—the Adelie Amigos. Led by Ramon (Robin Williams), the Adelies instantly embrace Mumble's cool dance moves and invite him to party with them. In Adelie Land, Mumble seeks the counsel of Lovelace the Guru (also voiced by Robin Williams), a crazy-feathered Rockhopper penguin who will answer any of life's questions for the price of a pebble. Together with Lovelace and the Amigos, Mumble sets out across vast landscapes and, after some epic encounters, proves that by being true to yourself, you can make all the difference in the world.

Comments?

[Ebonyleopard]

Has anyone seen this movie yet? Saw it Thursday and found myself very entertained. I love musicals and it was a nice approach at one, the cgi looked really good, and had good voice acting. The ending was a bit..choppy but aside from that a good watch (and a very good soundtrack).

[ElBarto]

I have not seen it. I am not going to either, not my kind of movie

[Cullen]

I saw it today. Some parts were kind of slow, but the ending was really great, and I haven't seen a good animated musical feature in a long time.

[sun]

One of the more unusual animated films I have ever seen.
It took a while to figure out what I thougt it was.
..To me, It was three or four parts..attempting to do different things:
...1) Paying Homage to Afro-American Blues Music..(yes, a very good musical)
2) Paying Homage to Latino-American Jive Humor (Robin Williams is really funny..great to see him back after Aladen)
3 ) Tap Dancing, exceptionally well done dancing numbers
4) Standard journey, self discovery, expulsion from group, return to group, formula..toon

While any one of these would have worked fine,,all of them is a rough order..
I think it works fairly well and I was completely entertained. Yes, it was choppy, well put. I belive this is true because of all the things that this film attempted to do, and pull it together at the end..It does this fairly well.
The cgi is excellent. Some of the night shots, and dacing shots, are incredible, but that is what they can do with the midium. Yes, I would recommend it to all.. It moves slower than one might think, that was ok with me, might not work for younger audiences..If one likes musicals and dancing. a must see.............................. sun

[Elven Moon]

I was talked into seeing it with my mom and cousins today, and I was really surprised. I expected this whimsical, fart humor, "modern commentary/hip hop dialogue" type of animal movie. But besides playing on popular American music and a few other things, that's not really what I got. And I'm glad :)

I really, really liked how they combined live action people with digital animation. There were many other things I liked as well. The only thing that really bugged me was how confused I got near the end. He tap danced, suddenly he's back home? Why? Wouldn't they be exploiting it or something? Was he still dreaming or hallucinating (which it what I wondered at first)? Anyway, it was a good movie, I think.

[90'sCartoonMan]

I have to give the movie credit, it was a lot funnier than the commercials would lead you to believe. I thought it'd be mostly singing and dancing, but there's an actual plot to it.

Those action scenes were kinda cool, with the penguins sliding and being chased by the sea lion and then the killer whales.


He tap danced, suddenly he's back home? Why? Wouldn't they be exploiting it or something?

That was weird. I almost thought they were going to end it with Mumble trapped in that zoo when they zoomed out into space. I guess they figured that the penguin has a way of communicating they wanted to study, and the only way to do that was to put him back in his natural habitat and look at the whole group. I kind of don't understand where he was, was that Florida? And he was originally from Antarctica or something like that and then he met penguins from Peru or Chile or wherever they were supposed to be from and then swam up north...maybe?

[creativerealms]

I thought they were going to end the movie with the sad ending of him being in a zoo for the rest of his life dancing his life away.

[tb4000]

I thought they were going to end the movie with the sad ending of him being in a zoo for the rest of his life dancing his life away.
If this was Stanley Kubrick's Happy Feet, maybe.

[jmforya]

I can't wait to go watch it!

[Johnny Cakes]

I thought they were going to end the movie with the sad ending of him being in a zoo for the rest of his life dancing his life away.

That is what I would have done. Even so, the ending was actually pretty good.

Everyone should go see this if they get a chance it is really entertaining.

[purplehairedwonder]

I saw it on opening night because I wanted to see the Harry Potter trailer and I've got to say that I really loved it. I was happy after seeing the OotP trailer so was ready to be underwhelmed by the movie but was really surprised by how good it was. It was funny, smart, engaging, and overall just really good.

