Happy Feet is an Australian-produced 2006 computer-animated comedy-drama musical film, directed and co-written by George Miller. It was produced at Sydney-based visual effects and animation studio Animal Logic for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures and was released in North America on November 17, 2006. It is the first animated feature film produced by Kennedy Miller in association with Animal Logic. Though primarily an animated film, it does incorporate live action humans in certain scenes. The film was simultaneously released in both conventional theatres and in IMAX 2D format. The studio has hinted that a future IMAX 3D release was a possibility. Happy Feet won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature after failing to win the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature.
The film was dedicated in memory of Nick Enright, Michael Jonson, Robby McNeilly Green, and Steve Irwin.
Production
The animation in Happy Feet invested heavily in motion capture technology, with the dance scenes acted out by human dancers. The tap-dancing for Mumble in particular was provided by Savion Glover who was also co-choreographer for the dance sequences. The dancers went through “Penguin School” to learn how to move like a penguin, and also wore head apparatus to mimic a penguin’s beak.
Happy Feet was partially inspired by earlier documentaries such as the BBC’s Life in the Freezer.
The film took four years to make. Ben Gunsberger, Lighting Supervisor and VFX Department Supervisor, says this was partly because they needed to build new infrastructure and tools.
Plot
Set in an Antarctic emperor penguin colony, the film establishes that every penguin must sing a unique song called a “Heartsong” to attract a soul mate who will know how to complete their heartsong. This is based in fact, since emperor couples court each other and recognize one another by their unique calls. One penguin, Norma Jean (Nicole Kidman), sings the song “Kiss”, whereupon a male penguin named Memphis (Hugh Jackman) sings “Heartbreak Hotel”. Norma Jean chooses him as her mate. They couple and Norma Jean lays an egg. The egg is left in Memphis’s care while Norma Jean and the other females leave to fish for several weeks. While the males are struggling through the harsh winter, Memphis drops the egg, briefly exposing it to the freezing Antarctic temperatures. The resulting chick – the film’s protagonist, Mumble (Elijah Wood) – has a terrible singing voice. However, Mumble has an astute talent for something that none of the penguins had ever seen before: tap dancing.
This ability is frowned upon by the colony’s elders, who don’t tolerate deviance of any kind. As a result, Mumble is ostracized throughout his childhood, with only his mother and his friend Gloria to turn to for help. Mumble then grows to an adult, still half-covered in fluffy down. Through a series of mishaps – mainly getting chased by a hungry leopard seal – the penguin finds himself far from his home and within the carefree colony of adelie penguins – penguins small in stature, but fiercely loyal to those they call friends. He quickly befriends a small group of bachelors who form a club of sorts called the Amigos: the leader, Ramon (Robin Williams), the brothers Raul and Nestor, and twin brothers Rinaldo and Lombardo. The Amigos quickly embrace Mumble’s dance moves and assimilate him into their misfit group.
Mumble’s joy at finding acceptance for his difference is cut short when strange “alien discoveries” occur; after his accidentally starting an avalanche a long-frozen human excavator tumbles out from a glacier, and Mumble is intrigued. Driven by curiosity, he sets out to find the “aliens” responsible for the machine.
In Mumble’s old home, it is mating season, and Gloria is the center of attention, as was Mumble’s mother, though no other penguin knows the next verse to her heartsong. However, although she is surrounded by a large horde of suitors, none of their Heartsongs interest her what so ever. At this point, Ramon stands behind a newly come Mumble and sings a Spanish version of My Way. Gloria likes the song to a degree, but is only fooled for a moment, for she knows that Mumble can’t sing. She pushes him forward, revealing Ramon. Though Gloria doesn’t want Mumble to live life alone or even care much for the other penguins or their songs, Mumble unfortunantly has no heartsong at all and she turns back to the other males, leaving Mumble temporarily heartbroken. He then tries to persuade her to sing along to his tapping rhythm. Gloria is reluctant at first but complies, finding that Mumble’s rhythm fits with her melody. As Mumble’s beat speeds up Gloria finds the chorus to her heartsong, and realizes her song is “Boogie Wonderland”, a dance song. Gloria’s heartsong fits with Mumble’s dancing talent. Both Gloria and Mumble are exhilarated, and the other penguins are equally worked up; they all begin dancing along to him, much to Mumble’s delight.
Noah, the elder, sees the lack of fish as punishment from the Great ‘Guin, their god, regarding Mumble’s dancing. Noah exiles Mumble from the colony as a result; before Mumble leaves, he vows that he will find the real cause of the famine, and travels across vast territories with the Amigos and Lovelace, a self-worshipping rockhopper. Gloria tries to help him; Mumble, out of fear for her safety, does whatever it takes to get rid of her – namely, insulting her singing talents.
The Amigos, along with Mumble and Lovelace, travel many miles under harsh conditions. During their journey, they meet a group of elephant seals, who warn of “Annihilators”, who are presumably the same “aliens” Mumble seeks. After narrowly escaping from two killer whales, the penguins finally come face to face with a legion of huge commercial trawlers, all laden with fish caught around the Antarctic coast. Mumble follows after them fearlessly, leaving his friends behind to bear testament to his legacy.
After swimming and being tossed around by sea currents, Mumble ends up in a penguin exhibit at a marine park (closely resembling the Penguin Encounter at SeaWorld, a massive zoom-out hinting at the one in Orlando, Florida), and fervently tries to communicate with the “aliens” (humans) who surround him. When his pleas fail, Mumble nearly succumbs to madness after three months of confinement in the sterile glass prison. When a child taps on the glass wall one day, Mumble is woken from his stupor and dances in response, whereupon the child appears to run away. He becomes disappointed until she comes back with her mother. Soon, a large crowd gathers around the exhibit, taking pictures and telling their friends of this marvel. He is released to the wild, now with fewer of his fluffy down feathers and a tracking device strapped to his back, and leads the “aliens” home to his native colony. The other penguins, formerly skeptical, are now convinced that the aliens do exist.
Soon, a research team arrives and films the penguins dancing, and dances along with the rhythm. They bring this footage back to the human world. Different governments debate what to make of this footage and a worldwide debate ensues. They soon realize that they are overfishing the Antarctic waters, and conclude that perhaps the penguins were trying to communicate that to them. Antarctic fishing is banned, and the fish population recovers. At this, the Emperor Penguins and the Amigos dance and celebrate their triumph. A dancing baby penguin seen at the end is implied to be the child of Mumble and Gloria.
In the credits, the characters reunite to dance for the final number “Song of the Heart.” During the credits, it could be said that the characters appear and disappear based on the relationships between each other.
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