Happy Feet Two | |
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Directed by | George Miller |
Written by |
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Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography |
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Edited by | Christian Gazal |
Music by | John Powell |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 99 minutes |
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Language | English |
Budget | $135 million [2] |
Box office | $150.4 million [3] |
Happy Feet Two is a 2011 animated jukebox musical comedy film directed, produced and co-written by George Miller. It is the sequel to the 2006 film Happy Feet starring Elijah Wood, Robin Williams in his final animated feature, Hank Azaria, Alecia Moore (P!nk), Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Sofia Vergara, Common, Hugo Weaving, Richard Carter, Magda Szubanski and Anthony LaPaglia. Wood, Williams, Weaving, Szubanski and LaPaglia reprised their roles with Moore and Common replacing the late Brittany Murphy, and Fat Joe respectively. In addition, E.G. Daily also returned in different roles. In the film, Erik (Ava Acres), the son of Mumble (Wood) and Gloria (Moore) who is reluctant to dance, runs away from home and encounters the Mighty Sven (Azaria), a tufted puffin that can fly. But when the penguins are trapped by a giant wall of ice and snow, they must stop the apocalypse of Antarctica and get a chance to see the true colors.
An international co-production between the United States and Australia, Kennedy Miller Mitchell and Dr. D Studios [4] from Sydney, Australia, produced the film, which premiered in North American theaters on November 18, 2011, and in Australia on December 26, 2011 in Digital 3D, RealD 3D and IMAX 3D formats. The film was released with an attached 3D Looney Tunes short entitled I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat . [5] The film received mixed reviews with critics praising its animation, music and voice acting, while criticizing its narrative. The film underperformed at the box-office grossing just $150.4 million against its $135 million budget (not including marketing costs), which resulted in the closure of Miller's Dr. D Studios, making this their only animated film. [6]
This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed.(September 2022) |
Erik, son of Mumble and Gloria, cannot dance like the other Emperor-Land penguins. He and his best friends, Bo and Atticus, follow one of Mumble's friends, Ramón, leader of the Amigos, to Adélie-Land, which is now being ruled by flying penguin con artist Sven. After surviving the loss of his native fishing grounds due to his "miraculous" flying ability, Sven partnered with another of Mumble's friends, Lovelace (who was fired from his job as "Guru"). They tell the others they were saved by humans but fled to Antarctica after believing they'd be eaten. There Sven performs his first miracles by revealing moss to the locals and using his power of "Sven Think" to help Ramón find his prospective mate Carmen, who is uninterested. Mumble finds the kids and tells them to return to Emperor-Land, with encouragement from Sven.
Meanwhile, Will, an adventurous and existentialist krill, is determined to discover what lies beyond the swarm. His best friend, Bill, reluctantly follows to ensure his safety. Once separated from the swarm they realize that they're at the bottom of the food chain. Will attempts to "move up the food chain" by eating another creature while Bill believes he's going crazy. Mumble tells Erik he's unique and that he'll someday find his calling, but Erik is still enthralled with Sven. While trying to cross a perilous ice bridge, an elephant seal, Bryan the Beach Master and his two sons, refuse to let the penguins pass. An argument results in Bryan falling off the bridge and getting trapped below. Mumble lures a leopard seal to chase him into the ice, freeing Bryan and earning his respect. Erik, however attributes the successful rescue to his attempt at using "Sven Think", dismaying Mumble.
When the penguins return to Emperor-Land, they discover a large iceberg has trapped the emperor penguins in a deep pit surrounded by ice walls. While Mumble, Erik, and Atticus deliver their meager supply of fish to the stranded penguins, Bo returns to Adélie-Land for more help. When Erik tries to deliver fish by flying like Sven, he nearly tosses himself over the iceberg. Mumble saves him and says penguins cannot fly, hinting that their friends and family are doomed. Erik begins to panic until Gloria sends Mumble away to fish and sings to calm her son down. Meanwhile, Bill creates another swarm after spying a family of jellyfish, but Will adheres to his new predator lifestyle. The next morning, a large flock of skua attack the trapped emperor penguins. Noah the Elder encourages them to fight the birds. When all seems lost, Bo returns with Adélie-Land, led by Sven. Sven orchestrates a cooperative effort to feed the trapped emperors through hunting and bringing back flows of fish from the sea. Still trying to be a predator, Will attacks a fish, that is later scooped up and carried by Sven into Emperor-Land.
