Spontaneity

Rating: 10/10 (22 July 2011)

Watch out! There are spoilers, so read at your own risk! Over a year before 'Happy Feet' became known (early 2005) I swear I had this nocturnal dream about a dance-oriented movie called Happy Feet albeit the characters were all human. Exactly a year later, a commercial for a CGI movie ala 'March of the Penguins' shows and would keep advertising until November of that same year, 2006. As it turns out, that movie was also named 'Happy Feet,' leading me to the notion that my dream had unexpectedly come true even though this was a mere coincidence.
So in November I go to the theatre to see 'Happy Feet' and encounter a wide variety of CGI Antarctic species besides the hierarchal emperor penguin: there are Hispanic-based Adelie penguins; a shamanistic, Barry White-inspired rockhopper penguin; chinstrap, little, and Magellanic penguins at Mumble's "site of incarceration;" (including a HAL "2010" inspired Magellanic) a gluttonous leopard seal, Australian-accented southern elephant seals plus a wandering albatross of the same vernacular (Steve Irwin, no doubt); Brooklyn-accented, Mafia-inspired south polar skuas and two killer-whales who fight over their food before consuming it. For the emperor penguins, Mumble's parents speak with a southern US (or hemisphere; after all it's Antarctica) accent; Noah the Elder is supposed to be Scottish; Miss Viola is British as is her voice actress and, saving this for last, Mrs. Astrakhan is Russian. Her actress (Miriam Margolyes) is British though fully Belarussian in ancestry. In my opinion she's my favorite character because I'm a Russian and love the traditional folk-music, which you hear during part two of young Mumble's singing lesson. I also like the mispronunciation of "spontaneous" to "spontanuous" which I thought parodied one of Russia's archived films which, in this case, a harried businesswoman exclaims "here's the confidentuality statement you forgot to read." She obviously meant "confidentiality," though English was hardly spoken and often mispronounced. Altogether, the movie was quite realistic considering it has elements of 'March of the Penguins,' plus Warner produced it just like they did 'March.' As an endnote it did exhibit that "dream-come-true" characteristic because dance was the main medium.
And now for the spoilers... The end of the movie was, well, epic! Mumble, though developmentally delayed and unique given his perceived appearance and behavior, espoused Gloria (along the way) and the couple have a son, Erik. To be continued via 'Happy Feet Two' in 11/11.