[00:00:01] Blank Check with Griffin and David, say you're too ex-bats All you need to know the show is Blank Check I'm struggling to find a quote because most of the best quotes in this movie are tap-to-tap-tap-tap This movie is written by Tom Stopper? No Written by four people?
[00:00:51] Yeah, on this one And this is another George Miller where he is like, I spent 20 years writing this film Okay, George He claims he was making the second Mad Max and a guy at a bar was like, I saw that Mad Max movie You gotta go to Antarctica
[00:01:06] He was like, that's like winter wasteland Talk about, yeah He truly claims that's the genesis of the movie that he spent 20 years in Winter wasteland Penguins, and then after a while he was like, these penguins that overfishing, we gotta talk about it
[00:01:20] Initially he just had penguins and then We'll get into all this but he says that he didn't add the environmental elements until they had started to animate it That that was not part of the original, that was that So the original thing was just dancing?
[00:01:34] I don't know what this movie was You can talk, you can talk Thank you so much for giving me space This script had to be a first draft, like it is a mess There's four accredited writers That's a good thing but I truly believe he spent 20 years
[00:01:50] I don't know how much of that was ideation, I don't know how much of that was writing Animation takes so long and it was four years in production I don't know, this is this weird thing
[00:02:00] The Mad Max movies are like, this is insane, I don't know how one person thinks of this But somehow it all feels like it makes sense And this is the opposite where you're just like, how do you end up with these ideas?
[00:02:10] How do these ideas end up in the same box? Well if it's four writers, I feel like each one wrote a different screenplay And then they mash them up together into one movie It's Ampersand, they're credited as a unit or is Ampersand the opposite
[00:02:23] No, Ampersand is your together So it's Miller, yeah yeah, and written out is So it's Miller, John Colley of course the writer of Master and Commander The co-writer of that, Judy Mars who worked on Babe Pig in the City
[00:02:36] And some guy called Warren Coleman whose only other writing credit Is some sort of Australian TV show called Drop Dead Weird Wow Well, dream team! It sounds Drop Dead Weird
[00:02:51] I just want to say that most of the, this is maybe the longest I need to be quotes page I've ever seen for a movie, I was saying this right before you start recording Because most of the quotes are people transcribing the entire song
[00:03:03] Oh, we like songs that we know, like Kiss by Prince They just transcribe it Well with all their weird like overlapping asides and buttons from other songs Let's talk about eggs, baby What? We got to talk about eggs
[00:03:18] I think we just got to go straight into talking about eggs, baby This is a podcast called Blank Check with Griffin and David I'm Griffin I'm David It's a podcast about filmographies, directors with massive success early on in their careers
[00:03:31] And they're given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want Sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they tap dance baby And this is a main series on the films of George Miller Yes It is called Mad Pot Fury Cast Of course
[00:03:47] And today we're talking about Happy Feet which is a fascinating artifact It's a movie that feels like it should be a bounce That this is a blank check he should not have been given Yeah, it should be like what you decide to out of nowhere make a cartoon
[00:04:00] Which you've never made before and it's about penguins You can't describe this movie to anyone in a way that doesn't sound like a dream you had It sounds like half an idea for a 20 page kids book I know this sounds crazy You know what I mean?
[00:04:14] They're the same things but some of the penguins sing and some of them dance But the dancing is like kind of like And it's Australian There's like this whole dogma aspect of it It's definitely about religion
[00:04:26] But then right, it's also going to be about overfishing once we dispense with the religion I think there's also a queer rating of this movie In that it's about the father disowning him for loving the wrong way It's the outcast thing Sure, classic animated film problem
[00:04:41] You know you're different, be different but you should be yourself Watching the scenes in the way But it has that sort of Billy Elliot thing where the dad's like I can't reconcile the way you're intimate You know, you express your intimate feelings
[00:04:54] This isn't how we do this, this isn't what a relationship is like This fucking insane movie which ends up being his biggest hit ever Until Mad Max Fury Road? No, this goes more than Fury Road Unquestionably, this thing was so fucking People forget how huge this was
[00:05:13] At the time of its release, it was one of the 10 highest grossing films that Warner Brothers had ever released What? And that list was like It did make $200 million domestic In 2006 You know, one of the top grossing Penguin movies The number one I think
[00:05:27] Does it have any competition? March of the Penguins The surf was coming, right? The surf is next year The march had just happened Which really helped them It did It was such a ping-a-tip It was such a time for penguins But that's what's crazy
[00:05:45] You look at this film and you go How did they know that they were gonna Make it out into theaters at peak penguins? It's just like whenever they make two Vulcan It's just in the air, everyone's kinda wants to talk about penguins They just got so fucking lucky
[00:06:00] We'll talk about this crazy movie But it is the thing that arguably finally gives him the freedom to make Fury Road the way he wants And he wins an Oscar It's his one Academy Award win I don't know if you think about this movie's crazy
[00:06:12] Like he has one Oscar You're like George Miller has an Oscar And you're like, oh yeah, did he won director for Mad Max Fury Road? The big, the Oscars love that one No no no no Best animated feature for Happy Feet Wait, he won? It won?
[00:06:25] It was animated feature film of the year Was there not a Pixar movie that year? It was Cars That's the thing It was Cars' first bad Pixar Not the first but you know Because they, well I mean I love Monsters Inc
[00:06:37] But they had snubbed Monsters Inc that year I'm saying it was the first year that Pixar lost I'm saying it's the first bad Pixar It is the first Pixar that is not The three nominees, can you tell me the three nominees? Well I mean Cars, Happy Feet, 2006
[00:06:50] Another movie I kind of like Pretty good animated movie It's a pretty good animated movie It was a Monster House? Yeah, which could have won Like that was pretty charming But I think Happy Feet had the You know big name director Had made a lot of money
[00:07:07] And I think it was a movie Like I think critics were like This is weirdly something we're getting behind Sure 76% on Rotten Tomatoes Yeah, it's solid They liked it It wasn't like a favorite of the year But they liked it Critics were into it
[00:07:22] Especially in relation to Cars which felt like No pun intended Well I mean for the record Cars 2 makes Cars 3 look like Cars 1 We're talking about Cars 1 I know but I'm just saying You're just saying that Because you know It's the best of the three
[00:07:37] And there was this feeling I think That it was like Oh, Lasseter's overdue for an Oscar For being such a good man For being one of our great American men And he won the Golden Globe And it kind of felt like
[00:07:49] Are they just going to give him the award Even though Cars is like so mezzo mezzo Because he is the last major Pixar director to not win an Oscar And then I think it was kind of a Like there was this groundswell
[00:08:00] Of like let's not fucking give it to Cars Let's give it to Cars Let's not default to Lasseter Needing to win an Oscar Sure, yeah And Cars is good And history smiles upon that decision Sure It's not as bad as Good Dinosaur though No Have you seen that?