The humans who saved Sven and Lovelace come to Antarctica again to help the penguins, but a blizzard causes them to flee. Erik urges Sven to teach the penguins how to fly, but Sven reveals he's not really a penguin, but a tufted puffin. Mumble, after watching snow fall into a crevice between chunks of iceberg, begins to tap-dance and leads the penguins in a dance, weakening the ice. The plan works until several chunks break loose, sending Bo, Atticus, and several penguins into the doomed crevice. Erik and Lovelace tumble towards the edge, and Mumble grabs the threads from Lovelace's vest. The threads snaps and causes Lovelace and Sven to tumble, but Erik is pulled to safety. Having injured his foot, Mumble can't lead the Adélies. Ramón realizes Carmen is trapped below and jumps down to be with her, finally winning her love. Sven proves himself a worthy dancer and despite public outcry he leads the remaining Adélies in dance while Erik and Mumble head to the elephant seal beach to seek Bryan, to help in collapsing the ice. Meanwhile, a newly reformed Will reunites with Bill and their swarm. Bill reveals they are now legends after sharing their journey with the swarm.
Mumble and Erik arrive at Elephant Seal Beach where Bryan is in the middle of a dominance fight. Mumble pleads for help freeing the emperor penguins but Bryan declines because of his Beach Master duties. Using his singing abilities, Erik praises Mumble for his bravery and condemns Bryan for refusing to help after Mumble rescued him. The elephant seals travel en-masse to Emperor-Land. Mumble, Gloria, Erik, the other emperor penguins, the elephant seals, Will, Bill, their krill swarm, Ramón, the Amigos, Carmen, Lovelace and the newly-reformed Sven work together to destroy the iceberg by slamming it to the beat of Queen's "Under Pressure". Finally, the iceberg crumbles, creating an uphill passage and the penguins are saved, and Mumble and Erik reunite with Gloria.
Live action cast featured Septimus Caton as the guitarist and Ivan Vunich as the beanie man.
Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Magda Szubanski and Hugo Weaving reprised their previous performances as Mumble, Ramón, Lovelace, Ms. Viola and Noah. Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman make a brief cameo as Norma Jean and Memphis. Also returning for the film are Carlos Alazraqui, Johnny A. Sanchez, Lombardo Boyar and Jeffrey Garcia as Nestor, Lombardo, Raul, and Rinaldo. [14] No other actors repeated their earlier performances. Fat Joe was replaced by Common as Seymour.
Brittany Murphy, who originally voiced Mumble's love interest Gloria, was set to reprise her role and scheduled to begin recording sometime in 2010, [15] but died from pneumonia on December 20, 2009. Steve Irwin, who voiced Trev the elephant seal and an albatross, died of a stingray injury on September 4, 2006. P!nk replaced Murphy's role (P!nk had already contributed a song "Tell Me Something Good" to the soundtrack of the first film). Brad Pitt and Matt Damon voiced the tiny krill, Will and Bill. [16] [17] Hank Azaria also signed on to voice The Mighty Sven. [18] E.G. Daily, who played young Mumble in the previous film, played the vocals for Mumble's choreophobic son Erik and the daughter of Miss Viola, Boadicea, as well as additional voices. Sofía Vergara appears in the film as a new character, Carmen. [19] There is a live action scene in the movie as in the first Happy Feet. [20] Mitchell Hicks signed up as the movie's choreographer. [21]
The DVD, Blu-ray, and 3D Blu-ray release of Happy Feet Two were released on March 13, 2012 from Warner Home Video. [22]
The film grossed $64 million in the United States along with $86 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $150.4 million. [3] Produced on a budget of $135 million, [2] the film ended up losing the studio around $40 million. [23]
On its opening weekend, Happy Feet Two earned $21,237,068 while playing on 3,606 screens. [3] This was barely half of the $41,533,432 that the first Happy Feet made on its opening weekend in November 2006. Approximately 50% of Happy Feet Two's box-office take came from the 2,825 screens that showed it in 3D. [24] Thus, when adjusted for ticket price inflation, Happy Feet Two achieved less than 45% of the attendance figures of its predecessor. Major box-office prediction websites were almost unanimously predicting an opening weekend of $35 million - $45 million, so Happy Feet Two's box-office performance has thus far been underwhelming. Among 2011's animated films, Happy Feet Two's opening weekend ranks 8th. Kurt Orzeck of the Vancouver Sun has reported that "due to the poor performance of Happy Feet Two, 600 of the 700 employees at the Sydney-based Dr. D. Studios, the digital production studio behind the animated movie, have reportedly received their walking papers." [25]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 45% of 121 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.50/10.The website's consensus reads: "The animation is as eye-popping as ever, but Happy Feet Two's narrative is too noisily incoherent to recapture the Oscar-winning charm of its predecessor." [26] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 50 out of 100 based on reviews from 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [27] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. [28]
Richard Corliss of Time gave the film a positive review and said that Miller is "not content to duplicate the pleasures of his first penguin film; he dares to go bigger, deeper, higher — happier." [29] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two-and-a-half stars (out of four) stating that "The animation is bright and attractive, the music gives the characters something to do, but the movie has too much dialogue in the areas of philosophy and analysis." [30] British newspaper The Telegraph named Happy Feet Two one of the ten worst films of 2011, saying "Happy Feet Two is an appalling 3D animated sequel about a colony of all‑singin', all-dancin', all-infuriatin' penguins." [31]
Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
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Central Ohio Film Critics Association Awards | Actor of the Year | Brad Pitt (also for The Tree of Life and Moneyball ) | Nominated |
Houston Film Critics Society Awards | Best Animated Film | Nominated | |
San Diego Film Critics Society Awards | Best Animated Film | Nominated | |
Satellite Awards | Best Original Song | "Bridge of Light" by P!nk and Billy Mann | Nominated |
Happy Feet Two: The Video Game, released November 8, 2011, was developed by KMM Games for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. WayForward Technologies developed the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo DS versions., [32] published by Warner Bros.
