Happy Feet/Headscratchers

• Since, in Real Life, penguins are known for their funny, almost dance-y walk, wouldn't it make more sense to make a movie about penguins who dance in the first place, and not ones who sing and think the dancing one is weird?
  • Not really. One the things I loved about this movie was the semi-realistic movements of the penguins and the nods to their mating rituals. It was a nice break the whacky adventures usually seen in this sort of film. Penguins in real life (emperor penguins anyway) do sing to attract a mate, they don't dance. That's why they thought dancing was weird. Also, while pneguins may waddle when they walk, I've never seen a tap/break dancing penguin.
    • Really, aside from the dancing - and, wasn't that kind of the point? - the movements and behaviors of the penguins were entirely naturalistic, as was the intention. The only way I can think of that they could've made them more realistic would've been if they were squirting out droppings every five minutes, while they walked.
• In the sequel, many of the the penguins are trapped on that high mountain and spend most of the movie trying to get back down. What bugs me is there were a few wide shots of that mountain and on the mountain's sides were steady trails and pathways the penguins could have easily taken to get back down. The movie should have been over in 30 minutes!
  • The Penguins on top of the iceberg are trying to free the ones trapped at the bottom by bringing them up to the top, not get down to them.
  • But then that adds in some fridge logic pertaining to the first film. How did baby Mumble get all the way up on top of the ice shelf by himself in a short amount of time (when he's dancing to "I Wish" before the Skua show up), while none of the other penguins in the sequel can seem to get up there? Is it that he went all the way around and get very close to the ocean to get up to the top?
• What bugs me is that the Elders go from the whole aliens-are-made-up to dancing with everyone in five minutes flat. In real life (let me state an example) religious/scientific don't change that fast from polar opposites. Like the debate over evolution. It took decades to go from "God created man, and the evolutionists claiming everyone came from monkeys" to now, which is "There was an intelligent force that guided evolution along." Even with so much proof supporting evolution, there are people who don't accept it. This is the point that I'm trying to drive home. Even though there is proof right there that there are "aliens," it would take years for the Elders to change their viewpoint.
  • They saw the "aliens" right by them and freaked out, doing the only thing that could maybe help them.
  • It's different. Seeing the "aliens" isn't seeing the proof for evolution. Seeing the proof for for evolution would be like seeing the boats and random machinery as they did, which didn't sway them, which it shouldn't. Seeing the "aliens" first hand would be like a YEC jumping on a time machine and jumping through various years and seeing first hand that evolution is true.
    • It's very different, indeed - contextually, subtextually, and etc. And, we're never really told of the attitudes of the Elders or results of the encounter after the story's end, even after that.
    • Face Palm. I used the wrong analogy. Sorry. But it does seem that they are dancing and singing with the rest of the others
      • Out of necessity, certainly. Well, that's how I always saw it, anyhow. How did that one reviewer put it? - 'And any leader who refuses to change through evolution, will face revolution,' which was one of the themes running throughout the film, but was most evident in those scenes.
• What exactly were those whales trying to accomplish? One of them had Mumble right in his mouth, and all he did was spit him back out and throw him at the other whale.
  • Something tells me that if they had made everything bloodthirsty (wasn't the sea leopard Nightmare Fuel enough??), there'd be people whining about 'Oh, it's too violent for kids' and such. Even though whales do eat penguins, who's to say the whales wouldn't have started chowing down once they tired of their little black and white football?
  • People tend to forget that whales and dolphins are a major case of Beware the Nice Ones. One case This Troper remembers was seeing a pod of Killer Whales live up to their name by isolating a gray whale calf from it's mother then proceeding to headbutt and drown it to death simply to eat it's lips and left the rest of the body to waste, basically the equivalent of killing a baby for its candy. People (idiots) see Free Willy or Whale Wars and think All Whales are aquatic fish-eating puppies and forget that teeth are meant for more than just gulping down fish.
    • Whales play with their food before they eat it - sometimes quite voraciously, as in the film. What was more interesting was the fact that they, out of all of the other species in the film, didn't speak. And, it's all the more intriguing when you read why that was - the production team realized that whales actually have their own formalized language and dialects, and because of that, they appear with a type of speech all their own.
      • Whales actually bat their prey around like a hackey sack sometimes. It breaks the bones to make it easier to chew.
• They made the female penguins busty. I can understand why, but I think it's totally bizarre.
  • Female penguins are kind of busty, actually. The movie just adds a little more. Just so you know who's who.
    • Well, really - both male and females are pretty 'busty;' they simply placed less emphasis on the male penguins and more on the females, while still not stretching too far out of the penguin's physical boundaries. Now I feel all creepy.
