Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the last of my ShoWest coverage for you. You've heard me blab on about that awesome SUPERMAN RETURNS footage, the very good POSEIDON footage and the very intriguing and atmospheric LADY IN THE WATER footage. Now I've got the final bit to chat about.
HAPPY FEET
Directed by fan favorite George Miller (MAD MAX, ROAD WARRIOR, BABE, BABE: PIG IN THE CITY, WITCHES OF EASTWICK, etc), this CGI animated flick about dancing and singing penguins is making the fans scratch their heads. I was one of the few that loved the energy of that first teaser trailer with the tap dancing little fuzzy baby penguin. I don't know why exactly, but that trailer just made me happy. I can't really put my finger on it. It's energetic and upbeat... the jokes should come off as lame, but for some reason, I got a laugh out of them. The animation was nice, but that wasn't what drew my attention to that trailer.
So it was that I entered into seeing this footage. It was probably around 5 minutes long and composed of both finished an half-rendered animation. It was also intercut with Miller being interviewed, talking about the movie, setting it up.
The set up is there's this community of penguins who express their feelings through song and dance. Song is especially important when attracting a soul mate. These are all smaller penguins. One day a larger penguin, seemingly forced out of his own group, shows up. He can't sing, but he can tap dance, something no one in this community has ever seen before. This larger penguin is voiced by Elijah Wood and creepily enough... the animators give this penguin giant, blue Elijah Wood eyes. Creepy, but the women will find it cute, I'm sure.
The footage started with that little penguin from the trailer tap dancing by himself on the ice. His community is down below, seemingly very far away, on an ice block in the middle of a very blue ocean. The animation here was jaw-droppingly pretty. The colors rich, the detail fine... you could almost feel the cool arctic air. Funny thing about good visuals, eh? Can sometimes trick the mind into sensing something that's not there... or maybe that's just my tumor.
Anyway, the tap dancing intensifies and he starts going along to Stevie Wonder's I WISH (you know, the one that Will Smith shamelessly ripped off for the WILD WILD WEST song). The song is fun and energetic... A word you're probably going to see me repeat through all this. The energy coming off the soundtrack, the animation and the editing is catchy.
Miller: "Happy Feet is about a lot of things. It's about family. It's about being different and finding a way to belong authentically as yourself. Whether you're 4 or 104, whether you're male or female, tough or shy, this film will speak to everybody. It's a story about a world in which the characters find their soul mate through heart songs."
We're back at footage now. A smaller penguin (don't remember if it was Robin Williams or not) and he's talking to the Elijah Wood penguin (character's name is Mumble). Smaller Penguin: "All you gotta do is sing!" Mumble: "That's the problem. I can't." "You're a bird, ain't you? All birds can sing!" Mumble: "Alright..." he starts warbling out some awful, off-pitch song. Smaller penguin: "What's he doing?" "He's... singing." "Dat's not singing... dat's..." Mumble is now screeching. One of the smaller penguins says, "Yeah, I heard an animal once do dat, but den dey rolled him over and he was dead."
Miller is back. "He can't sing, but he can dance. In fact, he is the world's greatest tap dancer. So, being rejected by his own world because he's an outsider, he comes to a different land."
We are treated to little bits after this of the Robin Williams penguins (I'm convinced he voices more than one... and he seems to be doing it in a Hispanic accent) cat-calling a female penguin. "Hey, baby! Chicky-baby! Over here! Come over here baby! Chica! Come on mommy! Come on, mommy! See something you like, eh?" Female penguin: "I don't think so. Not tonight, baby." Etc. They start to tap dance a bit and really catches her attention. "Where'd you learn that?" "The new guy! He's from out of town! He's with us!"
Miller: "Mumble (Elijah Wood) and Gloria (Brittany Murphy) are meant to be together. But because he isn't this great singer in this whole generation of penguins... they can't be together."
We see Mumble telling (Gloria, I guess) that he can't see her. The whole, "It's not you... it's me." As he's doing this, the Robin Williams penguin is critiquing what's going on to the other little penguins. "What's he's trying to do now is he's pushing her away." Gloria responds, "Mumble. No matter what you say or do... you're stuck with me... Come on. As if you're not totally thrilled that I'm here." It goes on a little, back and forth with Mumbles insulting her singing, calling it "showy," she returns the insults with jabs at this tap dancing, etc. In other words this is the big fight.
They walk away from each other and do the cliched bit where she looks back over her shoulder at him walking away, she turns back forward just as he looks back at her. The little Robin Williams penguins try to give him advise (one of them calls the Williams penguin Ramone, by the way). "He's hurting. He's hurting bad." Ramone: "Listen, listen. Don't hold it in or you es-plode. You got to let it out. You jus let it out. Let it out! Everybody, turn away for a moment..." Then Ramone starts singing IF SHE LEAVES ME NOW (ooo-ew-ooo, darlin' please don't go... ooo-ew-ooo...). With all the little penguins joining in for the ooo-ew-ooo parts.
There's even what I took to be a MARY POPPINS reference in the next bit that had Ramone telling the penguins to "Step in time! Step in time!" as they dive off an ice cliff, into the water. Ramone is nervous about this, apparently and "tricks himself" into jumping off.
Then we meet that big penguin with the colorful feathers from the trailer that tells everybody to hug each other. He has a big speech about everybody going forth and multiplying. "What'd he say?" "It's mating season!" "Already?" Then that leads in to the whole "What are you holding me for?" "He tole me to!" "Get away!" "Naw, you like it."
The big wrap-up is all the penguins singing Queen's SOMEBODY TO LOVE, a great song that sounds really damn nice when harmonized like it is here... with at least 2 dozen voices.
Miller: "Along with the humor in the movie... we're not going to do just any old dance sequence here or any old song sequence. We're going to try to make some of the best dance sequences, some of the best musical sequences that anyone's ever seen on film."
The SOMEBODY TO LOVE sequence goes on, with one female (could it be Nicole Kidman's lead penguin or is it Murphy's Gloria again?) taking the lead vocals. It's all on an iceberg crowded with penguins dancing to the music. They penguins dive in the water and under water we see them swimming with each other, creating heart shapes with their bubble-trails.
Reading back over that... it seems to come off as a little standard and lame. All I can say is rewatch that teaser trailer. Pull the energy of that trailer, the crazy accents Robin Williams pulls off and the timing of the delivery and put it on top of the above. As lame as some of those jokes come off on paper, the delivery actually had me laughing out loud a few times. Not one bit of the footage felt wrong to me.
It's all in the energy, man. The film seems so upbeat and again, the animation was just gorgeous. If I were a betting man, I'd say this movie is going to make a ton of money and it'll probably be one of the best soundtracks put out. It's like a party mix and I've only heard a few of the songs in the movie.
So, that's it for my footage descriptions from ShoWest. I have one more little bit, an interview I conducted, which I'll get to work on tonight and have up by Saturday morning. It's a super one, you won't want to miss it.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