[00:08:16] Yes What a mess Not a good movie Introduce our guest And it's the best of the three cars Our guest today From the Bechtel cast and the sledge podcast Caitlin Duranty Hello Is on the show Hi, thanks for having me Now originally Because we had your co-host
[00:08:30] Jamie Loft is on Yes And it was Dark Shadows And originally we were trying to have both of you On for the same episode Yeah And it was a thing where you were both in town For a New York podcast show But only for like four hours
[00:08:42] There was only four hours of overlap There was like a conflict that I had Right, it was one of you was there before the show And one of you was there after the show And there was no time to do both of you At the same time Yeah
[00:08:54] Do you feel like you got off Easy skipping Dark Shadows Or do you feel like that would have been An easier task Than talking about Happy Feet I went to be nowhere else in the world Other than right now Here talking about Happy Feet Perfect answer They're tapping
[00:09:10] Gotta talk about those feet They ain't sad Penguins See my brother when he You know how when you're a kid Sometimes you'll just sort of go all in On one thing Like I liked trains As you know When I was a little kid
[00:09:22] My brother when he was five Was like penguins baby For two years He was like, I love penguins I know about all the kinds of penguins I have like eight penguin toys You know like he was like Was he getting like zoo books? Yeah you know
[00:09:35] It was partly the Central Park Zoo Has the really nice penguin You know area right So we would go there probably But like You know also that thing with kids Where it like kind of steam rolls Where it's like the relatives here Like oh he likes penguins Right
[00:09:48] So let's just send some penguin shit his way Was he reading a lot of puffin classics? I guess that's not really That's a different That's I know I just corrected myself Producer Rachel keeping me in track once again So like I feel like I just had
[00:10:03] You know I knew about all the penguins I got a huge question Yeah sure and he liked March of the Penguins I think Congrats That's sort of the tail end Yeah he would have been high school By that point right Well not When did the penguins March? 2006 2005 2005
[00:10:19] So he would have been Late high school Yeah right Yeah cause Jordan and I are the same age There was the But there was still the sort of lingering Like oh yeah penguins remember those You know like yeah Did Joey this is my big question
[00:10:30] And stop me if this is too personal Please Did Joey have that toy that was like The ice mound and then all the penguins Like walk around it Do you know what I'm talking about? No not even a little bit
[00:10:40] I don't think I know what you're talking about You'll know it if you see it We definitely had a life size Inflatable Emperor penguin That like sat in our room Inflatable Inflatable So like you know how inflatable toys Like will slowly sort of
[00:10:55] And then you gotta blow them back up You know and then At a certain point Was it a pool toy? What toys are inflatable? It had like a flat bottom You know it had like flat feet So it could stand It was just a fucking inflatable penguin
[00:11:05] It was very weird in retrospect Could sit on it It was in a chair I mean you could You could I guess It wouldn't be fun Anyway sorry penguins Do you remember this kind of thing Where it's like There's like a little escalator And the penguins go up
[00:11:20] And then they all slide down Yeah I do remember that I may have had that in fact Sir Rachel validated Yeah I sort of remember that You know there's the Mario world Mario 64 world with penguins Oh there's two different ones with penguins You know where you go sliding
[00:11:34] And you race them down there So that's fun Who doesn't love penguins? They're fat I think it's the fatness They're sort of rotund Sure That really kids really respond to They move funny They're funny They move funny And they're birds But they can't fly They're unique They operate
[00:11:49] And they're not threatening They're not like the other birds They're a little different They're a little different No legs No legs Big feet Long flippers And also let's say it They're very classy gentlemen Because they all look like they're wearing hot seatoes I think when you're a kid
[00:12:04] And you figure that out Yeah Penguins start really Shooting up the charts for you In the animal kingdom That's fair I'm just, this is right I'm trying to crack the code of like What is it about penguins I don't know That makes them so popular And you're right
[00:12:17] I mean they are an evergreen thing I think they're a type of animal That kids get attracted to But they're not like cats Or dogs that are like Perennials You know like You can't own a penguin Right Kids always love horses Speak for yourself Sure, horses are fair
[00:12:29] Yeah maybe Okay If you cool your house down I know I'm gonna see her now in a penguin Yeah don't tell Caitlyn She can't fucking own a penguin But like did you guys Caitlyn I don't know where you're from I'm realizing Western Pennsylvania
[00:12:40] So I don't know if you had Like a penguin zoo Near you I grew up near nothing We would like go to the zoo And there's the penguins And you go down In the central park So you go down Into this sort of subterranean area
[00:12:50] And you can see them swimming But then also sometimes There are little you know The zoo people would come And feed them fish That was always very exciting Did you not do this We're not a zoo kid I didn't know We went to the zoo a lot
[00:13:02] Zoo boy Yeah I went to the zoo A couple of times I say Ben Hosley Went to the zoo Yeah I've been to the zoo Perdure Ben went to the zoo Oh you're doing You're doing this Well I just I'm at any clarification
[00:13:14] The Ben Dooser went to the zoo It's true Caitlyn You wanna go The first to the meat lover The Dooser Yeah So can we go to the white hop Benny I just It didn't grab my attention Our finest film critic Bought a ticket to the zoo
[00:13:29] You know what I did like though When I was there A gorilla through feces At the window And I found that very funny That's a good bit When for the trim style That's a classic Caitlyn is checking her watch As I go through this No it's
[00:13:44] Let's speed this up I was getting a text message On my thing Well I just have One other question for you What's up When you went to the zoo Yeah Did they acknowledge that you Graduated to a series of Titles of course Of different producers
[00:13:56] Such as producer Ben Kenobi Kylo Ben Ben A. Shumlan Bencete I like Ben's Biddlewatt Ben's with the dollar sign Say Benny thing dot dot dot Benglish I'm sorry You don't even know what it is Ben 19 the fennel maker You drink Ben Hosley You got it
[00:14:12] My neighbor Ben Toro Beetle Vapreuse I don't know I'm making them up now I feel like we haven't come up with the last three Is that on my neighbor Toro? Yeah What's the Demi one What's the Demi The truth about Benny Yeah I don't know Oh yeah
[00:14:27] I don't know A master Ben Yeah a master Ben Benny in the flash Benny in the flash I don't know Beny and Ben love it Ben love it Okay Love to do a pun on beloved I do too I don't know Have we pulled out of that tailspin
