Happy Feet Two with Sara Rubin

[00:00:01] Blank Check with Griffin and David, What to say or to express All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check Moment And it felt apropos to this, our second proper Zoom record. Yes. Which does feel like its own form of madness.

[00:00:48] It does and this movie feels like its own form of madness so it's just an absolutely vital combo in my opinion. It is funny, the term I keep on overusing throughout all these Forge Miller episodes is Fever Dream.

[00:01:01] All these movies feel like fever dreams, whether they're good dreams or bad dreams. They all have that quality to them and most of this main series was recorded before the world shut down. Yes.

[00:01:14] And it was just sort of an interesting look into a type of mania and then we're finishing out these final episodes while socially distant, terrified about the world surrounding us. And these movies play very differently.

[00:01:30] Even one that seems somewhat innocuous on its face, like Happy Feet 2, now makes me question everything. I fled New York because of this movie. Because it was this movie specifically? Yep. And then got in the car and so as far away as you could.

[00:01:50] I'm picturing Ben washing Happy Feet 2 and then loading Hig and his significant other into a car and then enacting like the Children of Men van scene. Just screaming about Eric and Sven, the false idol Penguin. That's right. And that puffin, you gotta watch out for those puffins.

[00:02:12] Rude, what do you think of the puffin? Am I allowed to talk? You gotta talk. Absolutely. Oh, okay. So that's what you do on these. I have never seen a picture of George Miller before this.

[00:02:24] I don't know what that says about me and let me say wonderful small glasses. Yeah. And he always has the little rope around his glass. He has the rope.

[00:02:34] I don't remember but he looks like the guy who tells like Brendan Fraser not to raid a tomb in the mummy or what? He's the guy in the library. The evil curse if I consult my textbooks, he looks like that guy.

[00:02:49] Like he's in act one of the mummy. He is currently my background photo for this Zoom record. It is him doing Happy Feet 2 press. So it was him sitting in front of a backdrop of Happy Feet 2 imagery.

[00:03:03] And he is dressed all in black and white except for a bow tie with his love professor. A bit of a penguin vibe. He looks like a penguin.

[00:03:10] Yes, his round professor glasses and the rope around them and then there's just two penguins popping and smiling big behind him. I don't know if you know this. Rubes but George Miller an actual doctor with a PhD was a medical doctor.

[00:03:29] I mean I would trust him with my life. He took me on a wonderful adventure in Happy Feet 2 so I feel like I trust him. This movie also feels like it is made by like an animal biologist. I don't like how realistic they are.

[00:03:46] I don't want to start out negative. I don't want to set like a negative tone but I have to say the realism of these penguins is very upsetting.

[00:03:53] I got two questions right off the bat and then I'm going to introduce the podcast and then I'm going to introduce you properly. Okay? Question number one. Had you seen Happy Feet 1 before? I have seen Happy Feet 1 once and I recall that it was...

[00:04:15] I didn't mind watching it. I didn't mind seeing it. I remember that it was very scary with like the sea lions. But you had not seen Happy Feet 2 before preparing for this record, correct? I had not experienced Happy Feet 2. Okay, so now we're in a post-Happy Feet 2 mindset.

[00:04:39] Hello everybody. My name is Griffin Nantman. I'm David Sims. It's a blank check with Griffin and David. It is a self-quarantined socially distant responsible podcast about filmographies. Directors who have massive success early on in their careers

[00:04:58] are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. And sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they tap-a-tap-a-tap-a-tap-a-tap-a-tap-a baby. And this is a mini series on the films of George Miller, Dr. George Miller, PhD. It is called...

[00:05:17] You keep saying PhD. He has an MD, not a PhD. Okay, Dr. George Miller, MD. This was the second and final film produced by his pop-up animation studio, Dr. D Productions, which shut down promptly after opening weekend of Happy Feet 2.

[00:05:38] He tried to give the world the D and they said, please, no more. This is a Mad Pod Fury cast, the films of George Miller, MD. We're talking Happy Feet 2 and our guest today from BuzzFeed

[00:05:53] and from being one of my oldest friends and one of my favorite people in the world is Sarah Rubin. How are you doing, Roots? You know, I'm okay. No, that noise covered it, I think. That's how I feel. You know, assembling my thoughts just constantly, but...

[00:06:17] Our dear mutual friend Alejandra Collini, a past and future guest, had a joke that I think about all the time. It still has the joke. It's still his. He still owns the joke.

[00:06:29] But about when people would ask him how he was doing and his answer would be objectively fine. And I keep on thinking about that. Like, anytime anyone asks me how I'm doing amid corona panic,

[00:06:50] I go like, well, I am doing okay relative to the state of the world, but I don't feel good. No. It's not a good feeling time. No. But Rubin, you live in sunny Hollywood, California. Yes. Rubin, New York City for Passover and then the world pause.

[00:07:13] And so we are breaking our anti-Zoonabargo just in time to take advantage of your thoughts on Happy Feet too. I have thought... I took notes. I took this very seriously. I've got graphs.

[00:07:28] If someone watched this movie and was like, I have no thoughts, I would just be like, I don't think you watched the movie. You must have watched something else. You were just watching March of the Penguins. Right, exactly.

[00:07:40] I was somewhat concerned and I don't know if you felt this way, David, but I was somewhat concerned that this was going to be the one movie in George Miller's filmography that didn't really exist

[00:07:52] where we were going to have to sort of vamp and come up with weird side bits because there wasn't much to say, especially after Happy Feet. And I am so pleasantly surprised that this movie is so dense

[00:08:04] that I almost feel like we cannot cover it within one episode. I know what you mean. We could probably do 10 part mini series on it. I felt the same way and then while I was watching it, I was like, why did I feel that way?

[00:08:19] And I texted you something that I feel like we need to bring out into the open immediately. Would you agree? Yeah. I was like, he's the king of sequels. He has made so many sequels that are better than the original and weirder than the original.

[00:08:36] Or at least deserve to be in the same conversation. Exactly. You go back to the three Mad Maxes, the heightening of the Mad Maxes and have to feed two. Yeah, he's made five sequels. They're all fascinating and none of them are lazy.

[00:08:51] None of them are like, yeah, we'll just do it. The first thing that kind of build on a little bit. None of them are that he's always like, no, no, no, no, where can I take it that no one would expect it to be taken?

[00:09:02] That was my thing. My immediate take to you. I thought it'd be the same arc as the first one. 100% Oh, and the baby can't sing or can't dance or can't do the electric wriggling or something. The first two minutes where it's like, oh, he can't dance.

[00:09:16] I'm like, oh great. So now he can't dance. It's just going to be the same plot in reverse. This movie is so fucking sneaky because it tries to outsmart you in the first five minutes. It's like fucking John Tatero and Mr. D. It's incredibly sneaky. Dr. D.

[00:09:32] And it starts off and you're just like banging your head against a wall and you're like, is it really going to be now his kid is the only person who can't dance because everyone likes dancing

[00:09:42] and his kid looks exactly like him and how he looks like his dad. And then the movie becomes the Nashville of Children's Film. Then it becomes the most complicated narrative structure I have ever seen on a children's film that feels like it's completely

[00:10:00] disjointed until it somehow all unifies and becomes representational of the basic sort of like ecosystem of like all animals relationship to each other and the environment. In the environment in a time of climate apocalypse, it's about how like right animals are all knitted in this sort of

[00:10:22] gossamer net that must be maintained to like keep up social order. And that's all like driven through our heads by these krill who are like, ah, but I don't like my position in society. I don't like my position in existence. What if I could change it?

[00:10:40] And by the end of the movie, they're like, this is why you are where you are. And it's a good thing. Don't speak up. And that doesn't mean you're meaningless. Know your place. No, but you're right. But it's also like, but that doesn't mean you don't have meaning.

[00:10:52] It's just how it has to be. Status quo is the most important thing and you should never step outside of it. To fear. Yeah. But it's but that doesn't mean you're not a person. It's also about hippies eating chicken. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:11:10] I mean, it's about many, many things. But what's so fascinating about that message is the first happy feet is the exact opposite message in almost a too clean kind of pathway where it's just about like, let your freak

[00:11:24] flag fly society, religion, your political leaders, they're all going to say you need to function this one way. And that's not true. Your heart song is whatever you want it to be. It doesn't even need to be a song.

[00:11:36] And happy feet too is like, but understand you need to find yourself and find your happiness. But also society collapses unless we all play our roles. So you be you. But also we all have hearts to play or else this all falls to hell. That is all accurate.

