| Happy Feet | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | George Miller |
| Written by |
|
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | David Peers |
| Edited by |
|
| Music by | John Powell |
Production companies |
|
| Distributed by |
|
Release dates |
|
Running time | 108 minutes |
| Countries |
|
| Language | English |
| Budget | $100 million[3] |
| Box office | $384.3 million[3] |
Happy Feet is a 2006 animatedjukebox musicalcomedy film directed and produced byGeorge Miller and written by Miller,John Collee,Judy Morris and Warren Coleman. It starsElijah Wood,Robin Williams,Brittany Murphy,Hugh Jackman,Nicole Kidman,Hugo Weaving,Anthony LaPaglia,Magda Szubanski andSteve Irwin. In the film, Mumble, a tap-dancingemperor penguin who lacks the ability to sing a heartsong to attract a soulmate and is ridiculed by his peers and family, departs on a journey across Antarctica to learn what is causing the local fish population to decline.
Happy Feet was the first animated film produced byKennedy Miller andAnimal Logic. Aninternational co-production between the United States and Australia, the film was produced at Sydney-basedvisual effects andanimation studioAnimal Logic. The film was released in North America on 17 November 2006 and inAustralia on 26 December. A planned IMAX 3D release was cancelled due to budgetary issues.[4]
Happy Feet received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its visuals, storyline and songs, and grossed $384 million against its $100 million budget, becoming thetenth-highest-grossing film of 2006. It earned the inauguralBAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, and theAcademy Award for Best Animated Feature, and was nominated for theAnnie Award and theSaturn Award for Best Animated Feature. A sequel,Happy Feet Two, was released in 2011.
Everyemperor penguin attracts amate by singing a unique "heartsong". If themale penguin's heartsong matches thefemale's song, the two penguins mate. Norma Jean, a female penguin, falls for Memphis, a male penguin and they become mates. They lay an egg, which Memphis cares for while Norma Jean leaves with the other females tofish. While the males struggle through the harshwinter, Memphis briefly drops the egg. The resulting chick, Mumble, is unable to sing but is nevertheless enamored with Gloria, a female penguin who is regarded as the most talented of her age. One day, Mumble discovers he is able totap dance before encountering a group of hostileskua, with a leader who is tagged with ayellow band, which he says is from analien abduction. Mumble narrowly escapes the hungry birds by falling into a crevice.
Now a young adult, Mumble is frequently ridiculed by the elders and their leader Noah. After escaping from aleopard seal attack, Mumble befriends fiveAdelie penguins named Ramón, Nestor, Lombardo, Rinaldo and Raul, known collectively as "the Amigos", who embrace Mumble's dance moves and assimilate him into their group. After seeing a hidden humanexcavator in an avalanche, they opt to ask Lovelace, arockhopper penguin, about its origin. Lovelace has the plastic rings of a six pack entangled around his neck, saying that they have been bestowed upon him by mystic beings.
For the emperor penguins, it is mating season and Gloria is the center of attention. The Amigos unsuccessfully attempt to help Mumble win her affection by having Ramón sing a Spanish version of "My Way" behind Mumble, with the latterlip syncing. After Mumble desperately begins tap dancing in synch with her song, she falls for him and the youthful penguins join in for singing and dancing to "Boogie Wonderland". The elders are appalled by Mumble's conduct, which they see as the reason for their lean fishing season. Memphis begs Mumble to stop dancing, for his own sake, but when Mumble refuses, he is exiled.
Mumble and the Amigos return to Lovelace, only to find him being choked by the plastic rings. Lovelace confesses they were snagged on him while swimming off the forbidden shores, beyond the land of theelephant seals. Not long into their journey, Gloria encounters them, wishing to become Mumble's mate. Fearing for her safety, he ridicules Gloria, driving her away.
