First Thoughts on Happy Feet (2006)

*All reviews contain spoilers*
Disclaimer: This blog is purely recreational and not for profit. Any material, including images and/or video footage, is property of their respective companies, unless stated otherwise. The author claims no ownership of this material. The opinions expressed therein reflect those of the author and are not to be viewed as factual documentation.

When I was a young lad, I took my first date to a screening of the 2005 documentary March of the Penguins – I certainly knew the way to a girl’s heart, didn’t I? Yet strangely, I don’t think I ever got around to seeing Happy Feet the following year (except possibly on a bootleg copy given to me by my granddad). It was another victim of my self-imposed “I’m-too-cool-for-animation” teenaged ban, not helped by the rather twee title, so I’ve only just seen it for the first time after almost thirteen years. The mid-2000s might not have been the strongest time for animation (that’s putting it mildly), but it seems there were a few genuinely good pieces of work amidst the rabble, if you knew where to look.

Happy Feet was directed, produced and co-written by George Miller of Mad Max fame – outside of the Babe films, it was his first foray into the world of family film, sort of like when Martin Scorsese made Hugo. He created it for Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures and Kingdom Feature Productions with the help of Sydney-based animation studio Animal Logic and while it is mostly animated, it does also include some motion capture shots of live-action humans. When the film was released, it came out in both conventional and IMAX 2D theatres, with a planned IMAX 3D release abandoned due to budget restrictions at Warner Bros.

I was fascinated to learn that Miller’s initial inspiration for the film came from a conversation he had with the son of Frank Hurley, who was a former member of one of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s expeditions and a true legend from the “Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration”. Specifically, he took part in Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition between 1914 and 1917, acting as the team’s official photographer and compiling his work into a documentary film entitled South, which was released in 1919. Hurley’s son, also named Frank, was a “grizzled old cameraman” whom Miller met during the filming of Mad Max 2 in 1981 (over milkshakes, of all things) and he advised Miller to shoot a film in Antarctica. It was an encounter that stayed with the director for years afterwards and he would, eventually, heed Hurley’s advice, albeit in a different way than the old cameraman had intended.

Two decades later in 2001, fellow film producer Doug Mitchell was angling to get production on Happy Feet started at last, so during an otherwise routine meeting at Warner Bros., he passed a rough draft of the screenplay along to studio president Alan Horn just before he and Miller took a flight out to Australia. By the time they landed, the Warner executives had read the script and agreed to fund the film (damn, must have been a good draft). Originally, Happy Feet was intended to go into production after the completion of the fourth Mad Max film, Fury Road (which we now know didn’t come out until 2015), but according to Wikipedia, “geopolitical complications” pushed it ahead so that it entered production in early 2003.

The crew drew upon sources such as the BBC’s 1993 documentary Life in the Freezer for inspiration, but nothing is better than the real thing, so sometime early in production, they headed out to spend three months in the icy majesty of Antarctica itself. Staying with Antarctica New Zealand at the Scott Base, they worked their way around the Antarctic Peninsula, observing Gentoo penguins at Port Lockroy and Chinstraps at Petermann Island, as well as plenty of Emperors. Seeing the various species in person gave them a better idea of the different “personalities” of each species and helped them to get a better grasp on their characters later on.

Miller noted later that the environmental message in the film was not originally a big part of the script, but “In Australia, we’re very, very aware of the ozone hole, and Antarctica is literally the canary in the coal mine for this stuff. So it sort of had to go in that direction.” He also said, “You can’t tell a story about Antarctica and the penguins without giving it that dimension.”

Much like The Polar Express, Happy Feet made extensive use of motion-capture animation, not only for scenes of the humans but also for those of the penguins, which were performed in live-action first before being animated. Mumble’s tap-dancing is notable for having been provided by Savion Glover, who also co-choreographed the other dance sequences with Kelley Abbey and Wade and Chantal Robson. All of the dancers went through a “Penguin School” training programme to learn how to correctly move like a penguin, even wearing prosthetic beaks to ensure they incorporated every part of a penguin’s anatomy into their moves.