[00:11:55] That's what this is about. And this is the fucking Miller King of the sequels thing is like the movie starts and you're like, he's just doing the same thing again. But the reason he's so good at sequels is because he is one of the few people who

[00:12:09] thinks about sequels laterally. This is my whole tape that he doesn't just go like, what's the next obvious story in the narrative? Like what would happen next? And he doesn't just go, how do you make it bigger or how do you flip the last

[00:12:24] thing or how do you heighten the last thing? He goes like, what's a lateral move? What's a what's a thing that exists on the same lateral plane as the first film I've established in the world I've established that I find equally interesting.

[00:12:39] And I'm just going to move sideways to that, which sometimes works wildly well in the eyes of the public and sometimes does not at all. And something like Bay Pig in the city where people were angry when it came out.

[00:12:55] This movie, it just feels like got a collective shrug. Big shrug. Big shrug. And especially for a movie where like the first one wins best animated film, critics love it. It's a massive fucking hit. I felt like, you know what? That first one, not for me.

[00:13:11] I seem to like it less than most. To find whatever it is, I'm fine with it. It's respectable. That's not necessarily my tempo. And then this movie just gets like a giant shrug. I don't think about it for the better part of a decade.

[00:13:27] I don't even consider watching it until this mini-series starts up and five minutes in, I was like, God damn it, this thing honks. Right. There's something there's something working here. Didn't the first one come out like around the same time as March of the

[00:13:42] Penguins or was there another penguin movie? Correct. The first one comes out, I believe a year after March of the Penguins. It was incredible timing. Penguin fever. Yeah, but it was pure happenstance because animated films take so

[00:13:55] goddamn long no one thought March of the Penguins was going to be a fucking blockbuster. It's a redubbed French documentary. And somehow the same studio releases that movie pretty much a year in change before this, the first Happy Feet comes out and that like

[00:14:13] Happy Feet just fucking leap frogs off from March of the Penguins rides the penguin wave is such a big hit that they're like George Miller, keep your studio open. You're never going to stop making animated films. Keep a staff on retainer.

[00:14:27] Give us Happy Feet too as quick as it can. And he's like, I really want to make that Mad Max movie. And they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, Mad Max movie. He's like putting all the penguin statues away taking them back out again. Yeah.

[00:14:39] It was one of those things where they were like we promise you if you make Happy Feet too will let you do the Mad Max thing. And so they're like kind of like a parcel deal it feels like.

[00:14:49] Yes, although there is also Justice League in between these two movies. Right. After Happy Feet he's hired to make Justice League colon mortal. One of the best titles ever not made. And he did you know that he was the second choice to direct that movie?

[00:15:11] For Justice League Mortar was the first Jason Reitman. Jason Reitman coming off of. Wow. I mean was he was even, I guess he was. He was coming off of Juno. I guess Juno had been made but like George Miller signed on in September 07 so Juno was just out.

[00:15:27] Juno had premiered at Toronto. Right. Just around. It was building momentum. This is the interview that I sent to you several months back that I'm obsessed with where Jason Reitman talks about how he thinks he doesn't have it in him to possibly ever make a big studio film.

[00:15:45] Right. And then Howard Stern asked him about if he'd ever do a Ghostbusters. Let me find this. He said. I'll just, I will point out I believe Reitman turned it down. Yes, he turned it down. He turned it down.

[00:16:05] He took the meeting and he said that all sounds good. I'm not the person you want to make this. Right, right. He's like, I'm not a big studio guy. I'm an indie filmmaker. I'm fucking Jodorowsky Jr. over here. So yeah. I can't find the quote right now.

[00:16:23] I will have and post it on our Twitter when this episode comes out. But he says something like I could never make a big film. Like people think that I should direct Ghostbusters 3 because my dad did the first two. My Ghostbusters would be so indie.

[00:16:38] It would just be like people sitting around having a conversation about Ghostbusters. Right, it would be fucking Jerry. It would just be guys walking around in the desert and nothing would happen. I'm so fucking indie. I couldn't make a Ghostbusters 3 with any sort of plot.

[00:16:55] And now he is elected himself. No gunner seats. Right, no gunner seats whatsoever. No nostalgia button pushing. And now there's a right man as we know was unanimously elected the president of Ghostbusters.

[00:17:10] Was that a movie part of a, was that a movie part of COVID push or is that still, when is that movie supposed to come out? That's a good question. Or was that because I feel like it just disappeared.

[00:17:20] It is one of the few movies that has been completely silent in the way that COVID. It is set for July which remains a slight gray area. Like July movies are sort of waiting and seeing for a little while longer I guess.

[00:17:36] But yes, Sony has not weighed in. They're playing chicken. I'm sure by the time this episode comes out we'll have a better sense of where Ghostbusters afterlife will lie. The ARG will have started. Of course. I will be deep in it. Oh of course.

[00:17:50] Look maybe it's already happening. Oh that. Maybe we don't realize it. Maybe all of this is part of it. This is part of the ARG. Maybe. But I feel like they're playing the waiting game of is it possible for Ghostbusters

[00:18:05] afterlife to be the first movie released once the original. They might have to change that name. Yes. My one is changed. They should call it Ghostbusters pandemic is what they should call them. I don't, look I'm just talking from a studio perspective. I don't like the title. Anyway.

[00:18:25] Putting on my marketing hat here. It'd be the boo-demic. It would be a boo-demic. Yes. That's a good point. It would be a boo-demic. And five comedy points for that. Thank you. But yeah, so George Miller obviously spends a yearish trying to make his

[00:18:43] Justice League movie with fricking Adam Brody and Teresa Palmer and whoever. I can't know. No not Teresa Palmer. Oh yeah it was Teresa. Yeah, Armie Hammer, Megan Gayle, Coleman. Yeah she was going to be Tally Al Ghul.

[00:18:57] Anyway, and then the writer strike tanks that movie along with the Dark Knight doing so well that Warner Brothers is like wait what why would we do this? This is insanity. No it's even before that Nolan is like shut this thing down. Yeah like what is this?

[00:19:11] What's you know and Miller has never gotten over that and has always been like my movie would have been crazy and I have no doubt that it would have been good. I would love to see it. Yes. Call me Monique because I would love to see it.

[00:19:25] I'm Monique because you'd love to see it. What am I not getting here? You know the meme where she's like I would like to see it. I don't know if it was Monique. Yeah, I don't think I know the Monique meme. Let me just Google Monique.

[00:19:38] You gotta brush up on your. You would like to see the meme. I'm behind on the Monique memes. While you're looking that up can I just point out that also writing the Penguin Wave is the movie Surf's Up? I love Surf's Up. Surf's Up. Oh, Surf's Up.

[00:19:55] It's freaking rules. Literal Penguin Waves. That is very true and. Penguin's a Madagascar the movie is actually the legitimately funniest Penguin movie I've ever seen. Really? Penguin movie. I have not seen the Penguin. Do you not like it Griffin? You haven't seen Penguin's a Madagascar?

[00:20:15] Oh, it's got such good bits. I have not seen it. I do know I am not a huge fan of the first few Madagascar movies. I have never seen the third. I am fascinated by the fact and I've railed about this on the podcast before. Multiple times.

[00:20:31] There are three different continuities within the Madagascar universe. Okay, there's three mainline Madagascar films. The proper trilogy if you will. Then there is a TV show called that timeline alpha. Timeline alpha. Okay. Yeah. Then there is what I would like to call the Kelvin timeline.

[00:20:52] This is an alternate reality in which the penguins make it back to the zoo or never leave the zoo, never end up in Madagascar and have their TV show the Nickelodeon TV show. Yeah. Penguins of Madagascar. Is that not a prequel? It is not. It is not.

[00:21:12] It is if the films don't happen, even though it is called the penguins of Madagascar. Griffin is now from Madagascar. Is there defining characteristic except in the universe of the TV show they have never been to Madagascar.

[00:21:26] Griffin is now speaking with the energy of Kevin Costner at the end of JFK as he always does anytime this topic comes up. They're the penguins of the film Madagascar. The penguins of the film Madagascar. Right. Well, no. So we're done.

[00:21:42] The third timeline I would like to establish, okay? And this is the lone gunman timeline, okay if I may. This is the timeline for penguins of Madagascar, the movie, which is separate from both Madagascar,

[00:21:58] the film series and penguins of Madagascar, the TV series because they want to set it in a universe where animals hold down people jobs. Where you can have a fucking animal who's a special agent or a squid who's a bad guy or whatever.

[00:22:15] But they don't, they're not interacting with people, Griffin. They're not interacting in their own, they have animal jobs in animal, they're also, penguins are supposed to be insane. It's a utopia scenario. The penguins are nuts.

[00:22:28] So the penguins are like we're secret agents but they're not secret agents for anyone. They're just like insane penguins. But there are no humans in the film, the penguins of Madagascar, correct? I think there's like some in the background but I don't think they have lines.

[00:22:43] I mean that is what necessitates it taking place on a third timeline. No, there are humans because the penguins are in like an aquarium.