At the forbidden shore, Mumble, Lovelace and the Amigos are attacked by twoorcas, during which Lovelace gets free from the plastic rings. After escaping, they find a fishing boat, which steals their fish. Mumble exhaustingly pursues it alone, eventually washing up on the shore ofFlorida, where he is rescued and kept at Sea World withMagellanic penguins. After a long and secluded confinement in addition to fruitlessly trying to communicate with the humans, he is about to succumb tomadness, when he unexpectedly reveals his dancing skills to the humans, who are all amazed. He is released back into the wild, with atracking device attached to his back. He returns to his colony and challenges the will of the elders. Memphis reconciles with him, just as a research team arrives, verifying Mumble's statements of "aliens" existing. The entire colony engages in dance in front of the research team, whose expedition footage prompts a worldwide debate, which eventually leads to the banning of all Antarcticoverfishing, satisfying both the emperor penguins and the Amigos.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
The cast have been sorted into the different categories and are listed in order of the end credits:
Adélie penguins:
Emperor penguins:
Rockhopper:
Skuas:
Elephant seals:
Others:
Additional voices by J. Grant Albrecht, Logan Arens,Dee Bradley Baker, Charles Bartlett, Shane Baumel, T.J. Beacom,Kwesi Boakye,A.J. Buckley,Erin Chambers,Rickey D'Shon Collins, Scott E. Cox, Django Craig, Nicholas DeLaurentis, Olivia DeLaurentis,Chris Edgerly, Efrain Figueroa,Jeff Fischer, Sonje Fortag, Spencer Ganus, Khamani Griffin, Khadijah Haqq,Aldis Hodge, Fisher Keen, Arif S. Kinchen, Michael Krepack, Libby Lynch,Diane Michelle, Ryan Munck, Christian Pikes, Steve Pinto, Zoe Raye, Noreen Reardon, Eliana Reyes, Nicole Richmond, Aimee Roldon, Kyndell Rose, Alyssa Smith, Mari Weiss, Billie Williams, andRachel York.
As an initial inspiration for the film,George Miller cited an encounter with cinematographer Bill Grimmond during the shooting ofThe Road Warrior (Mad Max II). Grimmond had shot adocumentary in Antarctica, and said that Miller should make a film set there, he compared to the "wasteland" desert they were filming in.[5]
Miller was also influenced byFrank Hurley, official photographer of theAustralasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE, 1911–1913) andBANZARE (1929–31) expeditions led by Australian geologistDouglas Mawson, as well as theImperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917 led byErnest Shackleton. Hurley's footage of the AAE, assembled in various forms and later known asHome of the Blizzard, which included footage of penguins leaning against the wind, inspired some of the scenes inHappy Feet.[6]
Happy Feet was also partially inspired by documentaries such as theBBC'sLife in the Freezer (1993, presented byDavid Attenborough).[7]
In 2001, during an otherwise non-sequitur meeting,Doug Mitchell impulsively presentedWarner Bros. studio presidentAlan Horn with an early rough draft of the film's screenplay, and asked them to read it while he and Miller flew back to Australia.[citation needed] By the time they had landed, Warner Bros. had decided to provide funding on the film. Production was slated to begin sometime after the completion of the fourthMad Max filmFury Road, but geopolitical complications pushedHappy Feet to the forefront in early 2003.[citation needed]
According to Miller, the environmental message was not a major part of the original script. "In Australia, we're very, very aware of the ozone hole... and Antarctica is literally thecanary in the coal mine for this stuff. So it sort of had to go in that direction". This influence led to a film with a more environmental tone. Miller said, "You can't tell a story about Antarctica and the penguins without giving that dimension".[8]
The animation is invested heavily inmotion capture technology, with the dance scenes acted by human dancers. The tap dancing for Mumble was provided bySavion Glover, who was also co-choreographer for the dance sequences.[9] 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.[10]
Happy Feet needed an enormous group of computers, andAnimal Logic worked withIBM to build a server farm with sufficient processing potential. The film took four years to make. Lighting Supervisor and VFX Department Supervisor Ben Gunsberger said that this was partly because they needed to build new infrastructure and tools. The server farm usedIBM BladeCenter framework and BladeCenter HS20blade servers, which are extremely dense separate computer units, each with twoIntelXeon processors. Rendering took up 17 million CPU hours over a nine-month period.[11]
Happy Feet is ajukebox musical, taking previously recorded songs and working them into the film's soundtrack to fit the mood of the scene or character. Twosoundtrack albums were released for the film; one containing songs from and inspired by the film, and another featuringJohn Powell's instrumental score. They were released on 31 October 2006 and 19 December 2006, respectively.
