Shox R4 shoes George Miller on Happy Feet Happy Fe

shelb498ii

Read on
Happy Feet 2?
UPDATE: Happy Feet takes top spot
Happy Feet promote Roche
It's always fascinating to hear a director or actor justify his latest project, especially when that movie seems "tainted" in some way. A prime example was when an actress attached to the atrocious fad-exploitation flick Lambada tried to give that film some social value by saying, "it ends with a math test [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]!"
(Source: USA Today)
You can see the rest of the George Miller interview here. Happy Feet opens November 17.
As you've probably guessed, Happy Feet isn't on my "must see" list: there are just too many elements that are pulling me out of this movie. Obviously I'd love to be proved wrong about this flick [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], but as I hear more about Happy Feet, this scenario is looking less and less likely.
So what is Happy Feet about? According to Miller, it's about misfit penguin Mumble (Lord of the Ring's Elijah Wood) who finds he can't attract a mate. Real penguins use a distinctive squawk to attract a partner; Miller changed this to a "heartsong," a distinctive tune crafted to woo that special someone. These songs just happen to be former Top 10 hits from The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Prince, Queen and Stevie Wonder [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] because nothing says "I love you" quite like karaoke.
Which brings us to George Miller (Babe), the director of the upcoming Happy Feet. At first glance, this looks like a cynical attempt to cash in on the surprising success of March of the Penguins. It doesn't help that Dreamworks' hit Madagascar also used animated penguins to great comedic effect.
However, poor Mumble can't sing, so he has to use his tap-dancing ability to get a mate. To that end, Miller used motion-capture technology on dancer Savion Glover (Bamboozled) so they could translate his moves to animation, replacing the metallic clatter of his tap shoes with penguin toenails.
Miller counters this impression by claiming that Happy Feet was in production long before March of the Penguins ever reached theatres. Fair enough, but then Miller raises eyebrows by claiming that Warner Bros. honcho Alan Horn only bought March "because he had seen our footage and was sensitized to how interesting penguins were." Sure, buddy.