[00:22:50] Humans don't have like roles necessarily but a lot of it is about the penguins all getting kidnapped and being put in an aquarium and the humans go save them. Fair enough. Fair enough. So let's not say, it's just great, great Malcovich as an octopus.

[00:23:04] Also the octopus is pretending to be a human, that's important to know. Okay. If you can all open your chat window you'll see that I posted the GIF if you just want to take a look at Monique. I love education. Oh yes I do know.

[00:23:19] You know what? That's a really good GIF. It's a great GIF. It's a hit meme. I just want to say to Ann to this point, three comedy points for saying that Serveself was riding a wave. It was. Thank you. I had to get it in there somewhere.

[00:23:36] You got it in there and it landed. It landed beautifully but ServesUp comes out in between Happy Feet and Happy Feet 2 and ServesUp performs mezzo mezzo in the box office. So that was maybe the first sign. Not a huge hit.

[00:23:54] That was maybe the first sign of penguin fever. Fatigue. It might have crested a little bit. And then George, old Georgie Miller still has four years to go until Happy Feet 2 comes out. So Happy Feet 1, a film that is all about its insane world building and mythology.

[00:24:15] The sort of very casual, we all know that penguins have a hard song. What if a penguin were to not have a hard song and instead had heart feet? And how would society reject them?

[00:24:26] And what journey would a penguin have to go on to find their inner confidence to meet other societies of penguins, to come back home and win over his religiously conservative parents and save all of his penguin brethren from global warming by becoming a viral medial star?

[00:24:46] And also there's a medley of pop songs. Right. Exactly. The moments. One is I feel like a little more like of a musical. For example, Happy Feet 2 is like there's music at the beginning and the end, but not so much in the middle.

[00:25:01] Oh my God, this is a hot take that I'm probably going to get a little bit of flack for. But on your flack jacket. I think it's on.

[00:25:13] I think that the what's the what is the what the love love lace is song about Sven on par with the genie song. It was so good. Wow, I think it's a really good song.

[00:25:26] That's the other weird thing is this movie is less of a musical than the first one, but it has like more original song. Right. Right. The first one is fully jukeboxy and this one is more of a Mick. Right. It's like all jukebox medleys.

[00:25:42] It's all elephant love song. And this one has like big medley at the beginning, big medley at the end and then like three big original ballads in the middle. One of which is an opera ballad. Yes. Love that part. Great part of the movie.

[00:25:58] All right guys, I just want to backtrack a minute. Okay. There's two things I want to bring up. One, can you tell me the tagline of surfs up? The tagline of the film stirs up. I just saw it and I just need to address before we move on.

[00:26:10] Hang 10. It's not bad. This time they're surfing. Does it include the word waving? No. Is it like cowabunga, cowaburda? All great. No. A major ocean picture. Love that. Wow. Yep. That's good. That's very good. Yep.

[00:26:32] Yeah, just let that settle kind of like you've like cracked open a soda and it's kind of fizzing. Just let it kind of like, you know. Someone definitely brought that up as a tagline for Nemo and they were like, absolutely not. We will never do that.

[00:26:45] And then surfs up was like, well, we'll take it. Yeah, we'll do it. Yeah, whatever. Major ocean picture show. If we're talking in memes now, I just truly did the Antonio Banderas reacting to the he did. laptop. I've just been reeling from that news here. That's beautiful.

[00:27:02] It's weird that like Sharktail didn't do that. You know what I mean? It's weird that every film before exactly that like every movie have been like major ocean. I don't get it. Like, and then finally surfs up grabbed to the grab the gem.

[00:27:17] There are even many live action films that could have used that tagline. Yep. Wow. A major ocean picture here. I know here's the second thing. And this is I feel like a good start. I just want to run down the poster billing for happy feet too.

[00:27:36] Oh, it's insane. It's some of the weirdest billing I have ever seen. I'm going to read it left to right. It's two blocks. All right. Elijah Wood. Sure. Of course. Yeah. And then Robin Williams just casually playing three different characters.

[00:27:53] And none of those characters are problematic and it's all very cool. Also at the end there's casually a Jamaican penguin at the end also. All right, Robin do a Jamaican penguin real quick. Yeah. That was just him riffing, right? He was like what if one was Jamaican?

[00:28:14] He didn't have a sequel deal in place, right? So when they came to the table to negotiate for him to come back to happy feet too, he said I would love to find a way to appropriate one other type of language if I can.

[00:28:28] I'd like I know we already got three in there. I'd love to find another patois that I can throw into this. I mean, it's Robin Williams. You're just describing his stand-up career. Please make sure the penguin is wearing a Rasta hat. That is very important.

[00:28:43] Otherwise people won't know. This can't be subtle. I believe I thought that was supposed to be the same penguin just doing a new thing. It is. It is but that's where he got tricky because I'm sure George Miller came to him and

[00:28:57] said look you're playing the same three characters again narrator, lovelace, Ramon. There's no room for you to invoke a third identity, a fourth identity rather. And he was like can the third character just inexplicably for the last scene? Much like Adrian Brody introducing Sean Paul on SNL.

[00:29:20] Wait was that lovelace? Yeah, that's lovelace just suddenly becoming Chet Hayes for his final scene. Exactly. Exactly. And that's what's good about it. And the hat is made from his shirt where his belly has ripped. Of course. Correct, correct. Good job, Ben. Well-noticed. That's it. All right.

[00:29:41] Number three, third build, Hank Azaria. Of course. Right. The breakout star of the film. The breakout star of the film doing a Scandinavian accent. Okay. Number four and she's built this way. Alicia Moore began brackets. Pink with an exclamation point and brackets.

[00:30:00] And that's an exclamation point instead of an eye. Thank you. It's not like she... It's a big... Where was it placed? It's big. That's big. That's big. That's a real name. I don't even know how you would read that. I think it's big. That's so cool.

[00:30:16] I wish I could like, could you just have your name and have an exclamation point in it? Like legally? Do it, Ben. Sure. Why not? Ben. Haasley. All right. Okay, so Hank is fourth build, fifth build Brad Pitt. Yes. Love that. Brad Pitt, the famous actor. Yeah.

[00:30:37] You heard of him? Sixth build. What does he play? He plays a krill. He plays Will the Krill. Right. One of the biggest movie stars on the planet. Yeah. Right. The seniors money ball. Yeah. Sixth build Matt Damon. Okay.

[00:30:54] Oh, another one of the biggest stars in the planet. Now here's where he's gonna be seen. What is he? What's his role? What's his, what's he doing? You're never going to believe this. Okay. Okay. He is also playing a krill. Interesting.

[00:31:08] This is where the marketing team for happy feet two runs into a problem because you have the two biggest stars in the movie who are also two of the biggest stars alive playing what are fairly probably the fifth and sixth biggest characters in

[00:31:21] the film and are literally the smallest characters physically the smallest characters in the movie. I would put them third and fourth. I think they have more screen time than Azaria definitely more than pink. No offense to pink. Yeah. I disagree on Azaria. I'll accept pink.

[00:31:36] I will accept pink. I'm going to move on from this. All right. Seventh build. But this is where, okay. Go on. Go on. No, go ahead. Okay. Seventh build Sophia Vergara. Sure. You're okay with that? I'm I will accept it. I will accept it.

[00:31:53] She was popping at the moment. I'll accept it. Okay. Eighth build Hugo weaving. Okay. We're prizing as well. What do you got? Was he the elephant seal? No, he's the elder penguin. He has a two lines. Oh, there's so many frigging penguins in this goddamn movie.

[00:32:08] I saw how many penguins the scenes overhead where there's just like tons of penguins and I was like, there's not this many penguins on earth. There's so many frigging penguins. It's terrifying. Ninth build is Richard Carter. He's build on the poster. Now he's the one.

[00:32:26] He's the big seal guy. He's the big seal. He's also the bullet farmer in Mad Max Fury Road. He's like a journeyman Australian actor. He was been in, you know, he was, he's a detective in Bay Pig in the city.

[00:32:43] You know, he's, he's in Muriel's wedding playing a cop like 12 million penguins in the world. So you're just looking up random stats and showing us your phone. Alright, 10th build common. Replacing fat Joe inexplicably. Fat Joe inexplicably. Maybe Fat Joe is just busy. I don't know. Sure.

[00:33:07] 11th build Magda Subanski, who of course we all know is the star of Bay Pig in the city. She plays Farmer Hoggett's wife. In this movie she plays Bo's mother. I mean, is a tiny role in this film. Yes. She makes the 12 build actors though.

[00:33:26] We're talking above the title. We're not talking about the lower credit block. This is the top of the poster. It goes this deep on billing to include her. Yes. I like that somebody maybe wouldn't be convinced until they got to her and they were like, okay now.

