Hear Me Out: George Miller’s joyous ‘Happy Feet’ deserves more love
When one thinks of the influential Australian filmmaker George Miller, the seminal Mad Max series should come to mind, an insane post-apocalyptic film franchise which follows a vengeful policeman trying to bring order to a desolate land of chaos. Miller’s dynamic filmography feeds into the brilliance of his unique series, with movies like the pig drama Babe: Pig in the City and, specifically, the charming penguin animation Happy Feet, which frankly doesn’t get the love it deserves.
Released to reasonable cultural acclaim back in 2006, Miller’s animated adventure told the story of a young Emperor Penguin who finds his soulmate, not through singing but dance. A terrifically simple concept, Miller makes the most of the film’s limits, creating an animation that thrives from its spectacular setting to the charm of its characters, who breathe life into the barren snowy wasteland.
Inspired by a documentary Miller watched in the early 2000s on the BBC named Life in the Freezer, the Australian filmmaker sought to make a film about the story of earth’s most curious creatures. “I thought here’s an amazing story written by nature,” he told Female magazine at the time, adding, “And then I saw that they sing to each other to imprint on each other and mate. I thought that everyone has a song, one of the characters can’t sing but he can dance and before I knew it, I was in the middle of a musical”.
What follows is as thrillingly frenetic as you’d think a film about dancing from the maker of Mad Max would be. Miller centres the charming tale around Mumble, voiced by Elijah Wood, a young penguin who cannot sing but has a remarkable talent for tap dancing. Dig deep down enough, and you’ll discover that it’s a narrative thread cinema has seen 1000 times before, but who is worrying about that when Mumble is killing it to the tune of ‘Boogie Wonderland’ by Earth, Wind & Fire?
Miller undoubtedly has a soft side, bringing the pink beauty of Babe the sheep pig to life in 1998 before creating the undeniably cute Mumble and friends eight years later. Still, the mature way the animation is put together truly seals off Happy Feet as a modern great of the genre.
Polishing the story off with true directorial nouse, embracing the voice-acting of Robin Williams, Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, Miller creates a far better film than it truly deserves to be. Scattered with several high points of frenetic dance scenes, Happy Feet is an animated cabaret of joy that entertains its audience with the same grace as a classic Hollywood musical from the industry’s golden age.
There’s an undeniable charm to proceedings whenever such established directors as Miller, Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese or Nicolas Roeg take on a children’s film, with each aforementioned name achieving greatness by switching their target audience for just a brief moment. Whilst such directors saw acclaim with Hugo, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Witches, Miller’s effort seems less pretentious. He lent his hand to create a nugget of cinematic joy that undoubtedly got youngsters tap-dancing around the living room time and time again.