[00:14:44] Yeah I'm sorry I fucked up the entire No it's great I was not a big animal kid We went to the zoo a lot But I was just never a kid who loved animals I think they're different types of kids And most kids have one animal they like
[00:14:54] The animal I liked the most was the pig And I think I picked it perversely Because I never had to make contact with it It wasn't a thing where people could be like Let's go to the zoo and see that pig you love
[00:15:04] I could just be in the abstract like I love pigs I mean if you go to the farm Wilbur Some pig You could have gone there There's some pig That's the best pig See that motherfucker babe on topic That's a good point
[00:15:18] What are you talking about that'll do How do you feel about babe I love babe So when we're doing happy feet George Miller's been pretty dormant for a while But his last efforts have been in the The babe franchise Yeah The two babes Right
[00:15:32] I'm not even like babe two pig in the city More than babe I think a fair take A fair take Very different films He finishes out his Mad Max trilogy Right And then there's Lorenzo's oil And which is a beast Right Which are both him trying different things
[00:15:44] Which is beast Which is him being like I don't like the studio system If I'm making movies I'm doing them on my own terms I have my own company I work with Village Roadshow Most of his films are distributed by Warner Brothers
[00:15:53] But he's still always trying to retain Some sense of autonomy And independence within the studio system Just sort of using them as a distributor Um He produces the first babe Babe blows up He goes I don't feel like I'm getting enough credit for babe Right
[00:16:10] I was sort of shepherding the whole thing No pun intended Hey Well Gets his second Oscar nomination His Oscar nominations are so weird Cause it's First nomination Best screenplay for Lorenzo's oil Hey got it Got to get Second nomination As a producer Best picture for babe Sure
[00:16:27] And then he's like Okay you thought that was good Let me take over babe Let me do babe pig in the city People are like boo Get off the stage Real ones recognize the things Of fucking masterpiece He also got a screenplay nom for babe
[00:16:38] Want to point out Oh okay Two nom's there Two nom's there Um But he's a little bit in the wilderness After pig in the city Cause I think people were like This guy If you give him too much freedom He's gonna go fucking nuts
[00:16:50] And so after pig in the city He's like I'm ready to return to Mad Max And he announces He's gonna do Mad Max 4 I think it was supposed to be called The Wasteland at that point Yes I think you're right With Mel Gibson And it's very close
[00:17:02] To getting made In 2001 and 9-11 happens And he gets skittish And he backs off of it Interesting way And for years It's still like percolating And at some point Mel is like Having all his breakdowns And directing all our Yeah Mel becomes a little more Unemployment
[00:17:18] And it becomes clear that He's probably not gonna act In the movie ever So it's still this thing of Like he's going Maybe I do it animated Do I get a new actor to do it Do I set it earlier Like can I coax Mel Into coming back
[00:17:30] And he'll be doing interviews And people will go like Is Mad Max 4 ever gonna happen Like it feels like this quixotic Quest, right? And he's like No no it's definitely gonna happen It's definitely happening We were gonna film next year But then Namibia The planes changed
[00:17:44] And I can't film in this environment Like it was always just like Weird interruptions coming in And in this period where He's continually talking to Warner Brothers About trying to make a fourth Mad Max Which they would like to do He goes
[00:17:56] Can I show you this other thing I've had And he's like meeting with them In LA And he's like I've had this penguin script For like 10-15 years That I've been like Percolating on And he drops it at their desk And gets on his plane Back to Australia
[00:18:11] And the story is that when he landed They were like We'll make this tomorrow That they read it within the time That he was on the plane That very long plane flight And they were like Obviously this movie makes Perfect sense to us Now to me
[00:18:26] I wonder if that is a symptom of This period Early 2000s Post Pixar Animations in a big boom And suddenly every studio is like We gotta get in on that We gotta make our own animated films And Warner Brothers does not Have an animation division
[00:18:41] They have no sort of like incubator Because they had shut it down They briefly No, well like Iron Giant That was the end of it Experimented with it right Right so that was like That wave of every studio Trying to copy Disney And do their like
[00:18:54] Hand drawn musicals And Iron Giants The final nail in the coffin For Warner Brothers animation And I think they feel too recently That they were turned by that To try to start up a new CGI thing And like Fox had bought Blue Sky Dreamworks had bought PDI
[00:19:10] Which later became Dreamworks Animation Like all these other places Were buying in-demand animation houses The way that Disney did with Pixar And Warner Brothers was like I don't know what to do And suddenly a guy Who they have a relationship with Drops the script on their desk
[00:19:23] And I think part of the pitch was There's this company Animal Logic That's a special effects house They're based out of Australia And we can hire them to animate the whole movie We don't have to build an animation studio They essentially are an animation studio
[00:19:37] But no one's ever asked them To animate an entire film before And so it's kind of like A part and parcel You don't have to develop an animation arm Here's this thing And I think to execs They're probably like I don't know What the fucking kids like
[00:19:50] But this thing was expensive Like it's not like this was just like Sure, have a roll of it But don't you think to some degree They were like All this shit's expensive Talking cars, sitting penguins What the fuck What's the difference? Yeah, you can sell people on it
[00:20:02] I mean, have you seen the animated Have you seen Delgo or whatever People will take flyers in the animated Movies because they're like Sure, those things sell Right, kids see them And it's that thing I think That also happened when Warner Brothers tried to be
[00:20:15] Getting into the DC interconnected universe Where it's like We understand that there's a market For this thing But we also don't like it at all Where they're like I don't know What are these fucking kids like You know, what are these nerds like And like to some degree
[00:20:28] They're sort of reluctantly making these things With the stain because they're like It's easy money in the bank And what they're not counting on is George Miller being a lunatic Who's like This is my movie to say everything That's right
[00:20:40] This is my chance to try to like work Like insane Subjective camera movements into animated film The camera stuff is wild in this movie Because obviously there is no camera So we can do whatever he wants with it Did you see this when it came out, Kayla?