One of the most remarkable things about the film is just how well its animation has managed to hold up over the years, especially given that it’s the work of computers. As I’ve noted in earlier reviews of films from this time, early computer-animated efforts tended to look pretty cheap and plasticky unless they were from Pixar, but Happy Feet still looks great after more than a decade. This is probably because the team spared no expense when it came to the technology: Animal Logic worked with IBM to build a “server farm” in order to generate the necessary processing power, encountering several delays due to the need to build “new infrastructure and tools,” according to lighting supervisor Ben Gunsberger. The server farm combined an IBM BladeCenter framework and BladeCenter HS20 blade servers, which are extremely dense separate computer units each with two Intel Xeon processors. (Thanks again to Wikipedia for that part). Rendering alone took up 17 million CPU hours over a nine-month period – thank goodness CPU time isn’t the same as real time, or the crew would’ve been working on Happy Feet for almost two thousand years!

On top of its visuals, one of the other highlights of the film is its incredible soundtrack. Happy Feet features a solid score by John Powell and is what’s known as a jukebox musical, a musical consisting of a selection of mostly pre-existing songs. There are several moments in the score which stood out to me, particularly that rather haunting chord that played whenever Mumble would stumble upon some evidence of human habitation (such as the excavator, or the icebreaker ships), but the songs are what everybody remembers about this film.

One song in particular deserves special mention – Song of the Heart, which was the film’s only original number and was written especially for it by a musical phenomenon, the one and only Prince. The filmmakers wanted to use his 1986 hit Kiss in the film but were having trouble convincing him to agree to it, so they screened the film for him first to try and win him over. They succeeded so completely that he not only gave them permission to use Kiss, but also volunteered to write them a brand-new song as well, a promise he fulfilled just one week later. Song of the Heart went on to win him his only Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song (he had been nominated once previously for Purple Rain but lost to Stevie Wonder) and a Golden Trailer Award for Best Music.

In addition to this, the soundtrack is absolutely crammed with classics by the likes of Queen, Elvis Presley, Rufus, Chaka Khan, Gia Farrell, Stevie Wonder, the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra and the Beatles, with the performers covering these songs including names like Patti LaBelle, Yolanda Adams, Fantasia Barrino, The Brand New Heavies, Pink, Jason Mraz, Chrissie Hynde and k. d. lang. It’s delicious, and the centrepiece is a stirring rendition of Boogie Wonderland performed by the core cast members (originally by Earth, Wind & Fire with The Emotions). There’s so much good stuff on offer, but what’s even better is that it’s actually incorporated into the story in ways that make sense; Norma Jean and Memphis’s “heartsongs” genuinely compliment each other, for instance, and even Gloria’s is all about dancing – convenient, given who she falls for!

The soundtrack isn’t the only place with a glittering array of stars, either. The cast of this film would give The Prince of Egypt a run for its money – we have Elijah Wood in the central role as Mumble with E. G. Daily of The Rugrats playing his younger self, and his parents, Norma Jean and Memphis, are none other than Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. Then we have the wonderful Robin Williams (RIP) in the roles of Ramón, Cletus, Lovelace, and the narrator, along with the late Brittany Murphy (also taken too soon) as Gloria, with Alyssa Shafer as her younger self. The supporting cast continues an already impressive roll call with Hugo Weaving as Noah the Elder (a former colleague of both Miller and Wood), Miriam Margolyes as Mrs. Astrakhan, Steve Irwin (yet another RIP) as Trev the elephant seal and Roger Rose as the leopard seal. Then we have Fat Joe as Seymour, Anthony LaPaglia as the skua boss, Magda Szubanski as Miss Viola, and of course, the Amigos – Carlos Alazraqui as Nestor, Lombardo Boyar as Raul, Jeffrey Garcia as Rinaldo and Johnny Sanchez as Lombardo, who join Robin Williams.

I must admit that this was a film I wasn’t expecting to like, but I was pleasantly surprised. For starters, it’s gorgeous, filled with breath-taking Antarctic scenery – you don’t see the seventh continent depicted in animation (or film at all) too often. I had no idea the film was this beautiful, but it’s not just the panoramas of wind-blasted icefields that impressed me; the cinematography itself is also excellent, particularly in the scenes involving Mumble’s contact with the “aliens”.