[00:33:40] Oh, Magda's in there? Okay. You won me over. Take my 12 dollars. No thanks. Yes. 12th build Anthony LaPaglia. Not even getting an and he plays a scuwa. Yes. He's one of the bad birds. Yeah. Who's like, I want to eat them penguins. Like that. Okay.

[00:33:59] So you're the poster that you're reading is the teaser poster right with all those names listed. The tagline is every step counts. And that says November 2011. Correct. Okay. But they start to realize the marketing team that they have a problem because

[00:34:14] they're too big a stars of Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, but they're right there in the middle of the billing and they might get lost. You don't want people to not make it that far into the credit block. Right? Right.

[00:34:26] So the final theatrical poster for happy seat two, this is what they do that I find fascinating. They cut out the second tier. Right? Yes. So they go, okay, it's just one line of billing would Williams, as area, that's top three.

[00:34:43] And then they go pit Damon dead center in the middle of the poster, not any higher, not any lower, but they're dead center and then continue Alicia more pink. So if you have a car as common, but what they do is underneath Brad Pitt and Matt Damon,

[00:35:01] they put like a little loony tune circle with their two character window poking out of it, like breaking through the poster to spot like them. And it says, as will and bill the krill. No one else gets that spotlight treatment.

[00:35:21] So it feels like the movie is selling will and bill as the main attraction before you even get to the title. You don't even know what the movie is. Then you have to scan down and go, Oh, it's happy feet to every step counts. Every step counts.

[00:35:35] So this movie starts exactly the way you expect happy feet to to start. It starts with crazy camera movement into the middle of the NLR kick, where a bunch of penguins are dancing and doing a medley of pop songs. And you go, okay, it's this shit again.

[00:35:52] I cannot explain why, but from minute one, this was going down smoother for me than the first film, which I do not dislike, but do not love. And for whatever reason, I, I went, I'm getting more into this.

[00:36:08] I don't know if it's just that, you know, happy feet to can run where happy feet one walked. I think it's a little bit entering. I'm entering at a high floor. I understand the heart songs society has reworked itself around mumbles. Everyone's singing and dancing.

[00:36:25] I'm just like, give me this crazy shit. I fucking get up by surrender. Go ahead, Sarah. We should address your complaint right now about the realism. The real but I see, I think the first one is you.

[00:36:38] I'm a huge pebble in the penguin fan and I feel like we can't talk about this film without acknowledging pebble in the penguin. Yeah. And the first one to me is pebble in the penguin. Not pebbles, they're little songs, but whatever.

[00:36:51] But this one, you know, it's going down whole new roads that have never been traveled before. It's, it's, it really broke out of I feel like what made the first one a little formula like this one.

[00:37:06] I could not tell you if you were like, what's going to happen in the next scene? I think every guest would have been wrong. Correct. Every scene, if you tried to guess, okay, I know what's happening next. You would be wrong.

[00:37:17] Do you know what I kept thinking about watching this movie and not only had I not seen it, had I not really engaged with it, but I truly had no idea what it was about outside of, oh, he's got a little son now. Yeah.

[00:37:30] So I was truly astonished at every single plot development. But I kept on thinking during this when we did our little Q&A with James Sheamus after screening the, the whole at the draft house in

[00:37:44] Brooklyn and we asked him if he had ideas for what Ang Lee's Hulk sequel would have been. And the pitch he gave us that he had worked on that just disappeared once Hulk bombed was that it was about Hulk on like a Native American

[00:38:00] reserve connecting spiritually to the land and understanding the tapestry of like humanity. Yes. And it sounded so abstract and I was like, there's no way anyone would ever let someone make a big budget sequel with that as the log line. And that's kind of what Happy Feet 2 is.

[00:38:20] Yes. I think I would agree with that. Yes. It's well to quote from the first line of its Wikipedia plot summary, an evil iceberg is plotting to destroy Antarctica. That's not that. That's not. We see an iceberg break off and it sort of looks like an angry

[00:38:45] monster that's going to like eat them. So I guess I guess that's where they're going to get from an iceberg goes into a room of other icebergs and they plot this whole movie out. I would love to have seen that scene.

[00:38:59] I couldn't tell because there's so much within the Happy Feet mythology of them interpreting human beings as aliens. They're sort of misunderstanding of everything. Right. I thought watching it that the iceberg was what they perceived a ship to be. No.

[00:39:19] But am I supposed to take it that it is an actual iceberg that is just moving rapidly towards their little land? Yeah, because of climate change or whatever. Sure. Yeah, broke off because climate change and it trapped the pangies. It trapped the pangies.

[00:39:34] It is an iceberg that looks like the Titanic. Right? Sure, sure. It's a massive like ocean liner iceberg. Yeah. But they see a boat later and they know what it is or they know that it has humans on it. Yeah, because they play a role in Happy Feet 1.

[00:39:50] Right. But the thing I just wanted to say, Griff, because you were saying it, I do think it looks a little better. They've just sort of cleaned things up. They've already made one movie. So like the animals look a little cleaner. I don't know.

[00:40:06] The penguins don't look as samey. Obviously there's more animals anyway. So there's a little more diversity. The graphics for me, I thought were incredible. I was like, this is, these are top notch penguins. I mean too real in a creepy way, but... Yes.

[00:40:21] But I think they are executed far better than they are in the first film. There's like an amazing kind of leap in the graphic ability of this film. Ruben, you and I complain about this a lot because you're a very talented illustrator and we're both big animation fans.

[00:40:37] And I feel like we will often vent to each other when we think an animated film has a boring character design, like what a waste it is. When they're not pushing the limits of animation. And this falls into that category of like,

[00:40:53] why are you just making the penguins look like real penguins? Why are you stuck in this weird zone between actual photorealism and being able to have the character design say anything about the characters? I think in this one, it doesn't...

[00:41:12] It is creepy on some of them, but then other creatures, I feel like the elephant seals look really good. But then it's, I don't know why the penguins, maybe because penguins in general are like samey looking. They're very samey. But they just have, I think like, they just

[00:41:26] have a hard time or, I don't know if they just thought if they look more real people take the messages of climate change more seriously rather than if it was like cartoon penguins. The other thing they've done that's kind of annoying

[00:41:38] is they've kept mumbles in his teen look. That's, I was very confused and upset by that. Just to distinguish him, he still looks like an adolescent penguin and not a grown-up penguin. Yeah. But I think that's just so he sticks out. Maybe he's a teen dad.

[00:41:55] I mean, I guess he's a... I don't know enough about like penguin, you know, sex and reproduction to know if like they can reproduce when they're teens. David, you don't know enough about that? I don't. Yeah, how much time do you have?

[00:42:10] I think it's time for me to learn more. Listen, you've got time to research. Yeah. I do think Sarah, to your point, it's like the characters who work better graphically in this movie are the ones who are new to this film. Like the elephant seals, like Sven,

[00:42:29] like Will and Bill, even though Will and Bill fall into that penguin problem of their designs are great, but also the two of them look exactly the same and look the same as the thousands of other girls in the movie. Do you think that they just made...

[00:42:43] They kept the same models from the old movie and then just did new models for the new characters? And that's maybe why? I think... I was trying to gauge this. The models look better for all the characters in this film than they did

[00:42:56] for the first film, having rewatched the first one recently. I think they rebuilt the models, but they didn't want to change the design that much for the sake of continuity. But it is... I think there was that weird thing in like the 2000s in particular and by

[00:43:12] 2010, it's pretty much out the window of CGI animated films wondering whether or not photorealism was the goal. Like when the first strike came out they were talking so much about like look at this, look at how close we've got to realism. Right, because Fiona looks very human.

[00:43:32] It looks just like this photo of Shrek. Yeah, they were like, look at Shrek's pores. It looks just like the real Shrek. But I think Happy Feet was still in that sort of zone of like, oh, the challenges can we make this look

[00:43:45] more like a live action film? And by the 2010s everyone's like, maybe the goal is to make everything tunier and I think it leads to a better wave in CGI and it makes CGI... And then we circled back around to let's make it so realistic that

[00:44:01] there was no point in doing this. Yes, exactly. Happy Feet too begins with Eric, Mumble and Eric his son dancing. Eric can't dance. He can pee all over himself. He does pee all over himself in an early humiliation. I wanted to forget that. And Ramona is still around.

[00:44:23] The rest of his penguin entourage is back in their zone with lovelace. Ramona has stayed. He's Uncle Ramon. He hangs out with the kids all the time and he is thirsty on Maine. He cannot stop talking about how much he wants to get laid.

[00:44:42] Yes, he's looking for a trap queen. A lot of penguin romance is like not taking no for an answer. Correct. In the first one too it's like it's just not. It's being rejected and then trying harder. All penguins are disciples of mystery.

