List of Species in Happy Feet movie series | Happy Feet Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia List of Species in Happy Feet movie series List of Species in Happy Feet movie series 41pages on This article is about all species from Happy Feet movie series . From Happy Feet to Happy Feet Two movie. Species in Happy Feet Emperor Penguin, is the penguin with gold-stripes around its neck. In Happy Feet, fictional characters who apppeared as the Emperor Penguin are Mumble , Gloria , Memphis , Norma Jean , Noah The Elder , Miss Viola , and Mrs. Astrakhan . Adelie Penguin, is the penguin who known collect pebbles to build a nest. In Happy Feet, fictional characters who appeared as the Adelie Penguins are The Amigos (Ramon, Nestor, Lombardo, Rinaldo and Raul) The Rockhopper Penguin, In Happy Feet, only Lovelace who appeared as a Rockhopper. Elephant Seals, in the movie, Trev, Nev, Kev, and Barry are the elephant seal. Skuas, in the movie, Boss Skua is the skua birds. The Leopard seal.

Happy Feet 2 Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb 11 out of 11 people found the following review useful: Really enjoyable from Turkey 27 May 2012 First of all I want to say this, I really like animation films and I actually liked this more than the first Happy Feet. The characters felt more developed and they went through a more interesting journey. This film aims to tell to children not to lie and how important the friendship is. However I have been astonished when I have seen rude comments on Happy Feet 2. I think people are being too harsh on this movie. Some critics refused to look deeper because this is not their usual type of child animation film. I am actually shocked while reading some of the scathing reviews. Also, I think people are being too hypercritical because the first Happy Feet won the Oscar. I loved this movie and I found it far superior to Rango, Gnomeo & Juliet and Cars 2. The animation was amazing. In my opinion, it has the best production values and cinematography of any animated film of 2011, I have watched lately. The story is in-depth, layered, complex and much more meaningful than the first Happy Feet.

Also, there are significant themes and messages about community, teamwork, bravery, overcoming obstacles and environmentalism. I laughed, cried and felt such empathy for these penguins because this movie has a lot of soul and heart. Was the above review useful to you? 31 out of 54 people found the following review useful: Something refreshing and very nice from Toronoto, ON, Canada 8 November 2011 I just watched this movie at a close preview in TIFF, Toronto. I really like it, for it brings a fresh wave with it's story, characters and overall look. A lot of animation movies nowadays share quite a similar way of storytelling, and that's where Happy Feet 2 stands out from the crowd. Characters of Matt Damon and Brad Pitt worked out really well. Graphics and effects look really awesome. George Miller commented on the amount and complexity of those effects by saying that their render farms almost crashed in the process. Also I'd like to comment on 3D part of the movie, because it does really work out here, looks beautiful with 3d glasses on - gives real depth, really amazing experience. And I can't say the same for a lot of 3D movies that are out there.

I would definitely recommend this movie, for Happy Feet 2 will be interesting for both children and adults. Was the above review useful to you? 18 out of 29 people found the following review useful: A Krilly good film from TX, United States 18 November 2011 I was really looking forward to seeing this film and it did not disappoint. Although Happy Feet Two was not as good as its Oscar-winning predecessor, there were still plenty of toe-tapping moments. I liked the fact that the songs were recognizable. I am sure that L. L. Cool J is just tickled pink that they included his "Mama Said Knock You Out". In this film Mumble (Elijah Wood) is all grown up and learning how to be a better father to his son Erik (Ava Acres). Erik was just the cutest little thing and he pulls at your heart-strings right from the beginning. The main story line was a good one, but I think that I found the story between Bill the Krill (Matt Damon) and Will the Krill (Brad Pitt) even more entertaining. Those two had their own thing happening.

I liked the way that the writer (George Miller) had two stories going on at the same time and the fact that they blended together in the end was excellent. I think that you have to have a lot going on to keep the attention of kids these days. I did not see this film in 3D, but you could tell by some of the scenes that the price of a 3D ticket might have been worth it for this film. The animation in this film was simply stunning. Animation has come a long way since Casper the Friendly ghost (I'm dating myself, huh?) Anyway, it was great. It was also refreshing to see the development of numerous female characters in this film such as Gloria (Pink) and Carmen (Sofia Vergara). I have to give props to the ladies. Robin William's character, Ramon had me cracking up throughout the film. It is not surprising that Robin really knows how to make his characters stand out since he has done numerous voice projects in the past (Genie in the Aladdin films, Dr. Know in A.I. and Fender in Robots).