[Tinytooncrazy]

Not realy the trailor didn't impress me at all so Iwon't be going to see it

[purplehairedwonder]

Not realy the trailor didn't impress me at all so Iwon't be going to see it
The trailer barely scratched the surface of what actually happens in the movie. I wasn't expecting a fairly deep plot and characters to relate to and love from just the thirty seconds of dancing penguins that I had seen.

[Pupmon 4.0]

I saw the movie on opening night, my father came with me, and I really enjoyed the movie. I enjoyed the "dark" parts and the singing/dancing.
The live action aspect of the movie suprised me, however, I thought it was a great addition to an otherwise regular cartoon musical.
Overall, it was a great movie, worthy of an Oscar.

[Tay the Cat]

I just saw it tonight.

All my thoughts are on my blog (which is linked in my signature).

[Golgo13]

This movie kicks so much ass.

First off, it's a CGI musical which I'm pretty sure hasn't ever been done before in a feature.

Second, some of those fast-paced sequences are insane! I mean, that whole race down the hill...I can't even imagine how to approach a scene like that.

Third, it's pretty interesting that they inserted live-action humans. Instead of trying to make realistic CGI humans and not coming anywhere close to the quality or animation of the penguins, they just decide to use real humans. Hey, the penguins look real enough to pull this off well.

Finally, Robin Williams does TWO ethnic voices.

[Baltofan]

I love Happy Feet!

[Mr. Manager]

I really enjoyed it. Robin Williams did a good job and the plot was pretty deep. It was funny and it was a lot better than I expected it to be. I might even say it was better than Cars. The live-action came unexpected, but I didn't mind it. The ending was a little weird though. The ending was a little bad, because if it ended earlier it would've been really surprising.

[Tay the Cat]

I might even say it was better than Cars.

Yeah.

Easily better.

[Discloner]

This was probably my favorite animated movie this year - and in that respect it had me surprised, because I didn't expect anything other then to be mildly entertained. I will also agree that had the film ended 15 minutes earlier (albeit tweaked from there on out), it would have been the most unexpected and generally a less 'cop-out'ish ending. The film's story was really rich, and that last 15 minutes, while not horrible by any means (who doesn't like a happy ending?), still felt rather by-the-numbers and slightly out of place with the pace the rest of the film set.

I think this film in particular illustrates best the beauty CG can bring to the table when used. I really think the film would not have worked nearly as well if it was a traditionally animated film. Even the near-realistic models work wonderfully in the world the story is set in.

[creativerealms]

This is what I want to see more of in a CGI film. I want it to have the look and feel of a classic cartoon movie. A show that times have not really changed that much even though technollogy has. It does it in a way that few none pixar CGI movies can. With the 3-D talking animal movies that are the same basic thing over and over. It's nice to have one that has heart, something that most are missing. And rely on that heart more then pop culture jokes.

Really if more 3-D movies were like Happy Feet less people would probably be begging for the return of 2-d animated movies. of course both are good.

[Mandi-chan]

I loved this movie, I'd say it was one of the best movies of 2006.

I loved the good messages the film had, and the amazing animation!

I saw suprised (and disgusted) by some really childish reactions to the film when I went to IMDB.com (go there and you'll see what I mean).

People complaining that it had sexual content...
People complaining that it was propaganda and political...
Ugh!

[SirLemming]

I found this to be a really unfocused movie, or tonally inconsistent, or both. There was a lot I liked about it, and I admired the effort that went into it and the general originality of it. It wasn't your by-the-numbers animated movie or kids' movie; it had a unique character concept rather than just "a talking penguin movie", which is what's missing in a lot of new CGI movies.

But I still can't really tell you what the movie is about. Is it about a disabled penguin growing up in an unaccepting environment? Or is it about a penguin going on an adventure to find out why the fish are disappearing? I think these were two very distinct plotlines that didn't really come together. And they seemed to sort of clumsily try to weave them together. At first the other penguins didn't accept him because of his inability to sing, but then... they didn't accept him because they thought he was crazy. I don't think there was really a good connection there. It wasn't thematically consistent. In fact, when Mumble said "no more singing", I almost felt like one of the writers was getting frustrated with the other writers, saying "we need to do this part of the movie now!"

And then there's the matter of tone. I'm all for having dramatic scenes in family movies, because they really help to make the movie memorable. (The early scene with the egg was an example of a good dramatic scene.) But I found the switch from lighthearted comedy to the more serious adventure plot to be very jarring. That scene where he's clashing with the "high priest" penguin felt really strange, almost melodramatic compared to everything else that happened. All of a sudden the movie started dealing with themes of religious fundamentalism and it seemed much too complex, very out of place. It just didn't seem to have to do with everything before that point. It's like the first half of the movie was about him growing up, and now that he was grown up they were going to make him the hero of some new adventure story. I just didn't think it worked.