• What the hell was with the premise of this movie? Singing is the center of their culture, but dancing is alien and forbidden? Wouldn't these things tend to evolve together? Even if dancing isn't their way to attract a mate, it shouldn't be so completely unknown and frowned upon if they're such a musical society.
  • Dancing isn't necessarily forbidden, it's only if you're unable to sing. Apparently singing is a mandatory duty of every emperor penguin citizen.
  • Many penguins comment about dancing as a weirdness, and something to be shamed out. So while is not forbidden, is still like courting a girl while wearing only a condom and socks.
  • But that doesn't explain how there's dancing at the Graduation ceremony. They're all dancing, abet not like Mumble.
• Why did they feel the need to make a sequel? The penguin fad has died off long ago and I have no idea what they need to put aliens in it as well.
  • Ok, first of all, there are no aliens in it. Second, idk, either they had a good idea or they just want to make a franchise. This troper thinks it looks kinda cute.
    • There are aliens of a sort - a puffin. Justified Misplaced Wildlife.
  • Hey, you'll still pay to see it. Money, Dear Boy.
  • Im the troper who commented before you. I saw the sequel and it was worth it.
• It's not that Mumble still has his baby down -- it's the argument that it's needed to tell him apart from all the other penguins. It obviously isn't an issue with the other adults, and Mumble has bright, vibrant blue Elijah Wood eyes to make him distinct. So why not let the poor guy grow up?
  • Because merchandising needed something cute and cuddly to put in the kids' meals. Photorealistic emperor penguins just don't fly in that case.
  • In canon, I'd chalk that up as a side-effect to Mumble's egg being dropped.
  • But why would he suddenly go from more adult plumage to less? Shouldn't he eventually be completely covered in chick down feathers eventually?
  • It's another clever little link back to the Accept Autism thing the writers have going with their aesop. A LOT of adults on the Autistic Spectrum never seem to fully mature physically. Mumble being half-covered in chick-down is a shout to him still looking in his mid/late-teens, even when all his friends have moved on to mid-twenties. This is Truth in Television for real Aspergers people, who on average rarely look much older than 20.
• Uh, why is Mumble treated by Gloria in the sequel as making things worse by pointing out that emperor penguins physically cannot fly and that it is false hope to believe so to Eric?
  • Because Erik is just a kid and telling him that he's trying to do the impossible might make him even more depressed and feel more like an outcast. It's kind of like telling a kid that there's no Santa Claus. Likewise, finding out your idol was lying or was wrong can be really devestating on a kid. I'm not saying that Mumble wasn't right about Seven (he was), but rather that him dumping all of that negativity onto Erik wasn't a good idea.
• Am I the only one that saw Eric's supposed outcast status as an Informed Attribute? Sure, he was laughed at when he hurt and crapped himself the first time he tried dancing. But he's still cared for and supported by Mumble, Gloria, Attacus, Bo, Viola, Ramon, and Seymour and they didn't care that he made an ass of himself. They still loved him and supported him. The thing that makes it much more striking is that Mumble was much more of an outcast in the first movie, since the Elders treated him as though he were causing a famine, everyone pretty much hating him or thinking he's insane aside from Gloria, the Amigos, and Norma Jean, and everyone trying to force him to stop being himself. There is no systematic discrimination against Eric.
  • I didnt even think the main plot was supposed to be an outcast story.
  • OP: But it drives Eric's actions for most of the story. It makes Eric look like he's really overreacting.
    • I'd say Eric considers himself more of an outcast than he actually is because he's a little kid rather than the teenager/young adult Mumble became during the first movie. Little kids exaggerate; it's part of who they are. Cut the little penguin chick some slack.
• Was I the only one bothered by how the Amigos, aside from Ramon, seem to latch so quickly onto Sven's ideology, despite how the first movie proved that Lovelace was making things up and Raul even says "I Knew It!! It was all a lie!" when they find things out in the first movement?
  • People...erm, Penguins can be stupid like that. It's not unusual for us to latch onto someone whom we think is a great role model/leader, find out he's a fraud, leave him, and move onto the next Snake Oil Salesman. The more amazing someone sounds, the more we want to be a part of their group and we want them to lead us to greatness. Sven's message of "You can do anything if you put your mind to it" was further enhanced by him being a puffin, a bird that can fly and that the penguins had never seen before (Hence why they thought he was a flying penguin). To them, Sven was a miracle worker and they thought that him leading them would bring them a new era of prosperity. In other words, it's like all the other religious and political leaders out there. They promise big things, but can only deliver the small ones...if even that.