If you were to go just by the commercials, you'd think George Miller's new animated offering, Happy Feet, was one big party movie with wall-to-wall singing and dancing penguins.
What's striking when you see the full film is that Happy Feet contains a strong environmental message that would make Al Gore's heart sing. In the middle of a movie that is, in Robin Williams' words, Riverdance meets March of the Penguins, you have plot points turning on the effects of over fishing, global warming and the fragility of the food chain in Antarctica.
"You can't tell the story of penguins without dealing with the environment," Miller says. "In some sense, Happy Feet is an appeal to humans' better nature. That's what the main character, Mumbles, sets out to do. Because we're all responsible for these amazing creatures."
PHOTOS COURTESY OF WARNER BROS
Mumbles (voiced by Elijah Wood) is an emperor penguin born without the ability to sing. If you were one of the millions who saw last year's documentary smash March of the Penguins, you might remember that Antarctica's emperor penguins find their mates and distinguish each other through what's called their "heartsong."
Thus, Mumbles' affliction is viewed as a problem, except by Mumbles.
Because all he wants to do is dance. (Mumbles' tap-dancing came from the filmmakers doing motion-capture work with virtuoso tap dancer Savion Glover.)
That message of the importance of individuality makes Happy Feet indistinguishable from most other family fare. But Mumbles' journey to happiness takes him to some authentically dark places, leading him to confront the actions of what he and his brethren call the "ugly penguins without feathers on their fat, flabby faces."
Australia's Miller has been down this road before. He was one of the writers and producers of the 1995 Oscar-nominated family film, Babe, where the specter of the ax in the family-farm food chain was never far from the surface.
Miller took 1998 sequel Babe: Pig in the City a step further, moving from the gentle, pastoral charm of the original to a movie disturbing in tone, European art house in feel.
Not surprisingly, Pig in the City bombed with audiences, grossing only US$18 million in the states. (Miller calls the movie's commercial failure "self-inflicted." He delivered the film to the studio late, giving the marketing department little time to prepare audiences for the tonal shift.)
"The moral darkness of Pinocchio and Snow White are huge to me," Miller says. "Happy Feet has a lot in common with Dumbo, another one of my favorites. These dark stories help us negotiate life. They're for the adult in the child and the child in the adult."
Adds Wood: "Life isn't sanitized. I like that the movie throws in a little dark reality."
For the Antarctic penguins in Happy Feet, that reality includes ocean waters where fish aren't swimming and ice temperatures that are, relatively speaking, sweltering. One penguin, Lovelace (voiced by Williams), wears a plastic six-pack ring around his neck.
Initially, the other penguins see the ring as an exotic talisman, a sign of Lovelace's power. Then Lovelace begins to have trouble breathing, and Mumbles realizes something more sinister is at hand.
"To George's credit, it's funny and ridiculous and heartbreaking, all at the same time," says Brittany Murphy, who voices Gloria, Mumbles' singing love interest. "The message is there, but he isn't beating you over the head with it. It is unexpected, though. Most people are just expecting happy penguins."
Miller was developing Happy Feet several years before the success of March of the Penguins. Initially, it wasn't planned as a musical. Nor was it intended to tell a story about the environment where the lead penguin rails to the humans: "Why are you taking our fish? You're causing an awful lot of grief!"
Miller just liked emperor penguins, finding their existence nothing short of incredible.
"I was struck by he way they live in community and share the load," he says. "Their incredible efficiency. The way they waddle on land but then virtually fly underwater.
"These penguins don't have to sing and dance," Miller adds. "They're amazing all on their own. I'd love for people to feel that and feel their responsibility to care for these creatures and their environment. They have such a tenuous hold on life. You can't take them for granted."
April 28 to May 4 During the Japanese colonial era, a city’s “first” high school typically served Japanese students, while Taiwanese attended the “second” high school. Only in Taichung was this reversed. That’s because when Taichung First High School opened its doors on May 1, 1915 to serve Taiwanese students who were previously barred from secondary education, it was the only high school in town. Former principal Hideo Azukisawa threatened to quit when the government in 1922 attempted to transfer the “first” designation to a new local high school for Japanese students, leading to this unusual situation. Prior to the Taichung First
The Ministry of Education last month proposed a nationwide ban on mobile devices in schools, aiming to curb concerns over student phone addiction. Under the revised regulation, which will take effect in August, teachers and schools will be required to collect mobile devices — including phones, laptops and wearables devices — for safekeeping during school hours, unless they are being used for educational purposes. For Chang Fong-ching (張鳳琴), the ban will have a positive impact. “It’s a good move,” says the professor in the department of
On April 17, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) launched a bold campaign to revive and revitalize the KMT base by calling for an impromptu rally at the Taipei prosecutor’s offices to protest recent arrests of KMT recall campaigners over allegations of forgery and fraud involving signatures of dead voters. The protest had no time to apply for permits and was illegal, but that played into the sense of opposition grievance at alleged weaponization of the judiciary by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to “annihilate” the opposition parties. Blamed for faltering recall campaigns and faced with a KMT chair
Article 2 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文) stipulates that upon a vote of no confidence in the premier, the president can dissolve the legislature within 10 days. If the legislature is dissolved, a new legislative election must be held within 60 days, and the legislators’ terms will then be reckoned from that election. Two weeks ago Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposed that the legislature hold a vote of no confidence in the premier and dare the president to dissolve the legislature. The legislature is currently controlled
RSS