Happy Feet

In the tribe of Emperor Penguins in Antarctica, community is very important. You have to know how to gather together against the cold, or march to the sea to catch fish for the family. During mating season, the male and female penguins are attracted to each other by their “Heartsongs.” Every penguin has a song that is his or her individual identity. It’s the “voice you hear inside” that makes you “who you truly are.”

When Norma Jean (Nicole Kidman) and Memphis (Hugh Jackman) meet, he is drawn to her shake and her soulful singing. She loves his self-confidence and Elvis-like serenading. When Norma Jean goes off to the sea with the other females, Memphis, unfortunately, has a small mistake with their egg. When it is time for their egg to hatch, he takes longer than the others to crack out. Baby Gloria, voiced by Alyssa Shafer, tries to help and is there to witness his strange behavior. The baby penguin, named Mumble, voiced by E.G. Daily, can’t keep his feet still. He jumps all over the icy area. Instead of being proud of his new son, Memphis is troubled by his “happy feet.” He says: “It just ain’t penguin.” Others see it too, and as the months pass, the entire community decides that Mumble is the eccentric penguin. What’s wrose is he can’t sing at all, and, as the saying goes, “a penguin without a Heartsong is not a penguin at all.”

Norma Jean and Memphis send him to a voice teacher, voiced by Magda Szubanski, but all she can get out of him is an ear-hurting screech. Off by himself, where he can let his happy feet tap dance across the ice, Mumble (Elijah Wood) meets Boss Skua (Anthony LaPaglia), head of a tribe of evil birds who want to make lunch of him. The penguin gets him to tell the story of being abducted by aliens who pokes and explored him and then put a yellow thing around his leg. Mumble escapes from them but keeps this strange incident to himself.

Soon it is time for the young penguins to go to the sea for their first catch. Mumble is actually the first one in the water, which ends up having some dangerous creatures and very little fish. He shows his love for Gloria, now voiced by Brittany Murphy, by catching a fish for her and fighting off some greedy birds to keep it. That night, under the stars, she sings a concert and he tries to sing along, much to the alarm of the others. Soon after, he goes off alone.

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat said in their review, “Wandering the icy wastelands, he meets the Adelie Amigos, a group of five happy-go-lucky Latino penguins who find his moves "so accidentally cool."” Ramon, voiced by the late Robin Williams, the most outspoke one, calls Mumble charismatic. The Emperor Penguin has finally found friends who respect him and his dancing feet. They come up with a plan to help him win Gloria’s heart. However back home, Noah, one of the elders, voiced by Hugo Weaving, sentences Mumble’s dancing and blames him for the loss of fish in the sea. He bans Mumble from the community. Mumble decides he’ll find out the real reason for the fish shortage.

The Adelies tell Mumble about a guru penguin called Lovelace, also voiced by Williams, who answers every question. Brussat said, “He asks him about alien abductions, but his response about mystic beings on a forbidden shore doesn't make much sense. This quirky character has a plastic six-pack ring around his neck that is slowly strangling him.” Deciding this strange thing may be a clue, Mumble, the Adelies, and Lovelace go to where he found it, a journey that will test their strength and friendship.

Brussat said, “George Miller, who co-wrote, produced and directed Happy Feet brings the same creativity, exuberance, and spiritual élan to this animated feature as he did to Babe. He has incorporated so many imaginative elements into the story that it boggles the mind. First, there is the exciting music, which includes rock, funk, opera, rap, liturgical, pop, gospel, and Latin.” The music is composed by John Powell, and the soundtrack also includes songs performed by Prince, Yolanda Adams, Fantasia Barrino, Gia Farrell, Chrissie Hynde, Pattie La Belle, k.d. lang, Jason Mraz, and Pink. Second, there is the great dancing by the penguins. Brussat noted, “These scenes have been choreographed by Warren Coleman who brings together many styles including Zulu, gumboot, Navajo, and Samoa slap dancing.”

Brussat said, “The music and the dance bring out the yearning we've all had to move the body in sync with the rhythms of the earth.” The final act of Mumble’s journey brings him into an encounter with the humans and a connection that justifies all his troubles to stay faithful to his real self. The ecological crisis shown in the story of the disappearing fish is finally told with an inspiring message that had to be told at the right time: We have so much more in common with the whole Creation than we know, and our survival – and theirs – depends upon our realizing that real truth.

I saw this in the theaters with some of the family and we enjoyed this a lot. I think that everyone should see this because they will like this a lot. Sure, it’s strange that George Miller directed this, but he did a good job. The whole family can see this, get into the singing and dancing, and actually learn a true environmental message that hopefully people will take to heart and not pass it along. Because this message is something that needs to spread around and make people aware so we can save the environment, which is the underlying message of the film. Check this out and enjoy.

Next week, I will be ending “Animated Environmental Movie Month” with the sequel to this film, which is still a good one.