Whenever the humans are around, we tend to be seeing them from the penguins’ perspective, so Miller makes the ships and machines look huge and unfathomable, almost like forces of nature and completely outside of the animals’ control. This continues to the depiction of the humans themselves; as mentioned above, they’re done in live-action mocap, making them look distinctly “real” in comparison to Mumble and designating them as “different”. He never sees them without a wall of mottled glass between them during his time in captivity, only seeing them on his own turf at last in one of the final scenes, in which they are still positioned above the colony like “gods” overlooking their subjects after having arrived in another terrifying machine. It’s an effective way of presenting the humans to us, a human audience, as the “aliens” that the penguins see them as.

Even the smallest details add to the film’s atmosphere, showcasing the team’s research. For instance, the elephant seals are portrayed as Australians, which is accurate as a subpopulation of them can indeed be found on the Australian island of Macquarie in reality. Memphis being a “southerner” in the style of a guy from the American deep south is also a fun way of emphasising to the American audience that he’s from the literal South Pole, as southern as you can get. Even choosing to portray the Adélie penguins (the Amigos) as Latino could be seen as a nod to the one real-life species of Latin penguin: the Galápagos.

When the characters aren’t anthropomorphised, they tend to display accurate behaviours for their species; the leopard seal and orcas are depicted engaging in entirely appropriate hunting patterns, with the orcas being more “playful” about it and the leopard seal struggling to catch anything once on land. I liked that the predators weren’t all demonised in the way that kids’ films tend to do; the skuas, for instance, are simply trying to survive and are quite affable towards little Mumble – heck, the leader almost seems reluctant at having to eat him and they give up pretty quickly.

The story is your basic “don’t rock the boat” plot about a group of characters – the penguins – living under a rigid social structure, which in this case takes the form of a quasi-religious cult (overseen by “the Great ‘Guin”). The protagonist, Mumble, is your basic loveable misfit who happens to be different and must find acceptance among his people, but for all its familiarity, I found Happy Feet to be an enjoyable take on the tale which had me invested from the start. Honestly, the cutesy title doesn’t do the film justice – I went into it expecting something like a mid-tier DreamWorks film of the time, but it was much better than that. Mumble initially finds acceptance among the Adélie penguins, a species that the film crew actually did find to be more “fun-loving” than the more stoic Emperors in reality, but is eventually able to prove the existence of the humans and thus wins his colony’s respect once and for all.

Something you might not expect of a film like this is how much it has to say about a wide variety of topical subjects. As the story progresses, it offers light exploration of such themes as religious zealotry, bigotry, xenophobia and even homophobia (Mumble’s dancing has been read as an allegory for everything from homosexuality to autism), with a strong criticism of the effects of peer pressure running throughout. Memphis and Mumble’s struggle to relate to one another is such a common trope in film that it has its own TV Tropes page – the “Billy Elliott plot” – although strangely Happy Feet isn’t listed as an example on it. It’s always good to see films aimed at younger audiences teaching them to be true to themselves and to ignore the naysayers, even if the story’s conclusion doesn’t make a lot of sense (but I’ll get to that below).

The only “message” the film offered which I didn’t fully agree with was that of the plight of zoos, which isn’t tackled with much sympathy, depicting the captive penguins as listless and half-mad. While it’s true that lack of stimulation and cramped enclosures are a major problem in badly-run or underfunded zoos, the best ones work hard to keep their animals happy and healthy, protect endangered species and educate the public on ways to help their wild counterparts, doing much to keep species at risk in the wild alive.

On that note, one aspect of the film that I’d like to draw particular attention to is the depiction of Lovelace, a hugely flamboyant and enjoyable presence courtesy of Robin Williams. While I had a great time watching him, I found it horribly disturbing to see him spend half his screen-time slowly choking to death in a plastic six-pack drink holder – as well I should have. This is one of the film’s most visceral and upsetting images, despite the director’s attempts to soften it with some light “charades” comedy, making it stay with you long after the film ends. In fact, the main reason that I think I might have seen this once before in bootleg form is because I seemed to remember that image of Lovelace choking – it’s certainly an effective way to convince young viewers not to litter!

