Posted on 12/03/2006 1:40:11 AM PST by MadIvan
It should be the ideal family film for Christmas: the animated adventures of a colony of penguins singing and dancing on the ice floes of Antarctica.
But just days ahead of its British release, Happy Feet is struggling to avoid an iceberg of its own, after Right-wing critics accused it of targeting youngsters with anti-mankind messages.
Commentators in the United States, where the film opened last month, have labelled the plot – penguins struggling to survive man's wrecking of their ecosystem – as pro-green propaganda hidden in a children's adventure.
Fox News presenter Neil Cavuto said: "What I found offensive is that they shove this in a kids' movie – you hear the penguins are starving because of mean old man, mean old companies."
CNN talk show host Glenn Beck added: "If you're going to include those themes, the least you could do is tell me, a parent, so I know I'm walking into propaganda."
The film, which stars the voices of Hollywood A-listers Elijah Wood, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman and Robin Williams, is seen by studio Warner Bros as a rival to new Bond film Casino Royale at the British box office.
Alan Horn, the studio's president and chief executive and the founder of the Environmental Media Association which advises the industry on green themes, said: "There is a very strong environmental message but it's couched in the context of entertainment and a story that's personal and I think the film's over-riding message is that it's okay to be different."
From 'Another Monty Python Record
Radio Announcer: And now the BBC is proud to present a brand new radio drama series, "The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots." Part One: The Beginning.
(music)
Man's voice: Yoo arrr Mary, Queen of Scots?
Woman's voice: I am!
(sound of violent blows being dealt, things being smashed, awful crunching noises, bones being broken, and other bodily harm being inflicted. All of this accompanied by screaming from the woman.)
(music fades up and out)
Announcer: Stay tuned for part two of the Radio Four Production of "The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots", coming up...almost immediately.
(music then sound of saw cutting, and other violent sounds as before, with the woman screaming. Suddenly it is silent.)
Man's voice: I think she's dead.
Woman's voice: No I'm not!
(sounds of physical harm and screaming start again. then music fades up and out)
Announcer: that was episode two of "The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots", specially adapted for radio by Gracie Fields and Joe Frazier. And now, Radio Four will explode.
(music an then the radio explodes.)
Two old women are sitting on the couch listening to the radio when it explodes. One looks at the other
First Pepperpot (Graham Chapman): We'll have to watch the Telly-vision!
Second Pepperpot (John Cleese): Aaaaw. (sound of agreement)
(they turn the couch so it's facing the television. One turns the television on, and they sit down. There is a small penguin sitting on top of the television set.)
Both Pepperpots: (singing, mumbled) hhmhmhmhmh... mhmmhmh mhmhm hhmhmmhm mhmhmmhmhmh
First Pepperpot: What's that on top of the telly-vision set?
(pause)
Second Pepperpot: (matter-of-factly) Looks like a penguin.
(pause)
Second Pepperpot: It's been a long time there, now, has it?
First Pepperpot: What's it doin' there?
Second Pepperpot: Standin'!
First Pepperpot: I can see that!
(pause)
First Pepperpot: If it laid an egg, it would roll down the back of the telly-vision set.
Second Pepperpot: Ummmm. I hadn't thought of that.
First Pepperpot: Unless it's a male.
Second Pepperpot: Yes. It looks fairly butch.
(pause)
First Pepperpot: Per'aps it's from next door.
Second Pepperpot: (yelling) NEXT DOOR?!? Penguins don't come from NEXT DOOR! They come from the Antarctic!
First Pepperpot: (yet louder) BURMA!!!
(they both stop short, looking around)
Second Pepperpot: Why'd'j say that?
First Pepperpot: I panicked.
Second Pepperpot: Oh.
First Pepperpot: Per'aps it's from the zoo.
Second Pepperpot: Which zoo?
First Pepperpot: (angrily) 'ow should I know which zoo it's from?!? I'm not Doctor bloody Bernofsky!!
Second Pepperpot: 'Oo's Doctor bloody Bernofsky?
First Pepperpot: He knows everything.
Second Pepperpot: Oooh, I wouldn't like that, that'd take all the mystery out of life.
(pause)
Second Pepperpot: Besides, if it were from the zoo, it'd have "property of the zoo" stamped on it.
First Pepperpot: They don't stamp animals "property of the zoo"!! You can't stamp a huge lion "property of the zoo"!!
Second Pepperpot: (confidently) They stamp them when they're small.
First Pepperpot: (snapping back) What happens when they moult?
Second Pepperpot: Lions don't moult.