[00:20:55] No, I hadn't seen it until like three days ago Wow, wow So you agreed to do this just as like That sounds like a weird movie We gave you a list of like a couple of options So do you want to do any of these
[00:21:04] And you were like happy feet, totally I just mostly didn't want to see One of the like original trilogy Mad Max movies again I've seen them all Not for me Love Fury Road But I'm so glad I said yes to this Because what he is trying to say
[00:21:20] With happy feet Is exactly what he tries to say And I think succeeds at saying In Fury Road Yeah, that's true In a lot of ways Because there's like this Like religious aspect where like Immortan Joe's, you know, like has this whole You know, he's got this regime
[00:21:39] Totalitarianism But like this ethos There's like dogma Right, this movie is also about a demagogue Yes Who's like This is true Controlling his little population This is all true But then the whole thing also Is that like we ruined the world Right There's the water wars
[00:21:56] Or in the process of ruining the world Yeah And the same like environmental themes Are very suddenly out of nowhere Present and happy feet Yes It is also this thing where like What is so powerful about Fury Road Is that all that stuff is in there
[00:22:14] And it's almost never stated directly Through dialogue And it's almost always just conveyed Through the world building and the action Right And the dialogue is mostly like conversational And perfunctory And then this is a children's movie Has like every character explaining Every theme all the time
[00:22:31] Yes, that is true But also this film posits that penguins When they select their mate Sing pop songs from like the 80s Well every penguin has a heart song Yeah but those are pop songs From the 80s It has to be a Mulan Roo style
[00:22:46] Like a couple penguins do wet Jitboxy kind of like their take And one of them is singing like A big pimpin And they harmonize somewhere in the middle Here's a question, Professor Penguin I genuinely want to know You got the laptop and apparently
[00:23:02] An infinite well of penguin facts My brother had these flash cards Of every penguin species that he would like And he drilled you every night Honestly Go on, guess My question is I feel like Emperor penguins Are culturally sort of seen as the default penguin
[00:23:18] Especially when you get the name Emperor penguin Like you're really sticking out there They're also the biggest penguins I think But also, I feel like if you ask someone Draw a penguin, 99 out of 100 Will draw something that most closely resembles an emperor Are they the most popular species
[00:23:34] Or have they just kind of become the default The most populous penguin species is The macaroni penguin What? Shocker, 18 million macaroni What do they look like? Turn around that screen They're the crusty ones They're the crusties? They're the ones who are overfishing Not humans Yeah, seriously guys
[00:23:55] There's so many macaroni penguins Do they eat macaroni? I hope they do They really should That is crazy that they're the most popular And I think of them as like That's like an obscure deep-cup penguin You know those eyebrow penguin Well, that's okay Talk about representation in media
[00:24:10] Why are emperors favored so much in media This is what I was getting at Are emperor penguins the straight white men Of the penguin world? Are they just taking up 90% of the film roles But they're not actually representing that much Of the population?
[00:24:24] Emperor penguins are low on the list I think because they have such an unusual Breeding thing where they like It takes them a whole goddamn year And it's just one egg And they gotta march Like it seems like very convoluted But number one macaroni
[00:24:38] Number two, the chin strap Who is a good boy? We like the chin strap Sure He's got a little chin strap They're cuties They're number two Yeah, they're number two I like them because it looks Like their faces like peeking out Like they're like an oyster
[00:24:50] Then you got the a daily penguins Who kind of just have those really crazy eyes There's a rock hopper right You know you got something called The Magellanic penguins Oh there I feel like the zoo has a lot of those That sort of like Those are familiar Sure
[00:25:09] That's a cool one What crazy things they are Also zoos That's another message Are bad I agree They're terrible We should get rid of them They're so off They're not terrible They truly are bad Well, you know but like Thank god There are people who work at zoos
[00:25:25] Who are trying to conserve And educate And you know Like it's a responsibility That you can take on well Just like there are people in the Trump administration Who are there to be a voice of reason We're comparing zoos to the Trumpist and his questioner Trying his hardest
[00:25:40] Okay so as we learn in various Movies such as happy feats Such as March of the Penguins They're focused on Emperor penguins So they are to me The feminist icons of the penguins Of course Because the females go out to fish They lay an egg
[00:25:58] They're like here daddy You take care of this I've got work to do Stick this under your crotch Although it is absolutely wild Not only does the male penguin Just have to stand there But he cannot eat for two months
[00:26:10] Which is a very strange way of doing business She's like look I couldn't drink for nine months Two months without a sandwich Sushi So do other species of penguins do this Or is it just the emperors do we know It's a great question It felt like that's why
[00:26:28] March of the Penguins was about them That it was such a unique sort of phenomenon Let's see but like also The whole look to that movie was like What an interesting dynamic Between these parents and how they have a child Reproduction Let's see egg
[00:26:44] I'm trying to sort of like Let's talk about eggs baby We should talk about eggs baby Most penguins lay two eggs Emperors and king penguins With the other big boys only lay one Okay They lay two eggs simultaneously
[00:26:59] I don't think you lay one then you lay another one Okay I don't think you have to have them like Literally parallel Let's see so the The monogamous thing is pretty typical To all penguins which you know Obviously unusual for animals to be monogamous
[00:27:17] You rarely meet a polypenguin That's what you're saying I feel like a lot of bird species overall Do a pretty monogamous thing They're more fond of that Some of them might be like Ethical non-monogamy but like Right But like a lot of them There's a reason
[00:27:31] They care about forever There's a reason we say The birds and the bees as an example Because that's how culture is supposed to be It does seem like generally the whole I think the emperors have As you say, the added marching aspect
[00:27:43] But the general vibe with penguins is They don't only lay a lot of eggs They do mate monogamously And it's tough out there for a penguin You really gotta Those eggs are precious Because you're not like laying 10,000 eggs Yeah It's tough Also they're not scared of humans
[00:27:58] Because they don't really understand what humans are So if you go look at penguins They will like come up to you Penguins They're cute Another cute thing about emperors penguins When they have babies They look different than what they're going to end up looking like Which is typical
[00:28:11] Because they shut off all their little fuzzy fur They've got all this fluffy stuff It's cute Oh, so cute I think it is fascinating Pretty cute That Miller with like no animation background Right Sure But after Babe some CGI expertise Sure But Babe was largely animatronics
[00:28:29] With CGI sort of augmentations But he likes tech He likes pushing boundaries But he like goes into a new medium After the success of this He starts an animation studio called Dr. D Which then I believe like Shudders immediately after Happy Feud 2 Right
[00:28:45] But he was like, oh yeah, I'm going to be your animation guy I'm going to spearhead like all these animated films for you But this movie makes this incredibly bizarre choice To stylize the penguins less than 10% Okay, yeah Okay, thank you
[00:28:59] Right, I think this is very important to talk about The animation, right, there's no It's just like this weird Uncanny Valley version of penguins It's like the closest they could get to photo realism at the time But it looks bad Totally It's like really bad
[00:29:13] And then also except the one thing they do-do To do-do To stylize anything Is they make several of the female penguins These like hourglass shaped Busty They've got a little more of a body A little buxom They've got a bosom You've got some Coke bottle penguins