Prince's "Song of the Heart" won theGolden Globe Award for Best Original Song. The film wonGolden Trailer Award for Best Music.[12] The song was written by Prince specifically forHappy Feet shortly after he was given a private screening of the film to gain his approval for the use of his song "Kiss" in a musical number.[13] Prince enjoyed the film, gave his approval for the use of "Kiss" and offered to write an original song for the production, which he completed a week later.[13]
| Happy Feet: Music from the Motion Picture | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Various Artists | ||||
| Released | 31 October 2006 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 47:47 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | ||||
| Happy Feet soundtrack chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Happy Feet | ||||
| ||||
Happy Feet: Music from the Motion Picture is thelyrical soundtrack album from the 2006 animated filmHappy Feet. As of March 2007, the original soundtrack sold more than 272,627 copies in the US.[citation needed]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Performer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Song of the Heart" | Prince | Prince | 4:35 |
| 2. | "Hit Me Up" | Brian Kierulf, Josh Schwartz & Gia Farrell | Gia Farrell | 3:16 |
| 3. | "Tell Me Something Good" | Stevie Wonder | Pink | 3:08 |
| 4. | "Somebody to Love" | Freddie Mercury | Brittany Murphy | 3:47 |
| 5. | "I Wish" | Stevie Wonder | Patti LaBelle,Yolanda Adams andFantasia Barrino | 3:31 |
| 6. | "Jump N' Move" | Simon Bartholomew, Jan Kincaid, Andrew Levy & Jamal Mitchell | The Brand New Heavies (featuring Jamalski) | 3:18 |
| 7. | "Do It Again" | Brian Wilson & Mike Love | The Beach Boys | 2:24 |
| 8. | "The Joker mash-up withEverything I Own" | "The Joker" by Steve Miller,Eddie Curtis & Ahmet Ertegün; "Everything I Own" by David Gates | "The Joker" byJason Mraz; "Everything I Own" byChrissie Hynde | 4:05 |
| 9. | "My Way (A Mi Manera)" | Paul Anka,Jacques Revaux,Claude François & Gilles Thibault | Robin Williams | 1:44 |
| 10. | "Kiss mash-up withHeartbreak Hotel" | "Kiss" by Prince; "Heartbreak Hotel" byMae Boren Axton,Thomas Durden, andElvis Presley | "Kiss" byNicole Kidman; "Heartbreak Hotel" byHugh Jackman | 2:36 |
| 11. | "Boogie Wonderland" | Allee Willis & Jonathan Lind | Brittany Murphy | 5:07 |
| 12. | "Golden Slumbers /The End" | John Lennon &Paul McCartney | k.d. lang | 4:16 |
| 13. | "The Story of Mumble Happy Feet" | John Powell | 5:50 | |
| Total length: | 47:37 | |||
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[15] | Gold | 35,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
The film opened at number one in the United States on its first weekend of release (17–19 November), grossing $41.6 million and beatingCasino Royale for the top spot.[16][17] It remained number one for theThanksgiving weekend, making $51.6 million over the five-day period, outgrossing the newly releasedDéjà Vu andDeck the Halls.[18] In total, the film was the top grosser for three weeks, a 2006 box-office feat matched by onlyPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.[19] As of 8 June 2008,Happy Feet had grossed $198.0 million in the US and Canada, and $186.3 million in other countries, making approximately $384.3 million worldwide.Happy Feet was the third-highest-grossing animated film of 2006 in the US, behindCars andIce Age: The Meltdown. The film was released in an estimated 35 territories at the close of 2006.[20][21]
The production budget was $100 million.[3]
Happy Feet received generally positive reviews from critics. Onreview aggregator siteRotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 76% approval rating, based on 170 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's consensus reads: "Visually dazzling, with a thoughtful storyline and catchy musical numbers,Happy Feet marks a successful animated debut from the makers ofBabe."[22]Metacritic reports a 77 out of 100 rating, based on 30 critics.[23] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on a scale of A+ to F.[24]