The soundtrack album for the film was released by WaterTower Music on CD on November 21, 2011 and on iTunes on November 15, 2011. Unlike the previous film's two album releases—one for its songs and one for its score—both the songs and John Powell's score are included on this album. The songs "Happy Feet Two Opening Medley," "Bridge of Light," and "Under Pressure/Rhythm Nation" are led by P!nk, who lends her vocals to the character Gloria, taking the place of Brittany Murphy from the first film.
The deluxe edition of the album contains an addition of 5 songs performed by Ozomatli; these songs and more can also be found on the soundtrack for the video game, which was released on iTunes on November 8, 2011.
When director George Miller was asked if he had any plans for Happy Feet Three. [33]
If you put a gun to my head and said, 'You have to come up with a story for Happy Feet Three,' I’d say shoot me. I would have no idea. I really would have no idea. The stories creep up on you. You just have to allow the stories to come, and then they get in like little ear worms in your head and they won’t go away. If that happens and we’ve got the energy, we’ll do it is a fantastic movie a third one. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. That’s the only way you can do it. It has to be authentic. I really wanted to make this film better than the first one. Otherwise, at my age, what’s the point? You really want to make it better. If something comes up that’s really exciting and I can convey that enthusiasm to other people, then there would be a third one.
— George Miller.
Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the order Sphenisciformes of the family Spheniscidae. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapted for life in the ocean water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage and flippers for swimming. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid and other forms of sea life which they catch with their bills and swallow whole while swimming. A penguin has a spiny tongue and powerful jaws to grip slippery prey.
Antarctic krill is a species of krill found in the Antarctic waters of the Southern Ocean. It is a small, swimming crustacean that lives in large schools, called swarms, sometimes reaching densities of 10,000–30,000 individual animals per cubic metre. It feeds directly on minute phytoplankton, thereby using the primary production energy that the phytoplankton originally derived from the sun in order to sustain their pelagic life cycle. It grows to a length of 6 centimetres (2.4 in), weighs up to 2 grams (0.071 oz), and can live for up to six years. It is a key species in the Antarctic ecosystem and in terms of biomass, is one of the most abundant animal species on the planet – approximately 500 million metric tons.
The Adélie penguin is a species of penguin common along the entire coast of the Antarctic continent, which is the only place where it is found. It is the most widespread penguin species, and, along with the emperor penguin, is the most southerly distributed of all penguins. It is named after Adélie Land, in turn, named for Adèle Dumont d'Urville, who was married to French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville, who first discovered this penguin in 1840. Adélie penguins obtain their food by both predation and foraging, with a diet of mainly krill and fish.
Elijah Jordan Wood is an American actor and producer. He rose to international fame for his portrayal of Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012).
The emperor penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching 100 cm (39 in) in length and weighing from 22 to 45 kg. Feathers of the head and back are black and sharply delineated from the white belly, pale-yellow breast and bright-yellow ear patches.
Krill are small and exclusively marine crustaceans of the order Euphausiacea, found in all the world's oceans. The name "krill" comes from the Norwegian word krill, meaning "small fry of fish", which is also often attributed to species of fish.
The chinstrap penguin is a species of penguin that inhabits a variety of islands and shores in the Southern Pacific and the Antarctic Oceans. Its name stems from the narrow black band under its head, which makes it appear as if it were wearing a black helmet, making it easy to identify. Other common names include ringed penguin, bearded penguin, and stonecracker penguin, due to its loud, harsh call.
Adélie Land or Adélie Coast is a claimed territory of France located on the continent of Antarctica. It stretches from a portion of the Southern Ocean coastline all the way inland to the South Pole. France has administered it as one of five districts of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands since 1955 and applied the Antarctic Treaty System rules since 1961. Article 4 of the Antarctic Treaty deals with territorial claims, and although it does not renounce or diminish any preexisting claims to sovereignty, it also does not prejudice the position of contracting parties in their recognition or non-recognition of territorial sovereignty. France has had a permanent station in Adélie Land since 9 April 1950.