First Pepperpot: No, but penguins do. THERE! I've run rings around you logically.
Second Pepperpot: (looks at the camera) OOOOH! INTERCOURSE THE PENGUIN!!!
(The television warms up: a man is sitting behind a news desk)
Man: Hello! Well, it's just after eight o'clock, and time for the penguin on top of your television set to explode.
(the penguin explodes)
First Pepperpot: 'Ow did 'e know that was going to happen?!
Man: It was an inspired guess. And now...
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
It all started when that #$%@! hunter shot Bambi!
Ooops...Bambi's mom...(even worse!)
North Korea is soon to test an exploding penguin.
I'm in the mood for some barbecued penguin wings all of a sudden.
Are they just angry that this movie beat Casino Royale in the United States?
Penguin's supposed to taste bad.
Regards, Ivan
Glenn Beck recently devoted an entire hour to this movie on his radio show....he really socked it to the producers and other assorted libs.
probably true, but I do know they stink.
Casino Royale... wasn't that the name of a very strange episode of Startrek Generations?
Sorry to keep asking these webpage questions, but there are continuing difficulties with making the page. Can you go, particularly if you use Internet Explorer, to http://www.freerepublic.com/~jedimasterpikachu/ and freepmail whether it looks organized or not to you. The width of the topic tables were set to 100% and the pixels of the non-table pictures were specified some minutes ago.
"THERE! I've run rings around you logically."
Who'll be the first to steal that for their tagline, I wonder? LOL!
I love those guys. They always make me laugh out loud. We used to have their 3-sided record, which was pretty amazing.
Saw it too, with my kids. The propaganda angle aside-it was just a bad movie. Plot continuity sucked, and that made it seem much longer than it was. The 98 minutes seemed like 98 days to me.
All the other crap in it-the humanization of animals, exclusion of someone different, raising emotion (song in your heart) to a pedestal above accomplishment and logic, and the enviro-happy crap, was standard fair for movies like this, except they pushed all it of over the top. To the level of absurd.
The final "you gotta be kidding me" was when the UN fixed it and made the people/penguin world one big happy place, where everyone danced and happily ate fish.
I don't usually comment on such things to my kids after movies, but I had to set them straight on this one.
Good grief! The rest of your description was bad enough, but WTF?
But wait a minute ... isn't that just their plot for the world - we'll all eat fish halal food and happily dance pray five times a day ... ;)
(I meant of course your description of the "plot" of the film, not the description itself!)
It's true-right at the end it shows people blathering under the UN Symbol-then a joint resolution to halt fishing hear the penguins home.
Then the penguins eating fish, dancing and singing.
I told my kids the UN couldn't organize a one car funeral procession.
I saw March Of The Penguins. Penguins die every year because they live in a harsh environment and don't eat for MONTHS at a time.
The Shakleton expedition also got stuck for 2 years in such a harsh climate. Miraculously none of the crew died while they were stuck down there. Death is NATURAL. Everything dies eventually. March of the Penguins showed death. Shouldn't the filmmakers have been chastised for not doing enough to save the penguins?
Does Happy Feet include the threats to penguins that do not include men and corporations?
WAIT A SECOND HERE!
The UN intervenes to stop the evil Americans from fishing near the penguins and then the penguins proceed to KILL THE FISH? Like Nemo?
Cute little fish?
The penguins kill cute little fish? When is the UN going to put a stop to this species holocaust?
Especially when wrapped in rice, dipped in wasabi mixed with soy sauce, and served with a side of pickled ginger.
And they do not portray Shamu as the happy little friendly thing that's at Sea world either. They show the killer whale as it is in nature-deserving of the name.
Lots of mixed messages-very inconsistent. Just a very screwed up movie.
The real fantasy is that the UN got a damn thing done other than bloviating
The Royale http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TNG/episode/68382.html was an episode of Star Trek:The Next Generation. It was a parody of the last part of 2001:A Space Odyssey
But, getting back to the penguin movie, it is clearly bait and switch. When I first saw the trailer, I thought it was an advertisement for a soft drink. The commercials on television show it as Busby Berkeley on ice, not a Greenpeace production.
I took my grandones to see "Flushed Away" instead of "Happy Feet."
I have to admit that even I LOLed at that one.
Bumping your Python sketch.
It put a big smile on my face. ;o)
Yes, including Skuas, (Seagulls), Leopard Seals, Killer Whales, and the danger of letting an egg cool.
If anyone should be upset, it should be the photographers of "March of the Penguins," who had to undergo the same ordeals as the penguins they were photographing.
The "Happy Feet" people just used computers.
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