[00:45:00] I think that is canon within this film. This first 5-10 minutes you're like this is exactly what I would think it would be. This feels like a thousand other movies. This feels like the obvious studio notes like brainstorm session for Happy Feet 2

[00:45:14] the version that George Miller doesn't direct. And then the film just beers wildly off course. Yes. Eric after his great humiliation in which when trying to dance he is upside down and peas on himself flees to a daily land which is where all the daily penguins are

[00:45:36] and meets the mighty Sven who is a puffin who's pretending to be a special kind of penguin with flying powers and is trying to like bewitch all the other penguins into thinking they can fly. He's a cult leader. Yeah. A thread from the first movie.

[00:45:56] The first movie also has a lot of cult leaders and the penguins are kind of easily lead sheep communities. George Miller loves cultic personality. And this character is kind of similar to Rocky from Chicken Run. Except Rocky is like a con artist who's trying to like

[00:46:20] get out of a situation and this guy is just basking in the sort of idol tree he gets. He's not in it for the money or whatever. He just likes the attention I think. He's also a bad guy. He's also very horny.

[00:46:36] Everyone in this movie is fairly horny. He's not a bad guy but he's in way over his head and everyone's always looking at him for advice and I don't know. It's so weird. But he's got a staple together beak because he was rescued and nurtured

[00:46:56] by the quote unquote aliens on their big ship. And that is where he met Lovelace who was also abducted by them and they made him a little sweater which is the key marketing angle to all of the stuff for Happy Feet too because they seemingly did not

[00:47:12] sell this movie to people. They put the sweater on the word in the title. It is some of the best like human, like the effect that they put on the human actors to make them look like they're part of the film. I'm very impressed by that.

[00:47:28] That is a whole it's so weird. But it's another example of this movie just going to 90 almost immediately because all of Happy Feet 1 is building up to the eeriness of the human stuff and Happy Feet 2 gets there in like minute 15 in a massive story song

[00:47:46] that Robin Williams and Hank Azaria sing together where they explain their whole weird journey with the aliens. It very much reminded me of In Sweet Charity have you seen that? The song that they sing is it Sammy Davis Jr? I forget what song

[00:48:04] it is that they sing about him where he's a cult leader, yeah. But also like it feels like a music man like number. Like it feels like we're going to explain to you why you got to listen to this guy and here's his whole epic backstory

[00:48:16] and he saw something in the window that even I don't know but the point is I used to be your leader and I look up to this guy now so everyone has to double look up to this guy. So you have this whole sequence where

[00:48:30] Ramon is set up with I forget her name Carmen by Sven. Carmen is voiced by Sofia Vergara she's not that interested in Ramon at least initially and amid all this chaos Mumble finds his kids. He finds Eric and the babies

[00:48:48] and he's like we got to go back to Emperland but they're like we're never going back okay so that's all happening cut to to Krill I saw it very quickly at this point I'm not giving the movie credit and I assume

[00:49:06] where I had assumed the movie is going to be entirely Mumble trying to find Eric and bring him back home that is going to be the central conflict and instead Mumble finds Eric 15 minutes right it's not like a finding Nemo quest movie at all

[00:49:24] so then I don't know what the fucking film is and then it cuts to Krill then it cuts to Krill Will and Bill Krill they are part of this warm of Krill that moves around to the ocean being Krill Krill is like photo plankton they're little tiny shrimp

[00:49:46] they get eaten by whales and that's all they do they're just shit they're just popcorn that whales eat all day and it feels like they have a very tight bond bordering on a domestic partnership yes they have well so here's what I knew going in

[00:50:06] someone had told me probably Griffin Brad Pitt and Matt Damon play Gay Krill and I was like okay that must be one funny scene that was they did as a favor to George Miller it must be just like a little jokie moment in the movie no no no

[00:50:22] this is plot B and it's Will and Bill I always have to keep checking Bill Brad Pitt is very much like what is our purpose why do we just do this he's trying to figure out we have to gain some understanding of what are places in relation

[00:50:42] to this universe and he's sort of preoccupied with the fact that they're at the bottom of the food chain and like what if we try to eat meat then we would be higher on the food chain

[00:50:54] like it's sort of like what if we could just leap the food chain that way and then the first installment with them Bill's kind of the grounding element yeah Bill's just like he's there for Will I feel like that's why he's on the ride

[00:51:08] he's not as existentially concerned like it goes from let's question why are we following this stream should we follow the pack to cutting off from the stream and recognizing oh they're all just being led into the mouth of larger predators and really avoid their death

[00:51:28] and that's when he gets activated where he's like this is all a fucking charade our life is fucking bullshit not only am I not going to accept this but I'm going to reverse this we need to find something we can eat I must become dominant

[00:51:44] in some corner of this universe now right now question Krill what do they normally like amoebas microbes yes they eat algae and phytoplankton yeah you know little bits little bit are krill sea monkeys or is that different what's in a sea monkey container

[00:52:10] sea monkeys are kind of related they're brine shrimp they're similar okay all right Sarah Sarah Sarah you are now making me long for the sea monkey plot line and happy fee three that we will never get god escaping the sea monkey container

[00:52:30] did you guys I had sea monkeys did you guys ever have sea monkeys absolutely not oh come on they're the best terrifying no griff did you have the aquarium that had like the little magnifying glasses built in so you could of course of course yes disgusting

[00:52:50] anyway there's krill yeah so there's the krill so that's just sort of going on separately and I would say for 90% of the movie these two plots do not interact they're just happening in parallel every once in a while they'll sort of pass by each other

[00:53:06] and this is where the national comparison comes in like every once in a while during a big set piece they will literally just pass each other within a geographic space very quickly and it just feels like the movie is sort of very quickly shaking hands and moving on

[00:53:20] and you wonder if that's going to be the full extent of the tie between these plot lines right and yeah go ahead Sven gives a motivational speech to Eric telling him because Eric is so impressed with the fact that Sven can fly

[00:53:38] and he decides that's the thing I'm going to do because his father mumble said told him look I went through this whole thing everyone thought I was a freak I wasn't good at the one thing that everyone else did don't beat yourself up about it

[00:53:50] you'll find your thing so he sees the flying and he's like that's my motherfucking thing and Sven's like 100% I'm behind you and it now says to everyone like this is the kid so then Eric is immediately seen as a demigod and then mumble shows up

[00:54:06] and is like not a demigod my stupid kid powering them leaving they never even try because in the first one it was everybody sang and nobody danced right and in this one they don't even see if Eric can sing they're like you can't dance

[00:54:20] dancing is the thing now get out if you can't dance you gotta dance it's like suddenly they go into a similarly suppressive and reductive society where there's only one language accepted if you want to sing a little on top of that knock yourself out

[00:54:36] I'm not wondering he doesn't like his dad because his dad is the one who made that change yeah his dad's become a fucking cop that's what happens man I don't know what it says about me that his disrespect for his father made me so furious I was like

[00:54:52] very disrespectful of his father I will say it doesn't help that his father looks like a teenager so he's not exactly sorry for you but like there is a scene right after what we're talking about where Eric is like I want to go up the bridge

[00:55:08] and he just walks over this perilous ice bridge and his dad's like oh don't do that alright I guess we're doing it just because he has no control over his little chick right they sort of have a Nemo-Marlin relationship except in that movie

[00:55:26] it is Marlin is so overbearing so neurotic that Nemo has reason to rebel and then this mumble is just kind of an overwhelmed teen dad who is crying as hard as and his son's like he's like too like constantly well Marlin is acting from a place of love

[00:55:44] and mumble is just has no idea what having a child is like he really doesn't there is no warmth in his relationship with his baby penguin son but then there's this crazy showdown standoff with an elephant seal I'm trying to remember named Brian I believe

[00:56:06] Brian the beach master is his name correct and the beach master will not back up off this ice bridge which is all he needs to do to let them go by but that's just like against his deal he won't do it

[00:56:24] because it gets into the same thing of like you have to know your place within the ecosystem is like I can't see ground to you because then when I face off against actual predator stands to possibly attack my children I will have the reputation of the man who

[00:56:44] back down to some dumb tap dancing penguin yeah I refuse to literally back up it's based in natural like I like that it's based in like a realist natural perspective that he's like when I fight later for my mate if they know that

[00:57:04] I gave up space to a penguin I'm never going to fuck again movie starts really working for me is everything it's doing is tied into actual weird animal behavior rather than evolutionary one which is just what penguins did shit that penguins don't do is like isn't it weird

[00:57:26] all these weird ways that animals behave even though they can't talk to each other which is reflecting on how weird our behavior is and how all these patterns that we can't get ourselves out of might be the only things that are keeping us alive right anyway this