This film contains numerous life-lessons that I think that the target audience will understand (one person can make a difference, keep your promises, don't run away from home, etc.). If you enjoyed the first Happy Feet, then you will also enjoy this one (just not as much). Anyway, I say put on your dancing shoes, shake a tail feather and go out and see this film. I am giving this film a green light. Was the above review useful to you? 22 out of 37 people found the following review useful: Extravagant from Philippines 23 November 2011 Happy Feet is definitely one of those films that doesn't need a sequel but it has a purpose to give us an environmental message and that message became the main plot of this film. But for some reason, it's unnecessary. Extraneous characters like the Krills. There's nothing much to do with this. Just a lot of unnecessary things scattered throughout. The visuals are largely stunning and still has its powerful tone but even with those things, it still falls short. The first Happy Feet movie sets with a powerful tone and an absurd but interesting premise. That was acceptable as a penguin movie.

Happy Feet 2 has its similarity with the first one by the father-son relationship. The rest is all about the crisis of the climate change but unnecessary things are happening especially with the two Krills, Will and Bill. They appear like Scrat from the Ice Age series. They are funny though but again, unnecessary. The film itself is also unnecessary. The problem of Mumble's tap dancing was already solved. They lived happily ever after in Antarctica since the "aliens" moderated their fishing. The climate change is a really good idea. But after the movie, it feels like it's just another sequel. Well, the movie never fails to its cast. Elijah Wood and Robin Williams did the same thing in the first movie but still good in this sequel. The newbies, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon are both fun even though they are playing the most extraneous characters of the film. Pink and Common are good replacements. What happened to Fat Joe? And the last but never the least is Hank Azaria who nearly steals the show. The movie gives some nostalgia and powerful tone from the first movie but it doesn't help at all but the visuals are really stunningly beautiful. Keeps the film large and worth it to the cinema and 3D.

Realistic textures to make it look like it's Animal Planet but the elephant seals looks cartoony in some part but it's still good to look at. The songs are decent. There are only two reasons why this exists. Environmental Propaganda and money. It's the 21st Century of Hollywood and they are somewhat running out of ideas. With all of their technology and talented filmmakers, they can make as many unnecessary sequels as they want. The Environmental Message is stuck in the plot but there is nothing wrong with that. Happy Feet 2 is not a bad movie. It's just unnecessary. Was the above review useful to you? 10 out of 15 people found the following review useful: Pretty, but all over the place 28 January 2012 *** This review may contain spoilers *** I watched this today with two of my younger sisters, one of whom regarded the first movie as her "favorite movie ever" (before Kung Fu Panda came out) and was really excited for this sequel. As soon as the credits rolled, she commented "That was... off." (Spoilers! Spoilers!

Spoilers!) First of all I'd say that the visuals were amazing as before, as well as the music and choreography. But the plot... it reminded me of how I used to put my iPod on shuffle and make up stories to go with it. A whole musical number just to calm upset Erik down? A bunch of elephant seals singing while stampeding? I was generally surprised and not sure I should be humored or facepalming at the inclusion of "Never Gonna Give You Up" and "Dragostei Din Tei." I mean did I really have to get rickrolled by krill? Oh and the krill. I kinda sorta liked the idea, but their almost pointless side-story had me rolling my eyes. The audience we were with seemed to like them, though, and laughed every time they appeared. So I guess YMMV. There were WAY too many accents and half the script was lost on me as I tried to process what each person was saying, having to quickly switch from American to Spanish to Swedish (Romanian?) to Indian, etc.

The environmental message was even more heavy-handed this time (tufted puffins apparently all killed off, oils spills, global warming, etc.) I agree we should be concerned with these, but the constant shoving of it in your face makes you numb to the idea. This is coming from an environmentalist. That said, there were a bunch of things that bothered me that PROBABLY wouldn't bother most people. Like why there were African Black-footed Penguins (Africa) and Little Blue Penguins (Australia and New Zealand) living with the Adeles? Or why Mumble is still fuzzy after having almost lost all his down in the first movie. Or why Eric has all of the same markings as his father and is the ONLY blue-eyed penguin aside from his father. Is he retarded too? Did they just run out of character design ideas? All of this, plus the plot not really picking up until about a third of the way through the movie, bothered me... but it was kinda okay. Again, the visuals were great and I very much enjoyed the music. The penguins and other animals were fun to watch and for the most part realistic.