[00:29:30] And they've got some hips And it's so weird I guess they have to differentiate them from the male penguins For some reason But it's also this bizarre thing I mean that's the other problem is you have like a movie where
[00:29:43] Most of the characters are going to end up looking the same Like any gene in which like Gloria And what's the mother's name Memphis is the dad Memphis is the dad Right Right Because she sounds like fucking Marilyn Monroe Which is why I feel like he's like
[00:29:59] Okay so distinguishing you really got to have the most cartoonish Voice Right He's doing like an Elvis there She's doing a Marilyn thing Sort of breathy thing But there are scenes It's a little weird There were scenes in the last like third of the movie
[00:30:13] Where visually adult Gloria And Norma Jean is staying next to each other And you can barely differentiate between the two of them Totally And same thing with like adult mumbles With Memphis I agree Let alone all the background penguins They give mumble blue eyes
[00:30:28] Everyone else has like black little beady eyes And he's got his little Little bow tie I think that the eyes When he's a little kid When mumble is a baby Adorable Oh yeah When mumble is a teen Kind of makes him look weird He looks kind of intense
[00:30:43] Does match with Elijah Wood of course Who like anytime he's on screen Especially in Lord of the Rings You are kind of like Jesus What's with these guys eyes David's blinking like he just stares into the sun And you know like Peter Jackson would do that trick
[00:30:54] Where he would like shine like 40 lights into his eye And his eyes like seem like very dazzling Which you know the opposite side of that trick was If they were shooting late at night And they ran out of lights They would just put his eyes behind the camera
[00:31:04] For a close up Light them up But like I remember walking out of fellowship with the ring And my mum being like We get it with his eyes Like was like sick of his eyes By the end of that movie
[00:31:16] But don't you think he looks a little creepy Or not creepy exactly intense Very intense No I think creepy is the appropriate word there But what is this weird thing of like So you have like little details like that Or like Norma Jean has like a heart birthmark
[00:31:31] On one of her breasts It sort of looks like I didn't even notice that Like a biker bar tattoo almost Right But by and large these penguins all kind of look the same And he's doing like working as much as he can To sort of make them like
[00:31:47] The physiology of them is pretty much exactly the same As real penguin looks He's not redesigning them in any way That makes them easier to animate Their faces are still kind of innately inexpressive Because beaks are They have very small eyes They have big beaks Inexpressive
[00:32:02] Like it's like a mouth that just flaps open and closed So like for Hugo Weemings Villain penguin He's got like a little crook in his neck He's the only one who sort of looks Any amount of difference There is the one chunky boy Played by Fat Joe Yes
[00:32:16] Yes Seymour Right But he's just like A penguin model and just stretched it Just a little bigger Right Fat Joe's involvement does really put this movie in 2006 Oh my God That's just like Because there are two cast It's like Fat Joe's enough of a start
[00:32:32] To be in a kids movie Lean back It just happened like a year ago Right Do you know the two cast replacements that happen In Happy Feet 2? No, go ahead Brittany Murphy passes The year before the film comes out So they replace her with
[00:32:44] Still remains one of the strangest And most upsetting Her husband died shortly after Of toxic mold It turned out they had toxic mold in their shower And both of them got pneumonia And were never diagnosed Yeah That is like Basically the accepted explanation
[00:32:59] I know that was never like Fully, fully confirmed Because her husband was also a weird con artist So people kept on going Like if he tied to something But then he died so shortly after It was that there was like When they ripped open their house
[00:33:11] After the husband died They were like This shower is riddled with mold I didn't know Insane Super weird Wow Very strange But anyway, so she died She's replaced with Pink Of course But of course Right And you're like George Miller was like It was really sad
[00:33:29] It was tragic She was getting ready to record She passed like a year before the film Came out We had no choice It's dedicated in her memory And then Fat Joe is replaced with Common Why? I don't know Life's too short
[00:33:40] Why make a second movie with Fat Joe? Common seems like a better option Like just the indignity Of just being like No, it's fine We'll call you Fat Joe Why even bring that character back? Exactly He's in like two scenes I know it's not like people are like
[00:33:54] We need Wait, I need to look up his character Well no, but isn't he the father now? We need Seymour He's got This is all I know about Happy Feet 2 Happy Feet 2 is kind of the next generation And there's like A little kid Who looks just like mumbles
[00:34:08] Doesn't mumble have a son? Right Who looks just like baby mumble Voice by the same actress E.G. Daly Who voices young mumble in this And then Common has a son The voice of Tommy from Rugrats Who's also Dottie and Pew's big adventure Right, sure But then
[00:34:25] The Fat Joe Common character also has a son Who looks exactly like The little version of him from this movie And is voiced by The same actor A young rapper named Lil Peanut Alright Happy Feet Oh, I was just going to say
[00:34:41] So I'm going to lack the technical terms To get this right But other than like The adult and child version of mumbles Who have like textured fur And when they're in the movie No, but you see like Their fur and their feathers like Individually reacting to the weather
[00:35:00] When they get wet They look wet and whatever Every other penguin in this movie Is essentially a model they built Without a lot of texture And then they're essentially putting A skin on it that has texture Painted onto it Which is like the equivalent of wearing
[00:35:15] A t-shirt that makes you look Like you have six pack abs Which is one of the reasons all the penguins Look bad because when they're moving Their body's not distorting properly It's like you're stretching a still image Here's my, but this is the biggest problem With this movie
[00:35:29] And this movie is strange Yeah But I just, it just doesn't look great It's like many a mid 2000s Animated film It's just a little janky Which at the time people were like I can't believe what this thing looks like They don't look like cartoons
[00:35:42] I'm not wrong in thinking like The dancing was motion captured Like that was part of the tech pitch At the time was like Savvian Glover came in and did some Great tap dance and like We mapped that onto the penguin Which the animation community has always
[00:35:57] Hated mocap films Sure And a lot of them have been snubbed For like best animated film Even when they were critically adored And so there was a whole campaign Of being like no the movie is not Mocapt The stars who voice the penguins Didn't do mocap
[00:36:11] The mocap is just the dancing Because he wanted the versamillitude of These have to be the best tap dancers in the world If penguins are gonna tap dance It has to be bring in the noise Bring into funk level Steps Also another thing about Mumble's like aesthetic is
[00:36:29] He has not lost all of his baby feathers Sure Which like what and why Is that just another way to differentiate him From everyone else And give him kind of a teen energy I suppose It's interesting that The idea of him as an outcast
[00:36:47] Because penguins can only have one kid Yes I mean per year but in this movie It's really just like one kid But the idea of like This was our shot At an offspring Our heart songs had united I let him roll away He's weird You can't sing
[00:37:03] He's a dancer And it's a classic like You know kids movie Kid story trope of like The point where it's like Everyone in this town does this thing The one way or we all look this one way It's footloose Right and then one person is born
[00:37:17] The wrong way And we like resist them And push them away until they ultimately teach us Right But that's handled very weirdly too Very weirdly Because when he's born When Mumble is born The movie frames it as though His feet and the way in which they Behave Yeah
[00:37:35] It's almost framed as a disability Right But then that gets dropped Yeah Quite quickly after that It takes over an hour for it to be like A form of artistic or emotional expression For him Right At first it's like Does he have a neurological disorder?