Marjorie Baumgarten, film critic forThe Austin Chronicle, wrote a positive review, saying, "Happy Feet treads material common to kids films and cartoons, most notablyDumbo: A young animal stands out from his herd or flock because of his inability to perform like the other animals, although he seemingly compensates for this defect by demonstrating a certain skill that sets him apart from the others, who ostracize him for his weirdness." Baumgarten also said that the CGI recreation of Antarctica is "stunning, allowing the film to shift among glorious long shots of the ice and penguin population and midshots and close-ups of the character interactions".[25]
James Berardinelli, film critic forReelViews, praised its musical numbers (particularly "Kiss" and "Boogie Wonderland") and Robin Williams's performance by awarding the film three out of four, saying, "The ingredients for greatness are there. It's too bad the movie lost its way on the approach to the finish line. I recommendHappy Feet, but not as enthusiastically as I wish I could."[26]
Film critic Yar Habnegnal wrote an essay inForum on Contemporary Art and Society that examines the themes of encroachment presented throughout the film, as well as various other subtexts and themes, such as religious hierarchy and interracial tensions.[27] Vadim Rizov ofIFC sees Mumble as just the latest in a long line of cinematic religious mavericks. SomeChristians have also considered the film to be anti-Christian (or antireligious in general) due to the imagery and behaviours of various characters.[28][29]
On a technical or formal level, the film has also been recognised for its innovative introduction of Miller's roving style of subjectivecinematography into contemporary animation.
Happy Feet was released on home media on 27 March 2007,[30] in the United States in three formats:DVD (in separatewidescreen andpan-and-scan editions),Blu-ray, and anHD DVD/DVD combo pack.[31] Overall,Happy Feet was the third-best-selling film of 2007, with 12.2 million units sold, earning a revenue of $196.9 million.[32]
Among the DVD's special features is ascene that was cut from the film, in which Mumble meets ablue whale and analbatross while pursuing the fishing boat. The albatross wasSteve Irwin's first voice role in the film before he voiced the elephant seal in the final cut. The scene was finished and included on the DVD in Irwin's memory. This scene is done in documentary style, with the albatross describing the other characters in the scene, and the impact people are having on their environment. Another special feature included on the DVD is the 1936Merrie Melodies shortI Love to Singa.
The film appeared on numerous critics' top-ten lists of the best films of 2006.[33][34]
Avideo game based on the film was developed byA2M and published byMidway Games. It has the same main cast as the film. It was released forMicrosoft Windows,PlayStation 2,GameCube,Game Boy Advance,Nintendo DS andWii.[36]
Artificial Life, Inc. has also developed a mobile game for the Japanese market.[37]
Happy Feet Two was produced atDr. D Studios[38] and released on 18 November 2011.
Happy Feet 4-D Experience is a 12-minute4D film shown at various 4D theatres around the world. It retells the condensed story ofHappy Feet with the help of 3D projection and sensory effects, including moving seats, wind, mist and scents. Produced bySimEx-Iwerks, the 4D experience premiered in March 2010 at theDrayton Manor Theme Park.[39] Other locations includedSea World (2010–2011),[40]Shedd Aquarium (2010–2012),[41]Moody Gardens (2010–2011),[42]Nickelodeon Suites Resort[43] andAdventure Aquarium.[44]
[Per Part 2 of the essay]: An earlier version of this essay was published inJournal of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Vol. 2, No. 4, 2007.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