I was dancing along to the big dance numbers and thought the reveal of Erik's talent was awesome (even if it sounded like an opera singer inhaling helium). So, sure, if you want something energetic and cute to sit your kids down in front of, be my guest. I might even watch it again, if I can get around the dead plot and nature issues. It's fun and pretty to look at. Just shows what a superficial, visual race we are. Was the above review useful to you? 29 out of 53 people found the following review useful: Every step counts. from United States 12 November 2011 Mumble, The Master of Tap, has a problem because his tiny son, Erik, is choreo-phobic. Reluctant to dance, Erik runs away and encounters The Mighty Sven: a penguin who can fly! Mumble has no hope of competing with this charismatic new role model. But things get worse when the world is shaken by powerful forces. Erik learns of his father's "guts and grit" as Mumble brings together the penguin nations and all manner of fabulous creatures-from tiny Krill to giant Elephant Seals, to put things right.

-- (C) Warner Bros I thought HAPPY FEET was pretty great. The film was foot-tapping fun and the dark turn it took in the third act, while unexpected, made it edgy and different for me. When a sequel was announced, I thought it seemed unnecessary. How far can you really stretch the premise of penguins who can dance and sing? Apparently, not that far. After viewing the sequel, it very much does seem unnecessary and wholly forgettable within ten minutes after you walk out of the theater, which is disappointing to say the least. Other than this, the main problem with HAPPY FEET 2 is that there aren't that many good musical numbers as compared to the first one. Most of them are pretty mediocre. However, there are probably around three that range from good to great, one of which uses the song "Under Pressure," which is easily the best number in the entire film. Another problem I had was the dark tone of the film. It's a bit TOO dark, if you ask me. You see the younger penguin characters constantly be put in danger which made the film very uncomfortable to watch, and what these characters go through in the film would probably traumatize them for life.

The film also suffers from messy storytelling. For example, the subplot with the shrimp characters (voiced by Matt Damon and Brad Pitt) seems to come from nowhere and is out of place from the rest of the film. It also doesn't help that the characters are so damn annoying. As for the 3D, it's put to good use in some places but, overall, it's really unnecessary. The one good thing I can say about the film is the look of it, which is very beautiful. I also liked Pink a lot, who gives a boost for all the musical numbers she sings in, along with Robin Williams, who has a few great jokes up his sleeves. Overall, HAPPY FEET 2 is a disappointment considering that I am a fan of the first film. Director George Miller doesn't seem to have his heart in the right place for this sequel compared to the first film. However, the film is slightly better then CARS 2 if that says anything. Was the above review useful to you? 10 out of 16 people found the following review useful: Happy Feet 2 Review 18 November 2011 *** This review may contain spoilers *** Happy Feet 2 is amazing.

As a 12 year-old, I suppose I haven't watched even a total of 30 movies or such to rate this as 10 but in my opinion, Happy Feet 2 is almost as good as the first. It contains the hilarity and also amazing songs, similar to Happy Feet 1. I watched this movie with about 19 of my classmates and two of my teachers as a farewell on our graduation from school. When Erik started singing to the elephant seal, the scene itself was so sad I couldn't help but start crying. And I love those two krill, Bill and Will if I'm not mistaken...One asked the other of they could have children and the other replied that they were both males. Hilarious! My favourite quote "We're doomed and they're dancing. Unbelievable!" I recommend this movie to others because I enjoyed, became emotional and had a lot of fun! Was the above review useful to you?

7 out of 11 people found the following review useful: Does the original Happy Feet a huge disservice by sharing the name from United States 20 April 2012 Promoting responsibility to children is a great idea, however personification of penguins by having them talk while watching real footage of people eating chicken is a subliminal mind-game. The connection smooths the black and white into a grayish-sick. The subject of the movie is far too deep for the young to understand, and too immature for the adults to enjoy; this movie sits on neither side of the fence, but sort of has a post up the middle! (Unpleasant) The voices and star's voices of Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Pink, etc. is what sold me. The cute pictures of penguins sold my kids, who lost interest after the third song... not at all the first Happy Feet. :( The producers need to do a serious sit-and-think before dragging the incredible first picture through another slaughter by creating a third. Was the above review useful to you? 11 out of 19 people found the following review useful: Chix Chat on Film review: Mumble is still heroic and he's a dad.

from Texas, United States 21 November 2011 It is very difficult to make an entertaining movie that has a lesson in the consequences of climate change on the Antarctic wildlife, just as it is always hard to live up to the original when you're a sequel. This sequel made the lesson entertaining but the film did not live up to the original. I really enjoyed the original and watched it many times over, I'm not so sure I would do the same with Two. The lesson in Happy Feet was clear cut and the scandalous humans did try to resolve the atrocity of depleting the penguins food source, but in Happy Feet Two nothing was really clear except that the polar icecaps are melting and now the Emperor penguins fully accept song and dance. Mumble (Elijah Wood) and Gloria (P!nk) now have had an egg of their own, and are now parents to Erik (Ava Acres). Mumble is challenged to be a good father and Erik is on a path of self discovery. The role of Gloria is filled nicely, her singing prowess made the opening Rhythm Nation production amazing, it was actually the most outstanding compilation in the entire film and would have been more fitting as the grand finale song.

