Mostly excommunicated by the Emperor High Council, who blame his Happy Feet for the shortage of food for the Emperor tribe (fearing he has offended the mystic penguin god, “The Quin”), Mumble sets out to find the meaning for life and the real reason for the dwindling harvest of fish. Mumble remains too unconventional to be included in a lot of penguin events, especially those that include song, as his voice is like the brash honk of a horn with a fist stuck down its throat! His feet are his expression of life and song.Īs the time approaches and Mumble still hasn’t found his heart song, he laments to his parents, without a song, “…how will I know, Momma? How will I know my true love?” Memphis cheers his son on by telling him, “You’ll know her by a wiggle in her walk and a giggle in her talk.”īut, can a penguin without a heart song, ever belong? Although encouraged to be himself by Momma, and that he will eventually find his heart song through “try” and “umph!” by his Papa, Mumble is ridiculed and misunderstood by most of the penguin population, except by his childhood friend, Gloria (Brittany Murphy), who sticks up for him and waits for him to return from his adventures with a song in his heart for her. Through it all, it is Momma Norma Jean, who delights in her son’s dancing and nick names him “Happy Feet.” She believes it is good to be an individual, when all others deem him different. That is their sole purpose and must be done in order for their species to survive. Sing to find the “heart song” all penguins must have in order to find a mate. ![]() The high council of elders and his father command Mumble not to do that, because “it’s just not penguin.” Instead, Mumble is given voice lessons, in order to do what all true Emperor penguins do, and that is sing. As they all wait in anticipation, out pops little Mumble ( Elijah Wood later voices as the teenager), not beak first, but feet first! He immediately starts tap dancing across the icy snow-much to the shock of his father and all the penguin population. Although he recovers his charge, the threat of an abnormal egg, or worse (not hatching at all), haunts him.Īll the other eggs hatched, it is Memphis and Norma Jean’s egg that cracks last. A secret that Memphis hides is that during the incubation process he accidentally lets the egg slip from under his protective skirt into the freezing cold. Through the frozen polar winter, it is the male’s job to protect the egg and nurture it under his warm fold, while the female goes off to fatten herself up to return to feed the newly hatched egg in the Spring. The two are meant for each other, and, as our narrator explains, “…the song became love and love became The Egg.” Out of the crowd of beaus swaggers Memphis ( Hugh Jackman sounding just a bit “Elvis”), singing her song in perfect harmony (and a little hippy hippy shake). Vivacious penguin Norma Jean (the voice of Nicole Kidman, doing a breathy Marilyn Monroe), complete with Marilyn’s beauty mark, sings her way through the male population of Emperor penguins, sifting through each male song, searching for the mate of her dreams. A grand scope, a little long in the middle, but “Happy Feet” provides loads of lush audio and visuals. ![]() Narrator, Robin Williams (doing his best “ Morgan Freeman” from “ War of The Worlds”) takes us step-by-step (pun intended) from the penguin’s enraptured love dance of summer through the harsh cold of the Antarctic winter and on out into the human world of over-harvesting arctic fish for man’s consumption, noting just how that effects the population of animals who’s survival depends on this source of food, and back to the polar “summer of love” song (and dance). It is also the story of a quest to find a place in this world, of love and forgiveness, of friends who hold you up and try not to let you down, of sacrifice, courage and fun. “Happy Feet” is basically a musical with a rather strong environmental message. ![]() If you paid attention while watching last year’s “ The March Of The Penguins,” there is no escaping the parallels or the absolute brilliance of “Happy Feet”’s CGI animators’ attention to detail, especially in the sweeping longshots of the Antarctic vistas, making us wonder “is it real or is it CGI?”
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