[00:57:46] elephant seal should be called Tom Betty because he won't back down sorry I just need to say that he will not for a moment I thought he was both Viola Davis and Maggie Jilmholt because he won't back down I saw that movie in theaters

[00:58:00] I can't believe you're referencing that film not possible it doesn't exist you couldn't have seen it yet truly does not exist a pro charter school film starring Viola Davis there was like a two month period where that could happen anyway this scene is I agree where the movie

[00:58:16] sort of started to vibe with me because it's very long it's like a 10 minute scene the whole movie just grinds to a halt right it's like its own short film within the movie that has high aslo's it's very strangely paced and then it ends with

[00:58:32] the elephant seal falling down into the abyss and then calling up to his children who are adorable little elephant seals and being like it's over possibly the cutest creatures I've ever seen on this planet were those two little English or Australian baby elephant seals

[00:58:52] it is weird how like some of the animals have accents and others don't and you feel like this movie is about to kill off this character that this guy is going to die in order to prove a point because the ice heart is cracking underneath him

[00:59:08] and his children are screaming and Mumbles is like there's one way you can survive you know what it is right and he's like if you're going to throw that backing down shit at me you could shove that up your penguin ass I already told you don't do that

[00:59:26] I'm only moving forward oh god those little peng with those little elephant seal babies calling out to their father you think and they think that he is dying you're watching him fall down a great divide it almost doesn't matter that he doesn't die because

[00:59:44] we've already experienced the emotions of him going yes you've already been exposed to this there's a pretty extended fake out he is knocked out for enough time that you think the movie killed him that this is a narrative dead end and this 10 minute set piece exists only

[01:00:02] to further underline the themes of happy feet right instead then there's a whole sequence where Mumbles rescues him by like diving down and getting a leopard seal and like there's a whole thing that goes on and then Mumbles goes back to Eric and is like

[01:00:20] pretty cool huh and Eric is like what I don't care like Sven did that right but also only after Will and Bill try to eat him this is where I think yes they try to eat the leopard seal what they think is his dead body

[01:00:34] because they're like this is our prime opportunity to start eating bigger things than us right we can give this a shot right here so then everyone just moves on right right that that's happened we're moving on super united with his children Will and Bill

[01:00:50] run back into the ocean Mumbles and Eric going back towards home we're probably about halfway through the film at this point the penguins get back to Emperorland to find that everyone is trapped because of the iceberg the iceberg dropped down the section of Antarctica where

[01:01:10] the penguins or main penguins live as if it were the hole in a bagel it is now recessed and so no one can get down there and they can't get back up to level ground and they are socially distanced they're socially distanced they can't eat

[01:01:28] there's no food for them and then that's when I guess that's when the daily penguins all show up to feed them they're telling Mumbles and Eric and Eric's little like baby friends like hey this is fine don't worry about it can you just grab a bunch of fish

[01:01:44] and bring it back here to us can you grab two million fish and bring them back real quick can you postmates some sardines to the hole and then Pink does an extended song an original song she thinks to her son to calm him down which also

[01:02:02] causes the Aurora Borealis it leads it's the Aurora Australis because we are in the southern hemisphere just in F.I. but also yes I couldn't tell if she's summoning it or if she's sort of drawing power from it I had to really know

[01:02:20] is Eric having a panic attack is that what we're seeing? oh yes he fights with Mumble and it's so scarring and emotionally visceral and Mumble's just screaming where he's like they're all gonna die that old hijink the echo of going down to the community they're all gonna die

[01:02:40] the community is just hearing they will starve or whatever it was such a weird fight too because like I said there is almost like zero familiarity it just seems like he's mad at a strange child no it feels like he's yelling at himself like he has not become

[01:02:58] as much of an assholes as his father was but it feels like he is now yelling at himself for his own childhood being difficult right sure so that whole psychodrama is playing out meanwhile I believe this is when Bill and Will separate because

[01:03:22] Bill is a little too clingy Will is all in on Predator lifestyle Bill has tried to sell Will on the idea of settling down and raising children together which he's into conceptually but he's not quite ready to domesticate yet

[01:03:40] it's not that he doesn't want to do it with Bill it's that he needs to like go out, venture backpack across Europe he's gotta get through this whole you know existential thing he's doing yeah right and then they'll adopt other krill yes there's gotta be some

[01:04:00] there's gotta be some fan art of these krill somewhere oh my god I mean what's it called a place of its own the slash pic that must exist out there oh oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah but yes and then also around this time we've gone back

[01:04:18] a couple times to Ramon just being completely ignored and shut down by Sofia Vagara and Mumble is separated from his wife so this is like peak drama in the movie no one is getting any that's a fair point there's a lot of thwarted romance

[01:04:40] but then I'm trying to remember how this all works then like the birds show up the predator bird show up the scuas what kinds of birds are those scuas Italian I think scuas? what? they're called scuas they're predatory sea birds they love to eat fish

[01:05:02] but also I think they can be a little bit of a pain in the neck for penguins yeah the gangster birds have surrounded our heroes and it is yeah it's Anthony and the Polly doing his classic mobster voice that is the vibe then a daily land

[01:05:20] arrives led by Sven right? sure and they're bringing the fish and then the humans show up right that's when the humans show up they do a guitar solo they play we are the champions we are the champions for some reason and Lovelace like air guitars

[01:05:44] was Lovelace trying to dance or was he trying to alert them to trouble and they were is this from the first movie? he's trying to be like oh my god guitar solo let's also mention A. the reason why Sven hates the humans but hasn't explained this to Lovelace

[01:06:04] is when he peeked through the window he saw them all eating chickens and so he thinks they were only rescued in order to be rotisserie later right and of course Puffins are a national delicacy in Iceland and other places like that so he might be right

[01:06:20] I also want to mention there was a complete narrative loop that happens at some point before this when they get recessed and they're stuck what should we call it why am I forgetting his name? the elder? the Hugo weaving penguin he has like a weird he's like

[01:06:46] he's like the weird hunchback penguin he's a little gnarled and skinny he comes back sees an opportunity to like see his control again retain his grip on these penguins and makes a big play and gets shit on by a bunch of birds and immediately is dismissed

[01:07:08] the bathroom humor is limited but it's placed very artfully meanwhile Eric is very much he's all in Sven can just teach us how to fly and we will zip out of here that's when the pressure is on Sven to really deliver in terms of getting everyone flying

[01:07:30] he has to take everyone to flight school yes and there's multiple fake outs where he's like there's that whole thing where he's like I'm a bird and then he's like a burden if I don't teach you how to fly right? but now like the remaining

[01:07:46] 45 minutes of the movie it's a lot more movie but not a lot more plot no it all takes place at this precipice like all of them on the edge looking down at their family who are going to start to death and trying to solve the problem

[01:08:02] of the space between them and what was I gonna say they have this massive ice slide they have this massive ice slide and they're all sliding down it and then using the force of that to gain air and none of them get close

[01:08:21] and the one who gets closest is Kamin whose son is also played by young rapper Little Peanut and is one of Eric's friends who he ventured out with Little Peanut's gonna come back later in this episode I want to mention something Little Peanut did Little Peanut corner

[01:08:41] but Kamin who is the biggest fan of the penguins is the last one to go down this slide and Sven is aware that the results are looking really bad for his argument that he can fly and that he's a penguin so he flies underneath Kamin

[01:08:57] to try to propel him over the edge with his tiny little puffin body and then they both collapse to the ground and that's when he owns up that he's a bird and this thing I really like is he's got a lot of physiology changes and you realize that

[01:09:15] he's been affecting the posture of a penguin and then his whole body transforms into like a standard puffin posture Puffins are horizontal and penguins are vertical but penguins are birds they are, they are flightless birds but they do count as birds but you know I don't alright fair

[01:09:39] fine you don't know so Sven flies away and he's like look I'm sorry I never meant to trick you I just stepped on some ground it turned green it's global warming but I let you think that I was magical they do really skim over the global warming

[01:09:55] when it's like oh he left his homeland because it became too green in the iceberg but they never really like explain it in any way I guess because the animals don't perceive it as global warming but I don't know if anyone would like

[01:10:07] because he's even like excited he's like oh look it's green cool a big theme of both happy feet movies is the penguins don't understand global warming they're constantly terrified by all these threats around them and they don't understand that thing that's actually going to kill them

[01:10:23] this is all true the other thing that's a major threat in happy feet is that they all sing songs and the big song that they sing is under pressure is there that's the big closing dance that finally seals it it's with the help of the elephant seals

[01:10:41] well first they try to dance and they can't get it they can't get in because they're trying to get the snow down to like make a ramp but they need the seals but then there's someone else that they need Griffin who else do they need