I unlike Catt was not thrilled by the krill, I have yet to figure out what the krill was the point of the krill storyline with Bill the Krill (Matt Damon) and Will the Krill (Brad Pitt) other than to add some big names to the film since Norma Jean (Nicole Kidman) and Memphis (Hugh Jackman) did not reprise their roles. I really liked what was happening with Ramon (Robin Williams) in this story, with the whole hatin' on The Mighty Sven (Hank Azaria) while pursuing Carmen (Sofia Vergara), the chase could have been expanded in place of the krill story filler. The movie just seemed to have a number of encounters loosely strung together with no outstanding purpose of it all, unlike the original with the fact that different can be the one thing that saves everybody. Maybe the message of this film was if humans venture to aid the wildlife and we don't succeed, they'll figure out a resolution to their problem themselves. Or when everyone works together to deal with a problem no matter how big or how small you are you can overcome any obstacle. Or maybe I just didn't get the point, which is why this film gets an amber light.

Was the above review useful to you? 8 out of 14 people found the following review useful: Ouch... 31 January 2012 *** This review may contain spoilers *** The penguins' and the people's feet and vocal cords are starting to hurt - because they tried to tap dance and sing through a movie that had exhausted its potential. The first film told us everything we needed to know about a such a wonderful world. Now unfortunately, this sequel has become so "been there done that", it should be changed to "Unhappy Feet 2" The worst parts: Mumble's son Erik can't sing or dance, but suddenly he sings at the precise moment where a situation seems impossible, and it becomes suddenly possible again. Ramone and Lovelace's characters were made smaller so a new character with no depth could come in action. The specially made songs for the movie (Bridge of Light) made little sense with the movie, despite how beautiful they were. And finally, the whole plot about the unavailability of the fish had already been done before. Overall, I was very disappointed after waiting so long to see the sequel, and finding out that this was all they came up with.

Some songs were good, especially Under Pressure and Dragostea Din Tei, but nothing in the movie captured the magic of the first one. Was the above review useful to you? Page 1 of 8: Happy Feet Movie Review Share your thoughts with other parents and kids Write a user review A safe community is important to us. Please observe our guidelines Adult Written by jaclande April 9, 2008 not rated for age I walked out on this movie! This movie was so offensive to me that I walked out on the last 20 minutes of it. My husband and I took our 3 children and a cousin to see what we expected to be a cute, entertaining children's film. The whole point of creating this movie, in my opinion, was to convey a liberal political message, through our most vulnerable, impressionable audience--our children. Christians were attacked throughout this film, from protraying the penguin "elders" as condemning religious leaders who quoted bible verses and a "televangilist"-like leader who blasphemed Scripture, speaking of "Going forth and multiplying", then taking several female penguins out of sight to "have pleasure" on his couch, asking, "who will be first?".

Mumble, the main character, decides to find out who the "aliens" are and ask them to stop taking the penguins' food supply, fish. The "aliens", who are clearly definied as human beings, are protrayed as evil, uncaring, scary, pollutive and destructive. As Mumble crests a hill looking for signs of "alien" life, the first structure that is shown is a church. Sexual innunendo is all over this movie, as male penquins frequently try to "get laid" and sing offensive secular songs that I don't let my children listen to, such as, Salt 'n Peppa's "Let's talk about sex baby" as well as Prince's "Kiss" and others. Mumble's parents are basically Marilyn Monroe and Elvis personified, and very "sexual" in their speaking and body movements. Mumble's penguin friends are very sexual when speaking about getting femle penguins, at times thrusting their pelvis' when speaking about how "hot" and desirable they are.

There are two very scary and violent scenes, including one very graphic one where a very evil-looking leopard seal chases after and almost attacks Mumble and his friends, and another scene where they are chased by killer whales. My 5-year-old step-daughter covered her eyes in terror during both scenes. Zoos and animal aquariums, which are excellent family places for children to learn about animals, are shown as scary and prison-like, and are offensively compared to "Heaven" by Mumble. If all of these elements don't offend you, let me tell you that the movie as a whole was not very entertaining. I guess I'm spoiled by all the Disney/Pixar films, who write all their own music and lyrics. This film's producers could not even take the time to do that, intent as they were to convey their negative environmental message. This film is deceptively packaged in excellent special effects, cute penguin dancing and star character voices (Elijah Wood, Nicole Kidman, among others), but is inappropriate for all children, and adults really shouldn't waste their time on it either. Protect your children from it's negative, Anti-Christian messages by not taking them, not buying the DVD, and telling other parents about this film!