I don't know. I respect the effort here, and there's a lot of good to be found, but it never really came together for me.

[Neo Yi]

Out of my better judgment and out of boredom, went to see this yesterday.
While I thought this was a fairly decent, I think my primary problem with this movie is mainly another issue of yet another, "Main hero doesn't stand out amongst his peers and is ridiculed for what he does, but that special talent ends up saving them in the end" feel that I've already seen in things like "Bug's Life" or "Robots" to name a few. I guess I can't expect complete originalty though, but it would have been nice to spice it up a bit or something. *shrugs*Maybe it's just a story I no longer care for much anymore.

I didn't care much for the characters, probably because of the "eh" story, but seriously, is there like a mandatory law that states every main hero must have a chatterbox sidekick? Fortuntely, Ramon wasn't annoying, so I can forgive. That said, I really wish I didn't have to hear the voice of Norma Jean. I was never a fan of female voices that make them high pitch sound and will-o-wisp feel.

Cliche plot aside, at least the movie didn't do what I though most of the today's 3D animal flicks would do, that is, resort to fart jokes or any other sense of what I deem immature humor that I feel undermines both kids and adults, and at least when it came to the rage of pop cultural music, it's integorated into the plot instead of just haphazardly shoved in there just because it'll help sell the movie. I personally liked whenever they blend whatever R&B or rap or whatever with the orchestra piece which I paid attention to more music-wise then the singing (I'm not a fan of today's current wave of musical genres).

Animation is gorgeous though (Them baby penguins are the epitomy of friggin' adorable), see the icebergs crumble or shots of the mountains and such were primary awesome to watch.

Not enough to convince me to go back to watching 3D flicks outside of Pixar, but it's a far more sophiscated film then most of it's genre, so I give it bonus brownie points for that.

[SirLemming]

"Main hero doesn't stand out amongst his peers and is ridiculed for what he does, but that special talent ends up saving them in the end"

One problem I see is that I'm not even really sure how the special talent did save him in the end. I mean, I do remember what happened -- they were so impressed by his dancing that they decided to study his tribe and/or stop the fishing -- but it seemed like they tacked that on to connect two plots that didn't want to connect. Did the whole fishing plot really have to do with this dancing penguin? I wasn't convinced that it did.

[Neo Yi]

One problem I see is that I'm not even really sure how the special talent did save him in the end. I mean, I do remember what happened -- they were so impressed by his dancing that they decided to study his tribe and/or stop the fishing -- but it seemed like they tacked that on to connect two plots that didn't want to connect. Did the whole fishing plot really have to do with this dancing penguin? I wasn't convinced that it did.

I had that thought, too. I mean, seeing a dancing penguin is awe inspiring and certainly not something you see everyday, but I didn't get how dancing equals fish shortage for the flightless birds in human eyes.

[J'onn J'onzz]

I loved this movie, I'd say it was one of the best movies of 2006.

I loved the good messages the film had, and the amazing animation!

I saw suprised (and disgusted) by some really childish reactions to the film when I went to IMDB.com (go there and you'll see what I mean).

People complaining that it had sexual content...
People complaining that it was propaganda and political...
Ugh!

Yeah... I saw that. IMDB is awful in general though.

[shadesofgray]

I enjoyed this movie mostly because it surprised me.

Originally looking like a film about singing penguins (and a cgi PEBBLE AND THE PENGUIN), it turned out to be an animated MOULIN ROUGE - That is a keen mixture of eccentric characters, eye popping visuals and pop music. Overall, a good theater experience. Will definitely get on dvd.

In fact, I would go as far to say it was one of the two most enjoyable cgi flicks this year. The other being OPEN SEASON.

[Bomby]

I saw it opening weekend, and liked it more than I thought I would. I love musicals and Robin Williams, and that's pretty much the reason I went to go see it, but I was pleasantly surprised. I lved the character of Norma Jean, because I'm a big Marilyn Monroe fan, and she was obviously a reference to her. Ramon was hilarious, but Robin Williams is usually hilarious, so no surprise there. What did surprise me was that I didn't care for his other character, Lovelace. The baby penguins were the cutest things I've ever seen---well, actually, all the animation was outstanding. As mentioned before, the blend of live action and CGI was wonderful.


