The film was simultaneously released in both conventional theatres and in IMAX 2D format. Though primarily an animated film, Happy Feet does incorporate motion capture of live action humans in certain scenes. It is the first animated film produced by Kennedy Miller in association with visual effects/design company Animal Logic. It was produced at Sydney-based visual effects and animation studio Animal Logic for Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures and Kingdom Feature Productions and was released in North American theaters on November 17, 2006. Happy Feet is a 2006 Australian-American computer-animated musical family film, directed and co-written by George Miller. For other uses, see Happy Feet (disambiguation). When Mumble’s father (Hugh Jackman, doing an Elvis impersonation) tearfully confesses that “I was a backslider once myself,” well, one must wonder.This article is about the 2006 film. When the emperor penguin elders demand that Mumble stop his “freakiness with the feet,” the young penguin gallantly insists that “there’s nothing wrong with me,” like a gay teen about to head off for Broadway. The lesson Mumble teaches us, naturally, is that everyone has a place in the world, even if it doesn’t fit squarely with the norm. The elephant seals are all Aussies, including one voiced by since deceased Steve Irwin. Later, by accident, he discovers a settlement of runty Adelie penguins who all talk like Spanish Harlem teenagers but are ruled by a Barry White-style waterfowl love god (Robin Williams, in stand-up mode). At one point, Mumble is harassed by hungry, goodfella-accented seagulls. Is it arch to observe that Mumble – in addition to being the most awkward and callow of the young penguins – also looks and sounds the whitest? Like the folks who made “Shark Tale,” Miller divides the animal world into ethnic fiefdoms. Elijah Wood provides the voice of Mumble, and fittingly so the one-time Frodo has become his generation’s Mickey Rooney, the perennial puberty case. Instead of carrying a tune, Mumble expresses himself by doing tap dance – a trait that inspires suspicion and bewilderment in his fellow penguins as the chick grows into an awkward adolescent who still has downy tufts where slick, waterproof feathers should be. (You have to hand it to Miller – it’s a striking image, if a tad preposterous.) And not just silly little Disney jingles, either, but full hymnal choruses of Queen’s “Somebody to Love” while back-lit, en masse, under the aurora borealis. You see, Mumble can’t sing, which – in the fervid imaginations of Miller and co-writers Warren Coleman, John Collee and Judy Morris – is pretty much the sine qua non of emperor penguin existence. More on that later.įor now, meet Mumble, a fluffy emperor penguin chick regarded as a pariah by his fellow flightless waterfowl in the South Pole. Oh, yeah – there’s also his bizarre “2001: A Space Odyssey” homage. It has lots of singing, lots of splashing and a vigorous pro-environment message, but one can’t shake the sense that director George Miller – the creator of “Babe,” here making his long-awaited return to directing – has exceeded acceptable levels of computer-animated pomp. “Happy Feet” is like “March of the Penguins” reconceived as a Super Bowl halftime show.
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