Was this review useful? Happy Feet Two - WarnerBros.com - Movies Happy Feet Two Original Theatrical Date: November 18, 2011 The sequel to the Academy Award®-winning animated smash hit Happy Feet, Happy Feet Two returns audiences to the magnificent landscape of Antarctica, reuniting us with the world’s most famous tap-dancing penguin, Mumble (Elijah Wood), the love of his life, Gloria (Alecia Moore [Pink]), and their old friends Ramon and Lovelace (Robin Williams). Mumble and Gloria now have a son of their own, Erik (EG Daly), who is struggling to find his own particular talents in the Emperor Penguin world. But new dangers are threatening the penguin nation, and it’s going to take everyone working—and dancing—together to save them. Genre: AnimationFamily Happy Feet 2 And The Penguins - KrillFacts.org Press Room Happy Feet 2 And The Penguins If you love penguins - and would like to see the variation of other Antarctic species on the silver screen - Happy Feet Two is one movie you should not miss Happy Feet2 - the cast The fluffy story is back!

The original 2006 Happy Feet movie starred a funny penguin cast, great music, and a beautiful setting in the penguins homeland of the Antarctic. The movie was a big success, and people have asked if there would ever be a sequel to the animated blockbuster. The wait is now finally over, and the Happy Feet Two movie is here! It once again stars our Antarctic penguins, along with their southern ocean friends – the arctic krill (interestingly, the same little creatures krill oil is derived from). Mumble and Erik, the two main characters of the story, deals with two individual issues. Erik, who is the son of Mumble, is not too interested in taking up dance moves the way the rest of the penguins in Happy Feet 2 are. He eventually meets another special penguin named Sven, who has some really unique abilities that no other penguin has. Meanwhile, Hid father Mumble must cope with problems on a bigger scale when the marine life is threatened by outside forces.

Antarctic stars of the silver screen Happy Feet2 - the official trailer The real-world Antarctica and Southern Ocean consists of a wide range of species, and in Happy Feet Two we get to see a bit more variation in these represented. As mentioned earlier, krill is more prominently featured, and so are the elephant seals. Several different penguin species can be seen as well – all well animated and lifelike. The Happy Feet Two movie opened up in US movie theaters on November 20th, 2011 and scored $21.2 million dollars in its opening weekend. This time around for Happy Feet Two, we get to see the Antarctic and all the penguins in gorgeous 3D. We also once again get director George Miller behind the controls. Miller received an Academy Award in 2006 for his original Happy Feet movie. The voice cast of HappyFeet 2 consists of great names such as Robin Williams, Brad Pitt, Pink, Matt Daemon, Hank Azaria (known for his voice-work in The Simpsons), Sofia Vergara, Magda Szubanski, Hugo Weaving, Richard Carter, and Anthony LaPaglia – among others.

The real-world Antarctica in 3D The 3D is really well done in this movie. The same goes for a lot of the incredibly detailed animation work. When watching the Happy Feet 2 movie, one gets a sense that the producers aren’t trying to overuse visual effects just for the sake of using them (which in some movies, can get a bit too much). Instead, the visuals are only used to the fullest when it really adds to the emotional feel of the movie. This takes Happy Feet Two a step above some other movies out there. Huge ocean waves, snow avalanches, Antarctic windstorms, light refraction through ice, and details on the penguins themselves are all vividly recreated. Even the northern lights (in this case, southern lights since we are on the South Pole in HappyFeet 2) – look just like they do in real life. Only time will tell us if we will get to see our penguin friends once more in another sequel later, but either way – if you love penguins – or have kids and enjoy animated family movies – Happy Feet Two is one movie you should not miss.

Footer menu: Getting Animated Over 'Happy Feet' | Animation World Network How To Succeed in Animation Getting Animated Over 'Happy Feet' Bill Desowitz speaks with director George Miller, various supervisors and the co-founder of Animal Logic about the challenges of making Happy Feet. By Bill Desowitz | Friday, November 17, 2006 at 12:00am In Production | ANIMATIONWorld For all of those cynics that have bemoaned the glut of 3D-animated movies with animals this year, take note: it's all a matter of storytelling, as George Miller (the Babe movies and Mad Max) so persuasively reminds us with Happy Feet (opening Nov. 17, 2006, from Warner Bros. Pictures). And that goes for penguins, too, for that matter. Because there's room for all kinds of different stories revolving around those furry, cuddly, funny and engaging birds. Ultimately, though, what's so wonderful about Happy Feet is that it transcends any boundaries between live action and animation with its photoreal aesthetic and naturalistic performances.

