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Happy Feet (2006)

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clip 'It just ain't penguin' education content clip 1

Original classification rating: G. This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

After a long winter, Memphis (voiced by Hugh Jackman) prays for the return of the sun. As the thaw begins, the Emperor penguin eggs hatch all over the colony – except for Memphis’s egg. Newborn penguin Gloria (voiced as a baby by Alyssa Shafer) helps the egg to hatch, and Mumble (voiced as a baby by EG Daily) makes his entrance dancing, to his father’s dismay.

Curator’s notes

by Paul Byrnes

The film was inspired in part by the BBC’s 1993 nature series about Antarctica (Life in the Freezer) and it sticks close to biological reality about the life cycle of the Emperor penguin, the largest species of penguin and the only one that breeds in winter in Antarctica. Male Emperors do protect their egg, and then the hatched chick, by balancing it on their feet, while the female is at sea, feeding. The winter fast for the males can last up to 134 days, during which they must keep the egg off the ice.

Memphis’s fear when Mumble is late to hatch is that he has doomed the egg, because he dropped it briefly during the long winter. He later blames his son’s behaviour on the same fear. This highly developed sense of psychology is one of the hallmarks of the film. Many of the characters have vulnerabilities, as well as strengths, and a large part of the meaning of the film is concerned with conquering fears and developing these innate talents. The messages may seem at first contradictory – the film endorses both a strong sense that communities need to work (and huddle) together to survive, and that the individual must go his or her own way, standing out from the crowd – but the two ideas are not really exclusive. Happy Feet is partly about being free to express yourself within a community that’s tolerant of difference.

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This animated clip opens with a colony of Emperor penguins singing as they wait for the winter to end. It shows the arrival of spring in Antarctica with the first rays of sunshine and the breaking of ice as it thaws, followed by the hatching of Emperor penguin chicks and the first dancing steps taken by Mumble when he finally emerges from the egg. Penguin colony members notice Mumble’s dancing and Memphis warns his son about the inadvisability of such un-penguinlike behaviour.

Educational value points

  • Memphis’s advice to his son, 'it just ain’t penguin’ introduces a central theme of the film, that of conforming and non-conforming behaviour. Mumble is a misfit in his colony, a tap-dancing penguin with no ability to sing his 'heart song’. Later in the film Mumble is banished from the colony for his non-conformist behaviour. A group of Adelie penguins befriend him and through his adventures with them he finally comes to accept his unique gifts.
  • The story is told cinematically through carefully considered camera angles and movement and, although animation, the viewpoint is that of a 'virtual’ camera. From the extreme close-up of the baby penguin’s beak cracking the eggshell, the 'camera’ pulls back, gaining speed as it does so to reveal the penguin world the chick is about to enter. Viewpoints shift to indicate the height and role of the adult penguins compared with the chicks.
  • The opening scenes of the clip show how visuals can be used to support a narration, set the scene and provide links between different sections of a film. The narration, which describes the end of winter, is supported by images of icicles and melting glaciers as the Sun begins to light up and warm Antarctica. The cracks on an ice floe and the cracking of the egg are cleverly linked as a way of taking the audience from a general scene to a specific one.
  • The clip shows how animators use light to signify life and to change the mood of the film. The scenes of the Emperor penguins in winter are almost completely dark and the mood is sombre. Light comes gradually to Antarctica, the bathing the landscape in a pink hue. Then the shadows disappear, and under a clear blue sky the ice begins to melt. The rushing waters of melting ice cliffs advance towards and wash over the camera, signifying the story’s beginning.
  • Extensive research was undertaken in preparation for making Happy Feet. Two film research crews went to Antarctica to observe and photograph the territory. Over 80,000 images provided the reference material needed to re-create the icy landscape in all its moods, with all its textures and colours. The director, George Miller (1945–), hoped that audiences would wish to protect Antarctica having seen its beauty in the film.
  • The film attributes human characteristics to the penguins. This is called anthropomorphism and is an ancient storytelling device. The characters Memphis, the father, Mumble’s friend and the newborn chick Gloria are all given names, which humanise them so that an emotional connection is made between the viewer and character. Such use of anthropomorphism often softens stories concerned with human dilemmas and predicaments.
  • The crucial role of music and sound in Happy Feet is revealed in the clip. The soulful singing of the colony reflects its attempt to ward off the long night of winter and leads into the coming of spring. Orchestral music then heralds the melting of the ice. Gloria’s entry to the world starts with the amplified sound of a beak tapping. Excited voices together with a musical soundtrack accompany visuals showing the life and activity of the penguin colony.
  • The clip gives an accurate picture of the breeding behaviour of Emperor penguins. Male birds group together for warmth while incubating the eggs throughout the cold winter months while the females are away at sea feeding. The eggs are kept warm enclosed in the belly fur of the male and balanced on their feet until they hatch in the spring.

This clip starts approximately 6 minutes into the feature.

The penguins huddle together in the dark.
Narrator Of the many thousands who sang through that long night of winter, it was Memphis who cried out most fervently to turn the earth and bring back the sun.

Majestic scenes of the earth rotating and seasons changing.

Baby penguins are hatching out of their eggs and finding their feet.
Penguin It’s a boy!
Penguin 2 Come to Daddy!
Memphis waits expectantly over his unhatched egg.
Maurice Memphis?
Memphis Hmm?
Maurice Is, uh, everything OK?
Memphis I — I don’t know. I can’t hear anything.
Gloria, a baby penguin, taps on the egg with her beak.
Gloria Is it empty?
Maurice Honey …
Gloria Can I have it?
Maurice (angrily) Gloria!
Memphis It’s OK, Maurice.
Gloria taps on the egg.
Maurice It happens sometimes, Memphis.
Memphis Yeah. Yeah.
There are noises from within egg.
Memphis Wait, you hear that?
Maurice Yeah!
Memphis Yeah, I can hear — I can hear you, buddy. Your papa’s here. It’s OK. Oh, he’s OK, Maurice! Whoa, there he is! That’s his little foot there. Here’s his other one!
Gloria giggles as the baby penguin dances awkwardly away, still half inside shell.
Memphis That’s different.
Maurice Yeah.
Gloria Come back here, Mr Mumble.
Maurice Uh-uh, Gloria.
Memphis She can call him whatever the heck she likes. Whoa, little Mumble! Whoa!
The little penguin trips over a ledge and the egg cracks, to reveal Mumble.
Gloria Mumble. Mumble!
Memphis You OK?
Mumble’s feet dance to get them off the cold ice.
Mumble Oh … oh … freezy! Freezy!
Memphis Oh, you’ll get used to it. Come on, son. Come to your daddy.
A group of penguins watch on.
Penguin Hey, what do you make of that?
Penguin 2 A little wobbly in the knees, huh?
Penguin 3 Is he OK?
Penguin 2 I don’t know.
Memphis What … what you doin’ there, boy?
Mumble I’m happy, Pop.
Memphis What you doin’ with your feet?
Mumble They’re happy too.
Memphis I wouldn’t do that around folks, son.
Mumble Why not?
Memphis Well, it just ain’t penguin, OK?
Mumble OK.
Memphis Come on over here. Get under here. Get warm. Watch the beak, watch the beak — beak! Ahh. The beak. OK. Good boy.