[01:10:57] the krill they need the krill well but they don't even know about this that's why it's good agree because yeah mumbles goes off he goes and gets the elephant seals the elephant seals help with all the banging that's cool but then but wait I'm sorry you're skipping over

[01:11:15] the biggest thing what? David you are you're gonna feel like a fucking fool uh-huh when you realize you almost skipped over this how do they get the seal on board the seal is reticent they can't get through to him and Eric has to find what his language is

[01:11:33] oh yeah the opera scene right mumble shows up now everyone's gonna learn how to dance and Eric is like it's opera mother fuckers I gotta aria this shit this is this is true this is this is what happens and little baby Eric with the singing voice

[01:11:53] of E.G. Daily Tommy Pickles and babe pig in the city herself does the opera that finally makes the the seal the elephant seal throw away his pride and his ego and agree to help others it's a power of art meanwhile bill has

[01:12:15] come back to will and is like look I figured this out I figured out right out of loneliness but it's also like I figured out a way that we can help and do something better and bigger maybe we can't become predators

[01:12:29] but we also don't need to be prey we can do a third thing which is weak in the ice tap little tiny little feet against ice I think it's cool when he comes back he's a legend right cause their lives are so short they're such tiny little creatures

[01:12:51] but I love this idea that he has like a mythology now it's the best they're great guys they're like oh I thought he'd be taller it's funny cause he's a krill there's this message of like right of like yes he's a krill and he's just

[01:13:07] a tiny infinitesimal cog in a giant machine and that's tough to handle but his is the final like step that brings down the ice to free all the penguins and so like it's kind of like when people are like oh is there even like

[01:13:25] well why should I even vote I'm one of millions it's like you have to write your congressman there is a reason that they like you could be the one right but the key to that is also the penguins will never know they'll never know

[01:13:45] to the krill they are now legends but they're also dead at the end of this dick yes they're gonna get eaten by whales almost immediately after this and yet oh they're in a cave now alright they're in a cave fun they won't get eaten by whales

[01:13:59] and they'll live forever where the first happy fee movie is very much that more disney style like you know the message is like be yourself and it's good to be yourself and you'll figure it out and it's nice if you're different don't worry about it right

[01:14:13] and then this one is like no we all have our parts to play but there's meaning in that right I mean this like when they all start doing under pressure and you're like cross cutting between like the penguins down below the elephant seals like Eric singing mumbles

[01:14:31] tap dancing the krill eating it everything it feels genuinely operatic like it's like thrilling yes it is genuinely thrilling and I liked it and I like the movie I thought it was good the ledge collapses the ramp is built everyone is reunited all the penguins get it out

[01:14:53] yeah I mean to your point David what is fascinating is the relationship between this movie and happy feet one is almost identical to the relationship between babe pig in the city and the first babe where the first of both movies are like here's a weird animal society

[01:15:13] and it's all about an animal who dares to do something different than the others and is rejected and ultimately has to win everyone's respect it's like the innocent who questions the norms and changes everyone a little bit and then both babe pig in the city and happy

[01:15:29] feet two are great you have your amazing little journey of self-discovery you don't understand how fucking big and scary this world is it will eat you up you are meaningless your little personal journey is nothing everything is out there trying to kill you and in both cases

[01:15:49] I feel like the first movies are like a classic like young artists journey of like finding your voice like finding your confidence in yourself building up your craft and then the second movies are George Miller being like and then

[01:16:05] you have to figure out how to work within a fucking industry go to Hollywood and it's a nightmare you just can't win the best you can do is figure out the right amount of compromise great lessons these are great lessons they're the hard lessons so the hard lessons

[01:16:23] what were you going to say about yeah go ahead Ben well for a kids movie it's kind of just so weird and off-putting get ready for the big city yeah exactly but it also is like stuff that I feel like kids should know and be exposed to 100%

[01:16:43] I am so wildly into this movie yeah I had not heard a single person say anything good about it I had never read a positive review of it I'd never spoken to anyone who would actually seen it especially for a first movie that is weirdly

[01:16:59] beloved I feel like it had no reputation whatsoever I greatly prefer to the first happy feed I like it so much but I was texting with David despite already owning the Blu-ray that I bought at a discount in preparation for this miniseries saying am I gonna double dip

[01:17:17] and rebuy happy feed too so I can own it on 3D Blu-ray because I want to see what George Miller is doing with that actual dimension let's play the box office game November I listened to the first half an episode so I don't know what this is

[01:17:35] it's fine I'm gonna play the box office game Griffin is weird and he memorized box office I'm familiar with that but they do not leave my brain right okay sorry and so he's gonna guess like the top 5 movies of when this movie came out

[01:17:53] and you can jump in if you have a guess so this is November 18th 2011 so I guess it's around Thanksgiving time we're doing the same time but the first film opened 5 years earlier everyone assumed it was just like

[01:18:09] yeah of course I guess people want to see another one of these and then people just didn't show up was it number 1? no it opens to number 5 well we're gonna Griffin's gonna try and guess but it opened to number 2 at 21 million dollars it grosses 64 domestic 157 worldwide

[01:18:31] not a complete disaster but not a hit at all also 150 the first one opened to high 40s and ended up making like close to 500 million worldwide definitely a disappointment but number 1 at the box office also a new movie is opening to 138 million dollars so that's pretty good

[01:18:57] yeah is it a hunger games picture? no but you're in the right part is it a Twilight movie? yes but which one? Breaking Dawn Part 1 that's right weird which opened huge 138 makes 281 domestic big hit I'm almost surprised I guess it's counter-programming but I'm almost surprised

[01:19:23] assuming that Warner Brothers must have felt really bullish about Happy Feet 2 that they would open it up against the movie that big you would think they would want a week and they could own fully I guess audiences are different that's the Thanksgiving approach

[01:19:37] there's always a grown up blockbuster and there's always an animated film they must have just figured like we'll be the animated film and we'll do just fine and you know I think the real problem was what you said it was old news

[01:19:53] no one was out for penguins in 2000 that was yesterday's and Happy Feet 1 as we talked about in that episode opens the same week in Casino Royale and they're the number one and number two movie in America for like three weeks in a row

[01:20:09] but Happy Feet is the one that outgrows the James Bond movie correct and this is the opposite where like the Twilight Vampires just fucking body the penguins now number is that the second Twilight movie or is it the fourth Twilight movie the fourth Twilight ooh that's not good

[01:20:31] you don't want to get beat by the fourth Twilight no number three of the box office had been number one the weekend before it is a like ancient action film and the sort of yeah sort of in the vibe of like a 300 you know is it the one

[01:20:55] I'm gonna struggle for the title but is it the Henry Cavill Tarsim one that's correct but what's it called is it called Immortals yes it's called Immortals the loose adaptation of the myth of Theseus starring Henry Cavill number four at the box office it's a film

[01:21:17] that we might have covered had a certain bracket winner triumph but he was knocked out in the first round it's a comedy oh it's a comedy and it was in The March Madness it was briefly in The March Madness and hmm is it a Dennis Dugan picture

[01:21:41] it's a Dennis Dugan picture is it the motion picture Jack and Jill that's that is right it's Jack and Jill which outgrows happy feet too pretty embarrassing because that was like one of Sandler's biggest flops up until that point yeah that was basically when Sandler

[01:22:01] starts to think about his retreat to Netflix like that's this is near the tail end of Adam Sandler can do anything and make a hundred million dollar that was the first happy Madison to not make a hundred million dollars in over a decade right do you guys address

[01:22:19] The March Madness on this podcast right now or no we don't address what's happening like in real time no we're addressing it it's it's that's that's my that's my emotions right now I'm sorry about your opportunity how many times has been it's been like four years

[01:22:39] that he know he is not he always makes it this far he makes it this far and no further every single time it's just I feel like this it's unfair the the setups every year I want to open up the sidebar okay ribbon for years

[01:22:57] you have said the only way I will ever come on blank check is to talk about Pacific Rim oh I didn't say the only I just said I really I'm very passionate about Pacific Rim I think in a way a lot of people are but I just

[01:23:11] you know I it would take a whole episode for me to go through all my feelings my emotions about monsters robots there's a big sword yeah there's funny little men sometimes he uses a boat as a sword they do it's not really they do

[01:23:29] fling a boat at the kaiju at one point I guess they use it more like a bat with the casual world I can't even we can't start talking about it right now it wouldn't be fair it wouldn't be fair it's like your favorite cinematic universe

[01:23:41] is that fair to say? it's definitely it's definitely my favorite cinematic universe um it's sad that they only made one film I would have loved to see more in the universe but I agree Pacific Rim uprising found dead in a ditch that's what it was called right there

[01:23:57] is my enemy I will say you back down at some point and I don't want to drag up her seats but I swear at one point at least you said to me I will only come on the show to talk about Pacific Rim