The odyssey of Emperor Penguin Mumble (voiced by Elijah Wood), who tries to gain acceptance as a tap dancer from his disapproving singing community in Antarctica, is the stuff of pure drama. And that's how Miller approached it. "Animation was like shooting in slow motion," Miller says affectionately about his first experience with the CG format. "Babe alerted me to the potential of this form of storytelling." And what was the biggest learning curve for the self-described "Synch Nazi"? "To be honest, apart from just caring more about the mysteries of storytelling, the revelation to me was camera. I fancy myself as pretty good with a camera, but I just had no idea what it would be like and they built a special tool for me. But in this case it was no big deal to take a camera and go anywhere. As [Roman] Polanski said, 'There's only one perfect spot for the camera.' "I sort of knew that but never so much as before making Happy Feet. As an experiment, I took exactly the same animated performance and set and the only things I changed were the camera angle and cutting pattern. And you could seriously influence how it played because of those variables.

The other big thing about animation is that it gives you time to reflect because you're doing it bit by bit, whereas live action is all from the gut because there is no time to think." Tony Award-winning dancer Savion Glover provided the fancy footwork for Mumble . To help him realize this very special vision about the importance of individuality, community, nature and song and dance, Miller called upon Animal Logic , the visual effects studio based in Australia, from where he hails. Having never before made an animated feature, this was naturally a large leap for Animal Logic. "Four years in the making... this has definitely been a big transition for us," remarks Zareh Nalbandian, exec producer/md/co-founder of Animal Logic. "But from my perspective, a natural one. I think we're in an industry that's very young and we'll look back and see just how young we were. And four years ago, the company was just under 10-years-old. We've grown from broadcast design to commercials to visual effects to films, as well as developing software and pipelines. I guess we were looking for something that would take us to the end of the line where we were more of a participant in the filmmaking process.

"We had the knowledge, the experience, the tools and the talent to take on something bigger -- the holy grail would be to produce an entire film and to tell a good story. The prompting was looking for next steps rather than doing more of the same. Having said that, we continue to work on major visual effects and our commercial division has been in the most successful years since Happy Feet." Having collaborated previously with Miller on the Babe movies, Animal Logic first agreed to do a workshop approach and proof of concept. Warner Bros. then green lit Happy Feet on the basis of this really cute test of a tap dancing penguin in the snow. "Everyone said it had to be photoreal, it had to be art-directed reality, it had to have a visual complexity that made us believe that they're in Antarctica with real penguins," Nalbandian continues. "And in the initial period that's where our focus was. But we overcame those challenges very quickly because of success with Pixar's RenderMan product. This raised the bar in terms of what we could achieve in the movie and performance. It's rich with character nuance and performance and full of close-ups. Our animators were somewhat homegrown and others were brought on as trainees.

The community of animators from all around the world brought different perspectives and skills. It became a melting pot of characters and approaches. This is something we had to embrace as a company because you don't do that in visual effects. This meant getting completely immersed in story development, which became part of our culture, and completely immersed in bringing our characters to life from design through completion. We developed certain tools and techniques, but the biggest thing we learned was about context, about being focused on story and delivering an entire film and not about thinking in terms of shots. With the aid of animation director Daniel Jeannette, supervising art director/live action visual effects supervisor David Nelson, digital supervisor Brett Feeney, production designer Mark Sexton, art director Simon Whiteley, layout and camera director David Peers, choreographer Kelley Abbey and the rest of the animation leads and crew, Animal Logic formed a "Creative Hub." Glover is joined by other dancers in this clip . Happy Feet contained 70% motion capture, which provided a consistency in performance. According to Nalbandian, this hub consisted of dialog editing, picture editing, lensing and blocking and a cinematographer station.

"We developed some tools that allowed David Peers to sit with George and actually take previs scenes with blocked character performance in an edit on the webstation and spatially rearrange characters, if necessary, in relation to their set. This allowed us to set a lens, work a lens and review iteratively in context of the cut and even change cut points within the framework of one 3D workstation interactively with George... We studied every animation studio and the paradigm was a mix of live-action filmmaking and traditional animation. The structure we ended up with was unique to the film." The two primary tools created by Animal Logic for Happy Feet were the following: "Flense": A lensing tool that allowed them to block characters at the same time as lensing the shots and reviewing the cut. This allowed Miller to make multiple decisions at the same time interactively while playing to his strengths as a director. "Horde": A crowd system that takes multiple performances with variation and then randomizes them further through time and space warping. Very naturalistic crowd scenes were made possible through this tool.