Now, while I will happily praise the film’s acting, music and morals, it’s certainly not perfect. The story does have some issues; to be honest, I actually found the whole “happy feet” premise a bit contrived and silly (but then, I am well outside the target demographic). I’m just not a huge fan of tap-dance, I’m afraid, so whenever Mumble’s feet started making that scratching sound I just felt mildly irritated – it was more tolerable when accompanied by singing, such as during the big Boogie Wonderland number.

More to the point, are we really supposed to believe that a few dancing penguins – which would be little more than meme-fodder in today’s world – were enough to completely shift global opinions on fishing in the Antarctic? Seriously – dancing bloody penguins? Come on. Then again, while this “happy ending” might be massively implausible, it’s still one we desperately need in reality, so I can only hope that the film inspired a few of the kids who saw it back in 2006 to make a difference. Who knows, perhaps even now a new generation of young activists are coming of age, with this film a nostalgic memory at the back of their minds.

One other minor criticism would be of the use of female characters in the story. As much as I loved Norma Jean and Gloria and their unwavering support of Mumble in the face of adversity, the fact that the only two female characters of significance are – once again – the male lead’s mother and love interest (with two other minor ones being his teachers) is disappointing. Gloria actually tries to join the final quest to meet the “aliens”, only to be turned back with a “hurt her to save her” gambit from an overprotective Mumble.

Still, Gloria is a likeable character in spite of not having much to do, with the writers making a point of showing how she stands up for Mumble right from the very beginning. As an infant, she taps insistently on his egg when it looks like he might not hatch, encouraging the baby Mumble inside to come out; then, in school a short while later, she’s the only penguin in class who defends Mumble after his appalling singing lesson. Even as young adults, when she is the most popular penguin of the lot, she’s still friendly towards Mumble and doesn’t try to distance herself from him (although even she can’t resist the peer pressure entirely). Her good attitude really gets us on her side, making us understand why Mumble likes her so much – like his mother, she is one of the few who truly accepts him for who he is, even if it does take her a little while.

When the film first came out, it did well at the box office, coming in behind Pixar’s Cars and Blue Sky’s Ice Age 2: The Meltdown as the third-highest-grossing animated film of the year in the USA. Critics and audiences alike generally enjoyed it, with many commenting on the various complex themes and topics that the story tackles. In a first for Warner Bros., Happy Feet also went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, as well as the BAFTA for Best Animated Film and further nominations at the Annie and Saturn Awards (not to take away from those achievements, but there wasn’t a lot of competition that year). In 2011, a sequel, Happy Feet Two, was then released, which added Hank Azaria, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Sofía Vergara to the cast (and also recast Gloria with pop star Pink, due to Brittany Murphy’s untimely passing a few years earlier). This didn’t do so well, however, and with the unfortunate deaths of two of the core cast members, it seems unlikely a third instalment will ever be made.

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s article. I’ve been enjoying this trip back through the mid-2000s so far, so I’m hoping the third and final film, The Simpsons Movie, doesn’t disappoint. I must confess that I’ve only ever seen a handful of episodes from the show, so I’ll be coming at it with a pretty unbiased perspective – from what I hear from fans, it’s a solid entry to the franchise, but we shall see. After that, there will be two more First Thoughts on a couple of more recent films, and then it’s back to the full film reviews with Spirited Away. Until next time, take care and stay animated!

References
By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34352489 – credit for poster
http://www.cgw.com/Publications/CGW/2006/Volume-29-Issue-11-Nov-2006-/Happy-Feat.aspx – more details on the animation
https://www.petcha.com/in-antarctica-with-happy-feet/ – a discussion about the research trip to Antarctica undertaken by the crew
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BillyElliotPlot – a TV Tropes page about one of the film’s main plotlines
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Feet – Wiki page
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366548/ – IMDB profile