Magdalene Mary Therese Szubanski, known as Magda Szubanski, is an Australian comedy actress, author, singer and LGBT rights advocate. She performed in Fast Forward, Kath & Kim as Sharon Strzelecki and in the films Babe (1995) and Babe: Pig in the City (1998), Happy Feet (2006) and Happy Feet Two (2011). In 2003 and 2004 surveys, she polled as the most recognised and well-liked Australian television personality.
Life in the Freezer is a BBC nature documentary series written and presented by David Attenborough, first transmitted in the United Kingdom from 18 November 1993.
The Dumont d'Urville Station is a French scientific station in Antarctica on Île des Pétrels, archipelago of Pointe-Géologie in Adélie Land. It is named after explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville, whose expedition landed on Débarquement Rock in the Dumoulin Islands at the northeast end of the archipelago on January 21, 1840. It is operated by the "French Polar Institute Paul-Émile Victor", a joint operation of French public and para-public agencies. It is the administrative centre of Adélie Land.
Psychroteuthis glacialis, the glacial squid, is the only known species in the monotypic genus Psychroteuthis, in the family Psychroteuthidae. While only one species has been confirmed, two undescribed species also probably exist. The species occurs in coastal waters near Antarctica and South America. It grows to a mantle length of 44 cm (1.44 ft).
Commonwealth Bay is an open bay about 48 km (30 mi) wide at the entrance between Point Alden and Cape Gray in Antarctica. It was discovered in 1912 by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition under Douglas Mawson, who established the main base of the expedition at Cape Denison at the head of the bay. The bay was named by the Expedition after the Commonwealth of Australia.
Happy Feet is a 2006 animated jukebox musical comedy film directed and produced by George Miller and written by Miller, John Collee, Judy Morris, and Warren Coleman. It stars the voices of Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving, Anthony LaPaglia, Magda Szubanski, and Steve Irwin in his final film. An international co-production between the United States and Australia, the film was produced at Sydney-based visual effects and animation studio Animal Logic for Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, and Kingdom Feature Productions. It is the first animated film produced by Kennedy Miller and Animal Logic. Set in the cold land of Antarctica, the film follows Mumble (Wood), an emperor penguin who is able to tap dance brilliantly despite his lacking the ability to sing the heartsong to attract a soul mate. After being continuously ridiculed and rejected by peers and his own father (Jackman), Mumble departs on a journey to learn what is causing the local fish population to decline--and to find himself along the way.
The krill fishery is the commercial fishery of krill, small shrimp-like marine animals that live in the oceans world-wide. The present estimate for the biomass of Antarctic krill is 379 million tonnes. The total global harvest of krill from all fisheries amounts to 150–200,000 tonnes annually, mainly Antarctic krill and North Pacific krill.
Bill Miller is a Sydney-based feature film producer.
Happy Feet is an action-adventure game based on the comedy movie of the same name. It was released in 2006 by Midway (publisher) and A2M (developer) for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Wii, and Microsoft Windows. Elijah Wood, Brittany Murphy, Elizabeth Daily, Dee Bradley Baker, and Carlos Alazraqui all reprise their voice roles from the film.
The northern rockhopper penguin, Moseley's rockhopper penguin, or Moseley's penguin is a penguin species native to the southern Indian and Atlantic Oceans. It is described as distinct from the southern rockhopper penguin.
Bon Docteur Nunatak, also known as Good Doctor Nunatak, is a small coastal nunatak, 28 metres (92 ft) high, standing at the west side of the Astrolabe Glacier Tongue, 400 m (1,300 ft) south of Rostand Island in the Geologie Archipelago of Antarctica. It was photographed from the air by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump, 1946–47, charted by the French Antarctic Expedition, 1952–53, and named for Dr Jean Cendron, the "good doctor", medical officer and biologist with the French Antarctic Expedition, 1951–52.
Penguins of Madagascar is a 2014 American animated spy action comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and PDI/DreamWorks and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Directed by Eric Darnell and Simon J. Smith from a screenplay written by Michael Colton, John Aboud and Brandon Sawyer, and a story convinced by Alan Schoolcraft, Brent Simons, Colton and Aboud, it is a spin-off of the Madagascar franchise, and the fourth film overall. Despite the title of the film, it is directly unrelated to the Nickelodeon TV series of the same name. Starring the voices of Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights, Conrad Vernon, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ken Jeong, Annet Mahendru, Peter Stormare and John Malkovich, it takes place directly after the events of Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012), following the adventures of four Adélie penguins - Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private - as they join forces with the North Wind intelligence agency to stop the Giant Pacific octopus Dave, who seeks revenge on all Adélie penguins across the Earth for being upstaged by capturing them.
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