In addition, they used Massive for more procedural and cycle-based crowd sequences and a MoCap program devised by Giant Sudios called "A Giant Preview System." Animation was done in SOFTIMAGE|XSI and compositing was done with eyeon's Fusion. "One of the keys is Mumble's individuality amid the community," explains animation director Jeannette, who came from Industrial Light & Magic, where he worked on The Mummy movies and Van Helsing. "One character pitted against thousands of other penguins that don't approve of his dancing. We designed a behavior pattern based on the realism of penguin movement but also taking license with choreography and dance. Even though there are different types of penguins, characters are difficult to distinguish. During the design phase, we made them slightly different in proportion. Mumble has molting and black-and-white fuzz on body to make him identifiable. We also varied the performance through signature walk, facial behavior and voice. "George didn't want to create cool animation; he wanted the audience to believe in character. The performance drove the aesthetics. Animation, therefore, was not caricatured. This was the opposite of the normal animation style. We tried to avoid referencing the visual material.

I encouraged the crew, particularly the animation lead, to think about what the story meant: how the voice played in collaboration with the physical performance that was motion captured and what the facial animation would have to do to bring in the third dimension. "For example, Memphis [voiced by Hugh Jackman] is frustrated with his son, Mumbles, but his voice is actually very compassionate because he doesn't want to be too hard on him. We put anger on his face to counterbalance his subdued voice. So we pushed the facial features to be more dynamic. "A great deal of attention was paid to the eyes and how they move, down to if a character closes his eyes. Typically in animation, we tend to shy away from getting too close to the eyes. But here we kept animating them in closeup so you could see if a character is troubled. You could see what's going on behind the eyelids. Keyframe was about 30% of the movie and provided the core of the facial animation. When we got very successful at capturing dancing, we realized the human performers could actually perform more drama scenes. They went to penguin school to study the naturalistic moves of penguins.

That 70% of motion capture provided a consistency in performance." Meanwhile, Nelson's job was not only interpreting the conceptual work, but also working with Miller to achieve an acceptable reality that took it beyond animation. "We looked at the production design that we were doing for the performance areas of the stage -- it's very musical and theatrical in many ways. And you want to get a sense of the real Antarctica. Basically, the environment surfacing, modeling, lighting and the character surfacing and modeling, to a degree, all came under my supervision, along with the visual effects integration and briefing. "These are big landscapes, mainly shot from the penguins' perspectives, so they are shot pretty low to the ground. We wanted to retain a sense of vastness and scale. It became a balance of having enough detail, but not to distract from the performances. These are black-and-white characters playing in a blue-and-white landscape. We solved it by using a number of photographic devices. When it came to lighting and depth of field to help focus our characters, we used the construction of the environment where we put the detail in the surfacing. We took a lot of care not to make it too complex where we had crowds of penguins.

We put granulations, sparkles and footprints in the snow." Lighting also played a crucial role. They created a lighting arc for every scene and for the entire movie as a supporting role. Arcs range from dark to golden-lit Antarctic sun. Each lighting scheme supports the mood or dramatic play of a scene. They often would start in broad daylight and have cloud shadows come into play. "We shot digital skies and developed a rig with three cameras where we shot skies in a time-lapse motion and then mapped those into an environment, so we had 360-degree coverage of sky," Nelson continues. "We were able to use movement in those skies to give a sense of perspective. This helped achieve vastness of landscape. "We reconstructed environments out of thousands of photographic material shot in Antarctica wherever we could, and then matched very accurately into CG for full surfacing. Camera projection here was very flexible and integrated into the CG surfacing package. And we were able to add such layers as subsurface scattering and displacement into the camera projection." We also shot real people for a zoo sequence in which spectators observe Mumble, and they were camera projected into plates and integrated into the sequence. George believed he had achieved a high enough degree of reality to warrant it.

