Harry here, wondering if Tarantino's character, Ritchie, would've liked HAPPY FEET? I'm still curious as hell about this film. I mean, it is coming from George Miller. So I anticipate some Traumatic Feet too. At least I hope so.
Hi Harry - Long time reader, first time writer. There was a screening in Atlanta today of about 20 minutes from 'Happy Feet', and I was lucky enough to see it. A rep from Warner Brothers introduced the footage, which was shown in video form, saying that it was rough in spots, and with a temp track, but that otherwise what we would be seeing would be what will be in the finished film. He mentioned that Savion Glover had done all of the tap dance sequences by motion capture, and that he was currently in a studio filming more for the end credits, which included a new song by Prince ("Heart Song"). We then got to see the footage, which was in video form and included comments from the director, George Miller. The first bit was of baby Mumbles the penguin (voiced by Elijah Wood) arriving late to 'heartsong' class and being laughed at for not being able to sing. But as bad as his singing is, he can tap-dance like nobody's business. His parents (Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman) are at a loss for what to do with him. The next footage was of an older Mumbles who is the only one of his peers not to graduate from 'heart-song school', and watches Gloria, the penguin of his dreams from afar singing with the rest of the group (Brittney Murphy, who does her own singing and has 2 songs on the soundtrack). Mumbles winds up being cast out of the penguin colony, and after a long journey winds up being taken in by a group of Latino penguins, the Amigos - led by Ramon (Robin Williams). They are quite impressed by Mumbles dance skills, and try to help by taking him to their leader (also voiced by WIlliams). There was some great footage of the penguins swimming in the ocean, being chased by killer whales, sharks, and a scary looking seal. At one point Mumbles goes back to his village and does a 'Cyrano de Bergerac' with Ramon by lip-syncing 'My Way' in Spanish to Gloria, which got the biggest laugh from everyone at the screening. From what I saw it looks to be fun movie for both kids and adults - there were a few suggestive lines of dialogue, mostly involving the penguins mating season, which gave the movie its PG rating. But nothing a kid wouldn't hear on the average Discovery channel show. If you use this review, you can call me 'deej'.