[01:24:11] if you want me on the show I just feel like that was probably just because I felt like you know you've had some really strong guests and I feel like my cow I'm not up to caliber but I feel like I could confidently speak about Pacific Rim

[01:24:25] for I have to strangers for several hours I viewed it more as a bargaining chip like you trying to force the issue I mean you've already told me that like unless he wins the bracket it's not going to happen so I kind of you know

[01:24:39] I don't like to complain that but Ruben let me tell you a little story about a certain director who two years in a row came really close in March Madness until we finally had to throw our hands up and go I guess we're doing him he didn't win

[01:24:55] but I guess we're doing him and that man's name was George Miller and we're doing this many series right the fuck now and we've been having the internal conversations I'm not committing to anything not confirming anything but we keep on talking about internally

[01:25:09] the del Toro thing feels kind of similar now it feels like at this point we kind of just have to feel it feels unfair in a way it feels like you're against monster lovers and I just you know I just want to put that out there

[01:25:23] monster lovers everywhere saying blank tricades us he was losing against Francis Ford Coppola and you tweeted out and just immediately threw it in del Toro's favor completely swung the phone yeah I feel I did yeah I feel I feel bad that I manipulated

[01:25:43] the vote but I also don't care because I just really want to talk about giant robots guys we need to discuss the fifth film at the top five in the box office it's an animated film it's been out for four weeks it's a hundred and twenty two million

[01:26:01] dollar grosser at this point it is a spin off is it different what's the film the penguin's about to gas car no that's later too many penguins it's a spin off it's 2011 it came out in October I came out on October 16th Minions 28th sorry not Minion damn

[01:26:25] this movie premiered on a cruise ship I am not joking this movie premiered on the allure of the seas which is a giant cruise ship is it the film yes and now can you tell me one other thing about this film I will tell you

[01:26:47] I watched it pretty recently yeah after my anti-shrek take that then resulted in the shrekening in which I got dragged by all of the internet I watched it for the sake of completism and I want to say it is the best shrek movie

[01:27:05] if you can count it as such Puss in Boots is far and away the best shrek movie I feel like it's pretty it was pretty well received people were kind of into it it got an Oscar nomination for animated film remember that cat that one cat

[01:27:19] that's like ooo that was a pretty funny cat and velpi cruise is the love interest of the film but here's another thing about this film that you might not remember although you just watched it so maybe you do an executive producer on that film

[01:27:33] I was going to say yeah, germald autoro Sarah literally she was looking down at her desk and david said germald autoro and her head sprung up and a finger pointed up in the air he's got his little spooky fingers and a lot of pots

[01:27:49] and a lot of pies making magic happen everywhere he's a magician and that is really was like chief creative consultant on that movie gets a producer credit apparently took a pass on the script like consulted from a he takes it seriously I will say you feel

[01:28:07] his fingerprints on the movie the film feels a little cinematically more sophisticated than the track franchise and certainly than most dreamer movies I kind of like the film I will also now admit at this point I got an email to audition for one of the lead roles

[01:28:27] in the 10 years later push and boot sequel that is now happening more than 10 years later and I did not send an audition tape because that audition email came in the week after the episode where I drag Shrek to the high heavens and I got really paranoid about it

[01:28:47] that's what you said now I am a big fan of I said no it wasn't like I refused thing because then I watched this is good and then I just felt like am I going to look like an asshole hypocrite if I get for this

[01:29:05] should have never did Shrek Griffin Griffin do you think is going to be about like is sort of like chilling out and he's thinking of putting together like a retrospective and he starts you know smoking heroin just because they're hurting

[01:29:21] there is for sure a push and boot 2 already there's not they made a Netflix animated series there's some fucking holiday special or whatever they hold up on making a proper sequel I got this audition email I know what it's about it sounds fucking cool

[01:29:37] there was a character that I'm sure will be cast by one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood it kind of felt like it and I'm sure I will be proven wrong when fucking Will Smith ends up getting the part but in the breakdown I was like

[01:29:53] this is in my goddamn wheelhouse and I didn't do it and I regret it I think I was overthinking it the other movies in the top 5 Tower Heist Griffin movie highlight Jay Edgar one of the movie I don't like it very bad I saw that in the theater

[01:30:17] Leo Armie Hammer is good he's the best he was really sad it features some of the worst old age makeup of all time terrible old age makeup insane you've also got a very Harold and Kumar Christmas 3D Christmas the weakest of the trilogy

[01:30:41] I know I don't think I've ever seen that one what if time was a currency we all know time is money what this one pre-supposes is what if money was time right and then opening at number 10 the descendants in 29 screens with a colossal per screen average

[01:31:03] remember when everyone was all crazy about that movie I never understood it I guess we could do pain we could enter the house of pain that is my it is my least favorite film of his what I like is filmography a lot overall I would agree

[01:31:25] I would agree and I famously infamously stand for downsizing well and that would be the blank check that's the blank check have you ever seen downsizing Ruben? I've seen it I feel like that's where they get little they get really little you might be the rare person

[01:31:49] who also likes downsizing maybe I have a feeling that that one is going to click for me on rewatch I think it's a grower I think it's a real Roman J Israel I really recommend Matt Damon on Bill Sims' podcast being like unapologetically being like

[01:32:09] man that movie is good people will figure it out I guess people didn't like it that one's good and he's like Griffin's letterbox review was brave he's an American hero he was the only person willing to give it 4 out of 5 Rubes I'm so glad

[01:32:29] we finally got you on the podcast me too you're my favorite I'm glad that we have finally broken the seal and laid out the track work for the inevitable Pacific Rim I just want people out there to know like you know what happy feet too

[01:32:49] I'm fine with but like Pacific Rim it's just I have so much so many feel I could can't even describe them right now Ruben is there anything you want to plug? I have a website where you can like see my art and buy prints of my art

[01:33:07] if you're interested in that it's some sarahrubin.com and there's no H on Sarah it's just S-A-R-A that's how you be and sweetest Sarah on social media and let's say the reason why I wanted to get you on for one of these happy feet movies

[01:33:31] I don't know if you're still this is still in the works but you had told me that you and your bow are planning to do a podcast where you only talk about talking mice movies yeah okay well hopefully no one steals this idea because we're

[01:33:47] in the process of getting another podcast mic so we haven't done it yet you have until May 17th when this episode is posted okay then we'll probably be then yeah so hopefully by May we'll have a podcast called of mice and movies and it will be

[01:34:05] about movies that only feature rodents and mice which is a lot of films it is yeah I don't know why so many animated movies focus on mice but they do and it's a wonderful gift and you know hopefully by then

[01:34:21] on my website I'll have a link to it if it exists, if it doesn't exist please don't take it I'm sure if it doesn't exist by then I look forward to all 500 episodes of your mouse movie podcast thank you

[01:34:35] they're definitely I mean you know eventually we're probably going to have to branch out into like rabbits and shit but you'll go there eventually yeah yeah eventually well thank you for being here on the show and thank you all for listening and please remember to rate, review, subscribe

[01:34:51] thanks to and for Guto for co-producing that show and thank you to Lay in Monk and Recreate Theme Song Pat Reynolds and Joe Bowen for artwork go to BlankysThatRed.com for some real nerdy shit, go to patreon.com backslash blank check for blank check special

[01:35:09] features where we're doing commentaries and at this point we're probably getting ready to do whatever one Marsh Madness if we're not already deep into that at this point well we're still no we'll still be in our toy stories oh well then even better

[01:35:25] you're gonna get to hear us talk about Forky and you're gonna get to listen to Ben meeting David's fiance live on mic for the first time I'm excited, I've heard great things the way you phrased it sounded like his fiance was Forky that's what he's doing

[01:35:43] that is the canon on this show and tune in next week for of course the obvious follow up to happy feet 2 Mad Max Pury Road a film nominated for best picture recorded pre-quarantine with should we announce who with? oh yes yes why not we originally

[01:36:09] thought we were gonna do that episode without a guest because it felt like one of those movies that we sometimes come across that is so big we just need to tackle it on our own but the timing worked out perfectly and right before all travel shut down

[01:36:25] along with the world truly Hollywood Yoshida herself the mother blankies came back to New York for a week and is our guest on the Mad Max Pury Road episode it is one of our longest episodes ever if not me the longest we've ever done

[01:36:41] it's very long it gets the longest so get ready for that and what fun has been doing George Miller it has and that's all the stuff I usually say at the end of every episode and as always it's a weird title yeah it's a little weird like happy

[01:37:03] arm that sounds so weird keep keep going Ben is it a tap dancing term like having happy feet that's what I'm wondering I don't think so I think it's just happy chest happy chest happy arm was the original title for bull Durham I don't know David

[01:37:26] no come on that was good why not give it a shot that's not bad