I was fascinated to learn that Miller’s initial inspiration for the film came from a conversation he had with the son of Frank Hurley, who was a former member of one of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s expeditions and a true legend from the “Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration”. When the film was released, it came out in both conventional and IMAX 2D theatres, with a planned IMAX 3D release abandoned due to budget restrictions at Warner Bros. He created it for Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures and Kingdom Feature Productions with the help of Sydney-based animation studio Animal Logic and while it is mostly animated, it does also include some motion capture shots of live-action humans. Happy Feet was directed, produced and co-written by George Miller of Mad Max fame – outside of the Babe films, it was his first foray into the world of family film, sort of like when Martin Scorsese made Hugo. The mid-2000s might not have been the strongest time for animation (that’s putting it mildly), but it seems there were a few genuinely good pieces of work amidst the rabble, if you knew where to look. It was another victim of my self-imposed “I’m-too-cool-for-animation” teenaged ban, not helped by the rather twee title, so I’ve only just seen it for the first time after almost thirteen years. When I was a young lad, I took my first date to a screening of the 2005 documentary March of the Penguins – I certainly knew the way to a girl’s heart, didn’t I? Yet strangely, I don’t think I ever got around to seeing Happy Feet the following year (except possibly on a bootleg copy given to me by my granddad). The opinions expressed therein reflect those of the author and are not to be viewed as factual documentation. The author claims no ownership of this material. Any material, including images and/or video footage, is property of their respective companies, unless stated otherwise. Disclaimer: This blog is purely recreational and not for profit.
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