This was very much a holistic approach." Bill Desowitz is editor of VFXWorld. Attached Files George Miller Interview - Happy Feet Movie Elijah Wood provides the voice of Mumble in "Happy Feet.". © Warner Bros Pictures Updated October 28, 2015. Elijah Wood and Robin Williams star in Warner Bros Pictures’ animated movie, Happy Feet, a family-friendly film that follows a group of penguins who call Antarctica home. Although humans aren’t aware of this, penguins are born with a talent for singing. That is most penguins can sing. Poor Mumble (Wood) can’t warble a tune if his life depends on it – but he can out dance all his tuxedo attired companions. Mumble's lack of singing ability makes him an outcast, and it's only when he meets up with Ramon (Williams) and his penguin gang that he discovers it’s perfectly fine to be different. Williams and Wood joined their Happy Feet director George Miller for a press conference to discuss their animated penguin movie.

continue reading below our video Celebrity Breakups of 2015 We Didn't See Coming Williams kept the event lively, although his use of many different voices while answering Happy Feet questions doesn’t translate well in print. George, can you compare and contrast the experience of Babe with live animals and working on an animated animal film? George Miller: “Ah, in a way, it's a lot easier. It's obviously a lot easier working with computer-generated animals, but a lot slower.” Elijah Wood: “They're friendlier as well.” Miller: “Yeah.” Robin Williams: “And people don't eat computers.” Miller: “Exactly. There's a good answer. Look, animal trainers, particularly the ones we had on the Babe films, were really really [good]. It’s surprisingly a lot easier to work with animals than one would normally think. But, of course, working with computer-generated creatures is just a matter of - it's really painstaking work. Obviously you can get the creatures to do whatever you want. When we first decided to do this movie, we realized we weren't ever going to be able to train penguins. They're not domestic animals. You can't go to Antarctica and screw around with their environment.

It's a very delicate environment so this was the only way to do it.” Elijah, is there any connection whatsoever between the lonely hobbit and his lonely village in Lord of the Rings… Wood: “Oh, here we go!” (laughter) And a little happy-footed penguin who stands apart from the crowd and has to find his own destiny? Wood: “Ah, as much as you'd like to read into it, I guess. That's about it. No, I don't think there's much of a connection but I'm sure you could put a connection into that if you'd like.” Williams: “Big feet.” Williams: “Fluffy feet.” Wood: “Fluffy feet.” Williams (in Aussie accent): “That was the original - the Australian title of the movie was Fluffy Feet (Elijah laughs). People went with that. Webbed always offends people, you can't say ‘webbed.’ No, no, sorry. The Lord of the Rings connection is really stretching it, but thank you. ... I have too much free time.

(Switching to a Latino accent) “For me to be this tiny but very powerful penguin is to know the Argentinian male and to say mas huevos, which is a word in Spanish meaning eggs. Also means something else for those who speak Spanish. But I have to give him some machismo - small but powerful. With penguins, as I say, size does not make a difference. It's very important to have that type of joke this early in the morning [it’s 9:30amish]. But I want to play this man to give hem the power. Once again come closer, I want to talk to ‘ju’ and you know this . . . And if I say ‘ju’ I don't mean it like in a Mel Gibson way (laughter). I mean it in a - let me talk to YOU. …For me, I love to do this very much. Thank you. With a room full of Hispanic comedians it's very important.” George, what made you decide to do family films and how can you still keep the George Miller sensibility in there? Miller: “I think basically it's all driven by story.

The thing that gets me hooked on any project is story, and this was a good story. You know, at the time we were doing this, we were also preparing to do the fourth Mad Max movie. Maybe I'm a little kind of dissonance in my brain, but I don't see a lot of difference between those two films. really. They're basically - I'm trying to tell good stories. The fact is, it doesn't really matter what medium there is. I think probably I'm also getting a little wiser somehow. I've got kids, the only movies I see these days at home are basically kids movies, so you kind of get into that mold as well. Also, I love to tell stories that you can see. I like to go to the movies with kids and my teenage daughter and my mother. I like it to be a family outing. But mainly it's the story. That's the main thing that gets me hooked on a film.” Is Mad Max over? Miller: “No, we were about to start doing that when George Bush and Tony Blair decided to go into Iraq and the American dollar collapsed against the Australian dollar. We lost 25% of our budget, but that's not a reason to lament.

Warner Brothers had the script to Happy Feet. They said, ‘Come on, we can't wait too much longer.’ So we started on this and I'm happy to have done it. It meant that I spent time in my home city and was able to take my kids to school and stuff like that, and had an incredible learning experience. There's not been a film I learned so much on. I had no idea there were so many mysteries to unravel about story telling, particularly working in the digital realm. I got a taste of it on the Babe films, but I never realized just how much there was to learn about filmmaking when you take on a film like this.”

Question: What type of animals were the subject of the movie "Happy Feet"?
Answer: Penguins