[00:37:51] Like what is going on here? It's like a weird tick Right He's just sort of like stomping about But then he, you know As a kid it's like He has to hold it in right They're like No, no, no, it's not cool Don't do the dancing
[00:38:03] But also the central premise of what is normal For this movie is so wild And it drops you into the deep end Where the movie just cold starts with Fairly realistic looking Top the line technology 2006 penguins Big act Nicole Kim and Hugh Jackman Recognizable stars Giant movie stars
[00:38:20] Right, yeah Australian, you know So like George Millery stars But still Right But like Nicole came in a couple years away From an Oscar Like he, Hugh and peak Wolverine era And they're just fucking singing prints to each other And removing the sexual words
[00:38:36] And replacing them with eggs and shit But sometimes not There's like a lyric where they're like I want to make love to you Yeah And it's like Brace yourself, make love to you Which has always At least when we were kids was acceptable
[00:38:49] That had come into the realm of acceptable You could say make love to a child Like it could be in a commercial You know what I mean? Yes But it's this very specific I'm not saying that's a good thing I'm just saying that was the way it went
[00:39:02] It's this very specific Now I'm Googling penguin mating Post-Mulan Rouge thing to me Where it's like every musical number Is like elephant love medley Right So this very Mulan Rouge Every song is eight songs Right Yes, every song is the Shrek swamp karaoke
[00:39:19] I think I think that's funny about penguins Is also that they often will just go Like that You know they'll just kind of stretch it out David was doing what I can only describe as What he does when we're usually recording episodes But then he added up Right
[00:39:35] He shook his head But otherwise it was just out stretching his arms Here they go Here they're gonna look See they're gonna fall Now it's going down They're kind of doing like They kind of nibble each other You know they kind of like The beaks
[00:39:48] You know they kind of groom each others And then it's sort of like You kind of just inch your way around First your face to face Oh okay Do they do the thing where they do it in the movie Where like their head's kind of tilt downward
[00:40:00] And it forms a heart shape with their bodies It does not appear that choreographed Like a horrific looking heart Like an anemic squeegee tart Yeah I guess it's just the old fashioned back You know kind of just a little penguin sandwich Right The old fashioned penguin sandwich
[00:40:19] Oh that When you watch a lot of like David Attenborough documentaries But anyway you know But yes the movie just like I feel like there's probably five or six minutes That elapsed before a line of dialogue is spoken Yes I think so yeah And you
[00:40:40] It is very strange that this came right after March of the Penguins Right Because it's funny that basically anyone who'd seen March of the Penguins Can just be like Yeah I know what they do I know they gotta all huddle up for a couple months with the eggs
[00:40:51] The boys and the girls are gonna go off And get the fishies By co- Complete coincidence this documentary That performs like a blockbuster film Right, narrated by Morgan Freeman or whoever right Gives everyone all the frame of reference they need For the opening of this movie
[00:41:08] And a documentary that like every kid saw Yes But yes I mean the heart song thing is so strange Because it's like It's elastic to the point where it's like Well it's not just like made in calls Because it's also like this form of artistic expression
[00:41:25] But it feels like it's a somewhat supernatural thing Like it's almost like imprinting in the twilight saga Where it's like you have to find the one song And then that's your song forever But also they sing multiple songs They also dance Yes Only tap dancing make you weird
[00:41:42] Is fucked up Yeah, it's a good point actually right Most forms of dance are like yeah that's part of the routine Right But like just that secondary Okay heart song is primo And do you get to tap dancing because penguins have no legs
[00:41:55] And little feet like was it just him being like Well that would look funny It has to be Right they have little feet it's funny It's little feet, no legs They're half the feet are happy The feet are happy Yeah So to me the heart song thing
[00:42:11] Was rooted in some science right Because isn't there a thing with the emperor penguins Where like the babies can distinguish like their mother's voice From everyone else Yes I was like okay that's they build off that And birds have mating calls that's like a
[00:42:27] You'll see those gatherings of thousands of penguins And right the David I would be like Amazingly they always know who their parent is You know they all look the same That's just what we think But they're just going to the wrong mate all the time
[00:42:38] And we're just like yeah definitely Yeah no question It's I mean look it's generally weird That there's Antarctica where there's nothing going on And it's just like penguins are like Yeah this is gonna be our spot It's like a winter wasteland I have never seen a penguin
[00:42:53] I'm assuming I mean except in the zoo Yeah what are you talking about You're just bragging about seeing penguins all the time But you know like never You've never been to Antarctic I've never been to Antarctic But you can I suppose go
[00:43:02] I think it's like a whole thing Because I went north I went to Alaska And there you see puffins You went to Alaska Yeah you didn't know that about me That was last year You went to Alaska last year Yeah for a wedding Did I think about this?
[00:43:15] Oh right And then we stayed because it was like And there are puffins And when you see puffins it is like Oh my god it's like the little cartoon animal That you kind of think might not even be real Well you all so that was the other reason
[00:43:30] You stayed out there because you wanted to pitch them a book right I'm gonna make this joke work It's almost there It's almost there I feel like I'm so angle It's further not closer No I think we're hovering We're gonna find a landing spot
[00:43:42] Did you see a moose? Saw some moose Oh I've always wanted to see a moose I've heard there's chmooos You can see these guys Saw bears Oh my god In the wild and not Nice In the wild was a little Grizzlies? No grizzlies
[00:43:56] I saw grizzlies in like a nature preserve But not IRL But I did see a black bear on a hike Like real close to me Too close Did you see Russia? And what's the other thing Well otters I mean you can see them in a lot of places
[00:44:09] But they're just so damn charming those otters They're pretty great Where are the movies about otters? They know give us an otter movie Otters feel like penguin and Jason And that they're just like Innately funny animals They are You're just like I'll root for any otter
[00:44:22] I think I agree with that And like in Alaska They never shut up about otters Because like there used to be everywhere And then they got over hunted For their fur And now they're back And mid-autor great musician Still waiting for him to do a follow up album
[00:44:35] But it's like they're tubby They just lie On their backs You know And like they're just They seem very charming Anyway So I just like we're Penguins are in that sphere Yeah Anyways so yeah the heart song They're cool They have a baby
[00:44:49] Right the first ten men are just the parents Yes And you see the men marching Doing the march of the penguins Around the Aurora Borealis And then they're singing to each other But as they sing it's like projections Come out of their mouths Of their heads
[00:45:06] Of the penguin god Right Also does the Aurora Borealis Happen in Antarctica? Of course it's called the Aurora Australis Oh okay It's the same basic phenomenon I see I see He gets so distracted belting With his bros Sure After it's like No it's boring They gotta stand there
[00:45:24] It's boring Don't forget he drops the egg Yes right Which apparently comes back In a significant plot point It rolls and everyone's like You know what they say If an egg rolls away You're fucked You're gonna have a bird With who tap dances And that's like