BUT

I, too, felt that it was a little choppy. I thought the whole movie was going to be about Mumble trying to fit in with the others (which I guess it KINDA was), and then this fish plot comes out of nowhere. Besides that, there were, like, three parts in the movie where I thought they were going to end it and set up for a sequel, but it kept going. Which, to me, made it feel long.

I have the soundtrack, because I really enjoyed the new renditions of some old favorites. "Somebody to Love" was particularly interesting. SO the songs were good, most of the characters were likable, and most of the plot was good, but overall, I'd give it an 8 our of 10.

Very cute, first CGI movie I've seen in ages (since Pixar's the only company that does good CGI films, but I'm anti-Pixar since they're ruining Disney, IMO), and I DID like it, but it's not enough to make me want to see more CGI films.

[The Old Maid]

Haven't seen this one in a while and just got back to it.

The soundtrack wasn't bad. A few songs weren't to my taste, but that church choir really roared with Stevie Wonder's "I wish." Nice touch.

The first time around, I too wondered why the humans would assume that a dancing penguin equals "we need to stop overfishing the seas." Best guess is that Mumble taught them while they were studying him. No fish, I curl up into a ball. If you feed me, I dance. Therefore when all the penguins danced, it said Feed Me. We hope.

Having said that, the odds that someone actually would release a dancing penguin if they found one are slim. Too many people would try to make money off it like Michigan J. Frog.

There definitely are religious themes in this film: theodicy, sincerity, sincere people being sincerely wrong, inflexibility as a hindrance to growth, and "rejoice without ceasing" in the face of suffering.

I've heard a lot of complaints about how most of the "denominations" illustrated were portrayed, but it's more complex than merely "Lovelace the con man" or "Noah the narrow-minded control freak." Noah and the elders remind me of Stiff Tail of Uhura's Song, with the difference that Noah denied the situation out of honest ignorance. That makes the Elders a (slightly) more sympathetic bunch, since there's nothing wrong with their faith or their ancient wisdoms. The Wisdoms have kept their people warm and safe. They simply had nothing in their background to account for a new invasive species called Man. (Penguins are still largely innocent of us, as humans only discovered the last continent a few hundred years ago.)

Mumble/Mambo is not a true Christ figure. Rather, he plays a sort of prophet role. His elders assume that Mumble has brought a curse upon their land; it never occurs to them that the Great Guin, if it is a penguin deity worth following, already knows their suffering and what to do about it. How do the penguins know whether Mumble (like Queen Esther) might not have been sent for just such a time as this?

Memphis is actually a reasonable choice for the Guin to entrust this unusual child, since Memphis, a reckless fellow in his younger days, figured that he was hardly in a position to judge. As long as Mumble's "happy feet" remained a secret, he wasn't going to send the child away. Now, when Memphis got caught, he made his relationship with his child conditional. (Fortunately Mumble was grown by now, so it wouldn't hurt him physically.) His horror at feeling he had to choose between his religion and his son was subtly portrayed, and mostly believable. We could say he "got true religion" when he realized that it begins at home. "There ain't been one day, not one day, that I done right by you." That part was heartfelt, but it shows how his grief overshadowed the (fewer) good things he did: his son grew up warm and fed and as safe as anyone could be. People aren't all one thing or the other, but a mixture. Isn't that why we have to choose?

Norma "Marilyn Monroe" Jean's unwavering loyalty to her son is touching; I don't know if the real Marilyn was given a similar role.

The Adelie Amigos also showed iron loyalty. They came across as immature and lazy around the female penguins (refusing the grown-up role of building the nest), but they probably saved Mumble and Lovelace's lives in the blizzard country. They also honored Mumble's request to watch over his mother -- a particular comfort to him since it turned out Mumble's dad had lost his way and Norma Jean would have been totally alone without "her boys."

Steve Irwin's double cameo (elephant seal in the film, originally an albatross in the deleted scenes) was a surprise. The mention of humans as "annihilators," while harsh, has some basic in fact. How many species are already extinct in the real world?

I didn't care for the suggestive sliding around scene on the ice. "Let's talk about eggs" was enough.

At the end, we see that the colony did not have to give up their ancient ways of community and song; they simply added something new.

The artwork was amazing. I saw this first in IMAX -- but even in IMAX the credits were hard to read because of the size and camera angle.