Happy Feet is yet another animation film that has captured the imagination of the viewers, young and old, worldwide. Distributed by Warner Brothers, it is directed by Australian director George Miller, who shot to fame with the Mel Gibson cult movie Mad Max many moons ago, and is, of late, enamoured by the computer generated imagery with which he first dabbled in the classic family film Babe. Happy Feet tells the story of a misfit penguin named Mumble who cannot sing - as they are mandatorily required to do, in order to woo their mates with their heart-song - but is gifted with an amazing pair of feet that helps him execute the tap dance maneouvres which would make any of us go crazy. The director George Miller supposedly hit upon the idea of making this animation musical after watching an interesting documentary on the life and mating habits of the emperor penguins. Though the viewers would definitely be reminded of the Oscar-winning documentary The March of the Penguins, the director had started making this film before that acclaimed film got its release.
The greatest achievement of Happy Feet is the superb animation which makes use of a blend of techniques like stop-motion animation to real action fusion CGI and recreates the South Pole environment convincingly. The characters are stunningly beautiful. One needs to take a look at them as they come alive on the big screen, empowered with real emotions and body language, to know what I am talking about. The voice-cast is unbelievable! Who could have imagined the voices of Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman as Mumble’s mom and dad respectively? Elijah Wood does a great job as Mumble. The voice-cast, however, has been assembled specifically with the characterisation in mind, and not as a casting coup. Hugo Weaving plays a crooked penguin; Brittany Murphy plays Gloria - a songstress penguin who is the childhood sweetheart of Mumble; and Robin Williams voices not one but two penguins - Ramon and Lovelace.
The songs featured in Happy Feet belong to diverse genres and, indeed, comprise a happy repertoire. Some of the musical gems are: Someone to love, Little girl blue and My funny valentine. As the viewers find out how Mumble finds his true calling, they are also likely to soak in the ambience that is richly structured with the songs alongwith the dialogues and the action. A mention must also be made of Savion Glover, the acclaimed dancer whose expertise as a tap-dancer finds expression in Mumble’s swift & deft foot movement.
*Trivia: The Song of the Heart from the movie Happy Feet has won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song, thanks to the lyrics and music by Prince Rogers Nelson.
HAPPY FEET has won the Oscar for the Best Animated Feature for the year 2006.
Promotional tagline: This year a misfit will discover - What makes you different can make all the difference in the World!*