[00:45:40] Guess if you were a dropped kid You're gonna have a bad life That's what they're trying to say with them So it's like when you're a parent And you drop your kid And you're like this is I fucked up And the kid's just fine
[00:45:51] And you're like but what if I did something I had one glass of wine one time And now I wonder Anytime my son can't do a math problem And then when they're like twenty six You know they have a gambling problem You're like I did the one drop
[00:46:03] I was dropped a bunch And I turned out fine You're killing it Your parents are like Look honestly every other week With you we were just like Oops I rolled once off of My changing table And just Onto the ground Wow And you remember this recently
[00:46:21] We should mention that Dave is a big baby Who was a big baby Like, Dijkers I'm a baby boss So he drops the egg As he said, Katelyn Yeah And he's worried about that But the egg hatches Seems to be normal
[00:46:36] Well first they think it's not going to hatch Which is a pop point In March of the Penguins You see sometimes the egg don't hatch And that's real sad And he's like I fucked this up I ruined this And then From inside the egg And someone What's a
[00:46:49] Brittany Murphy Comes over to tap on it Baby Brittany Murphy Yeah, look And she names him Yeah Right She was like I'm not your parent I'm another baby But I'm naming this Other baby penguin Naming Mumbles Because he can't talk that well Guess what? He's a fucking baby
[00:47:04] He just was born Give him a break 100% And so Then you have Baby Mumbles This to me the high point of the movie The cutest thing Just pretty cute The ad campaign for this movie Was 90% Baby Mumbles Right, the poster is the baby Even though it's only like
[00:47:22] 20 minutes Like it's not like a lot The trailers for this film Were mostly just Isolated musical numbers When he's just like A little guy who's like I just want to dance Like that I'm like I love this penguin I'm all in But I remember like going to see
[00:47:36] Whatever Harry Potter movie It was at midnight Not knowing this film Was being made Sure The teaser trailer comes up Which is Robin Williams With a speedy gunsawless accent Oh my god Singing my way We're getting to it No, but don't worry The other character he plays is
[00:47:53] Barry White But it was him singing my way In Spanish But it was a different animated sequence It's not what's in the movie They animated a different sequence Just for the teaser This is a trailer And then when he hits the high note
[00:48:10] The camera zooms down his throat And the happy feet logo Is his uvula Great Great, cool And the whole audience Was like giggling And loved it And I was like We're all just accepting this What the fuck is this? And it was one of those
[00:48:25] Like coming next year Like it was like a far away teaser And I was like I have no idea what this movie is I imagine once we get closer The release It will make sense to me And then the trailers were Still just penguins dancing
[00:48:36] And people would say Oh, I can't wait to see That cute penguin dancing movie This is what I'm saying Penguin And I just went What's the fucking movie about? What happens to the rest of the movie? What's the matter with you? You know like a dancing penguin?
[00:48:47] But this is the point Dancing twins I walk into the theater And at this point in the film I'm going What is this? What's going to happen now? They fucking dance Well, they hate that he dances They don't like that he dances He's in the singing group
[00:48:58] And he can't sing It's no good But he does dance But they're just like And Memphis is like Don't fucking show this to people Like don't do this around other people Right Um Uh, you got Gloria Who's sort of like The valedictorian Of the brood Right?
[00:49:16] She's the best singer Sure, her and Fadja Although when she like Does her little She's like I figured out What my heart song was Here it is It's like Not that good No It's not Brittany Murphy I think she was a good singer She's a good singer
[00:49:30] She's an adult Yes, Gloria is But then like When she's like a baby A kid I mean It's a little It's a little It's a little Kids are bad at stuff Right, it's a little try hard This is like An incredibly long classroom sequence
[00:49:44] Where after we've been watching Penguin behavior for 20 minutes Suddenly Professor Miriam Margolis Like grinds the movie to a halt And is like I'm gonna explain all of this Right These are the rules of our society And she's playing like A sort of grand dumb
[00:49:58] With like a European sort of Affects Is this the other teacher That they take him to? Miss Astrakhan Yes Yeah Okay Cause everyone's just trying To correct this kids Weird feet Yeah, he's got happy feet Well to them Their view in them is Sad feet Yeah
[00:50:19] Sad feet even There's the sequence Thank you Ben Where he They think they're crappy feet They think The feet stink Where he Where he encounters No good stinky poo poo feet A flock of squaw Yes One of whom has been tagged Right By So early Scientists
[00:50:36] They are in the mafia We should just point out They talk like gangsters You have The main one is voiced by Anthony Lappaglia Who's played many A mobster I just want to point out This is Largely Australian film From an Australian filmmaker He's an Australian
[00:50:53] Animated by an Australian Special Effects house You have four big Australian Actors in it And none of them are doing Australian accents Right Like Kidman and Jackman Are doing Southern They're doing broad American accent Hugo Weaving is like Scottish Yeah And Anthony Lappaglia Is doing Brooklyn
[00:51:11] He's like the great grin But what do we know about Anthony Lappaglia One of the many things About him Is that he did not get to play That he was the first choice for Tony Soprano Tony Soprano He was like a go-to mobster In the 90s
[00:51:23] And he kind of, I think, Never got over turning that down It's tough Tough to... I think it was scheduling He was busy making You know, not the Soprano He was like doing a view From the bridge on Broadway Or something like that Are you aware
[00:51:34] That the plot of Analyze That Is that Yes De Niro gets hired To be a consultant On a show that is Clearly the Sopranos And Anthony Lappaglia Is the lead actor Playing the guy Who is a very self-serious Australian actor Who's a diva And keeps on halting production
[00:51:50] And now, but wasn't he also He was supposed to play Al Capone And wrote to Perdition And they cut that scene Yeah Anyway, he's there Talking about alien abduction The scene The thing that's interesting About this Is this is the only thing I want to highlight
[00:52:05] That they're like That the bird's going to kind of Treat being tagged As alien abduction And then someone else Is clearly just leaning in And like And they should kind of be Like mobsters These two things do not mesh But also this is the first scene
[00:52:17] In the movie It's like mobsters talk about alien This is the first scene in the movie Where they're introducing a major element They're introducing non-Penguin Right Right, outside of the basic Pitch for this movie Which is these penguins Sing and dance Suddenly there's this Alien thing Right
[00:52:32] And you're like This scene is very menacing It has a very different tone You feel like they're maybe Going to eat him And when he escapes And goes back to the Singing and dancing stuff You're like Well that has to be in there For a reason
[00:52:44] Where the fuck is this movie going? Right But it drops off for a long An hour? I would say A 30 or 40 minute time At least And then also in that So this scene functions to do A few things One is that it's sort of Ever so slightly establishes
[00:53:01] That fish are scarce Because the mafia The mob boss bird is like Oh, usually I don't eat penguins But there aren't a lot of fish right now But I just That's the first time they bring it up But it feels like such a throwaway line
[00:53:19] And not a major plot point Which it ends up being The vibe with Happy Feet is that though Where they're like And then later they're like Remember when we said that That's actually been going on this whole time They'll pick the one
[00:53:32] But we don't see that on screen And all the penguins are never Struggling to find No, the mom isn't like I was tough finding Right, you know Like in the beginning of Moana for example They're like all the fish are gone We've been fishing
