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Pro-people protests at propaganda by penguin
The Sunday Telegraph ^ | December 3, 2006 | Philip Sherwell

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."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: earthday; environmentalists; leftistpropaganda; penguins; rats; whackos
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To: 5Madman2
the UN fixed it!!!!!!!!!

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!)

21 posted on 12/03/2006 7:07:36 AM PST by Mrs Ivan (English, and damned proud of it.)
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To: Mrs Ivan

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.


22 posted on 12/03/2006 7:15:01 AM PST by 5Madman2 (There is no such thing as an experienced suicide bomber)
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To: MadIvan
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."

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?

23 posted on 12/03/2006 8:17:03 AM PST by weegee (Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")
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To: 5Madman2

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?


24 posted on 12/03/2006 8:23:16 AM PST by weegee (Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")
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To: weegee
I LOVE cute little fish.

Especially when wrapped in rice, dipped in wasabi mixed with soy sauce, and served with a side of pickled ginger.

25 posted on 12/03/2006 8:44:47 AM PST by FierceDraka (Army Dad, And Damned Proud Of It!)
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To: weegee

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


26 posted on 12/03/2006 9:33:20 AM PST by 5Madman2 (There is no such thing as an experienced suicide bomber)
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To: Mercat
Casino Royale... wasn't that the name of a very strange episode of Startrek Generations?

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.

27 posted on 12/03/2006 10:32:38 AM PST by jmcenanly (Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy. -- Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: MadIvan

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)


28 posted on 12/03/2006 1:24:01 PM PST by dixiechick2000 (There ought to be one day-- just one-- when there is open season on senators. ~~ Will Rogers)
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To: weegee
"Does Happy Feet include the threats to penguins that do not include men and corporations?"

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.

29 posted on 12/03/2006 6:36:22 PM PST by NicknamedBob (Some people reach their level of incompetence when doing household chores.)
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To: MadIvan
They got much more cheerful, waiting for Mrs. Jean-Paul Sartre....


30 posted on 12/04/2006 12:06:26 AM PST by Watery Tart ("'Ello, Mrs. Premise!" "'Ello, Mrs. Conclusion!")
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To: MadIvan
Domestic Total as of Dec. 3, 2006: $121,000,000

I am sure the people involved with this film are thrilled with Americans giving all this free publicity. Remember in Hollywood, there is no bad publicity. The complaints are just causing pique interest in people flocking to see the movie. I think if I were to go into movie business I would want a movie that would be talked about for weeks on end.
31 posted on 12/04/2006 12:32:31 AM PST by napscoordinator
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