[00:53:45] And these traps are turning up empty And our coconuts are diseased Like that establishes visually What's going on And you do have to consider those coconuts You must consider the coconuts Consider the leaves It's actually trees I always put this up
[00:53:59] It's better if it's leaves but it's trees Oh, no, you know This is why I fuck it up It's consider the coconut Consider the trees And then the second one is The trunks and its leaves Anyway, I've considered the coconut thoroughly
[00:54:12] But yes, this movie does not really consider The coconut, the coconut being overfishing That much It just kind of peppers in occasional references Right, and then you'll get Like when they go back to the Hugo weaving character Him sort of constantly talking about The great Gwynn
[00:54:29] This god who has a plan for them Is that they should invest all of their belief Into the fact that Everything he's doing is for a reason And if they're being punished It's because they're not showing him enough And he thinks that the happy feet
[00:54:44] The tap dancing is angering The great Gwynn Right, it's an offense Which is also where to me Another thing that comes in Yeah, sure, but like the religiousness Sometime it's just sort of the more Vague footloosey like Hey look, communities can be insular
[00:54:59] And sometimes gets a little more Like you're codified You are spiting God You have to believe me I promise you God hates this And then his dad is like I can't have a son who God hates Like that relationship feels Very like boy erased to me Nicole Kidman
[00:55:18] But then sometimes it's not that at all Sometimes they just use the metaphor In like eight other ways Nicole Kidman Do you think she drew From boy erased Do you think she was drawing from happy feet She was like watching it on her phone Being like right
[00:55:31] It is just funny that there are multiple kids Animated movies that are like Falling in love is simple You just one person and it's just magic And when you find them bang that's it Right because you don't want to talk about sexual attraction You have to be like
[00:55:43] There's a magical force that unifies two people And a baby is born Anyway So okay so that scene also Yes, yeah It also sort of establishes something that I guess Mumble's gonna use later on Which is the idea of appealing to their better nature
[00:56:00] So it sets that up But again that's dropped off on Like that doesn't come back again until The end of the movie And then Yeah and then it's like We've got this sort of like Randy Quaid from Independence Day Except instead he's In the mafia Yeah
[00:56:17] He's like aliens Yes, this is all true And then I feel like after this little sequence Which involves him like falling into a crevice And escaping the squas Right I love just love saying squaw It feels like this chunk of the movie Essentially through to the first hour
[00:56:34] Is doing like an expediated riff On the Lion King Sure Where it's like he's a threat to his kingdom He is ostracized He goes off on his own He gets lost Then he finds his weird group of wacky That's the big, the next big thing is that
[00:56:50] Right he's as a teen There's a leopard seal attack And he's sort of separated And he meets the amigos Uh huh But wait before that Sure Cause I've beat by beat Throw notes Been like what is happening So suddenly Mumble has been in love with Gloria
[00:57:08] His whole life Love Very suddenly His whole life And there's like this whole horny sequence Where all the other males are singing to Gloria Yes, yeah right Cause she's sort of the bell of the ball She's the bell of the ball And Mumble can't sing
[00:57:23] So he's like well I don't have a chance with her And then they like banish him Because he's singing too shitty Yeah, he's singing I mean to be fair his singing is pretty intolerant I don't enjoy it No If it is a singing based community
[00:57:36] I would want him out But they sort of mock him And like bully him Yeah that's what that means to him And then he ends up on this like ledge And then he tap dances And it breaks the ice Sure And he's just sort of stuck floating
[00:57:49] Well then you have the seals right That's when the seals That's when the seals show up Knock him around And that's when he runs into the The Latinx See the penguins Or Spanish I mean the biggest save you can do For what's happened with Robin Williams
[00:58:03] You're like the Catilion Right exactly Let's just say they're European spin Right But I don't I agree I don't think you can really pull that off It is kind of incredible Not to Sully the name of the dead No and also like
[00:58:18] It's from his 80s sort of stand up person Where he's like I can do a million voices When people like talk about like Robin Williams And when anyone does a Robin Williams impression Part of a Robin Williams impression Is randomly going into Quote unquote black voice Mexican voice
[00:58:35] Very much And gay voice Right like it's always like You know it's like he said Oh baby come on to me Yeah wow I don't know about that And then you go back to like Like it's always that rotation I just love doing that
[00:58:48] And I even remember like When I started doing stand up Like 10 years ago And Mumble break I was gonna say You finally landed one Thank you Alright yeah when you were doing stand up a while ago When I was doing stand up a while ago
[00:59:08] I'm only pointing out it was 10 years ago To talk about a cultural shift Sure But in like 2009 Yeah I remember people saying like Oh this guy's great Have you seen him before He does like amazing impressions About you? No no about Robin Williams About me About other comics
[00:59:24] Like on the open mic scene They'd be like this guy does incredible impressions And I'd say like what impressions does he do And they'd go like you know like Asian voice Wait they would just say that Yes I have that specific memory
[00:59:35] And I remember people saying things like that That's a very specific conversation And it was a thing where it used to just be like Oh that's an asset If you can do impressions of The other races Which is a thing that Robin Williams Drove straight into
[00:59:49] Like the fucking stratosphere Like became America's favorite For doing it But it's just right It's interesting to think about how When we were kids We were all you know Similar age Yes We were not guaranteed Robin Williams in every animated film we saw
[01:00:05] But it was definitely a possibility And if he was in it as kids we were like I know that That's the genie Right Like when he's in Fern Gully They're just like You know just do your thing Like come on Yeah Like and then the Robin Williams type
[01:00:18] Is just a type in animated movies But he often would just be In the movie Right And then this movie is No he's doing two characters The characters aren't Robin Williams Each character is kind of one of his go-to Right So they're like In our animated movie
[01:00:34] And he's like yes of course Just did robot Streetworks is robots And they're like sure And can you do Right some of your stand up personas How about you do that And he was like great yes But like silo two of the personas off Yeah
[01:00:48] Have them in scenes together Where it's just He has two different cultural types That you are not And then he's also the narrator Which the narration comes in and out In really sporadic times in the movie The narration is Why Completely unnecessary So unnecessary
[01:01:06] But then it sort of implied That the narrator is Is Lovelace Which is kind of like in Aladdin How the merchant at the beginning Right Is also Robin Williams And is maybe the genie in disguise Boy oh boy So you've got the amigos Who are just
[01:01:23] You know some penguins A little daily penguins Who are his like Become his bros And they like the dancing The other voice actors I believe are exclusively People who should be playing characters I believe they are all Yeah like Carlos Alperazzi Yeah exactly Right Yeah 100%
[01:01:40] But also Robin Williams Yes As Ramon Apparently he also plays Someone called Cleetus I don't remember a Cleetus Three characters? Well if you include the narrator Four Geez It's a weird thing where he's like First end eighth build in this movie He's got like multiple separate
[01:01:57] Billings in the opening credits And then they meet Quickly they meet Lovelace A rock-hopper penguin with A six pack ring around his neck Right Who is his own type of religious leader Exactly Who's basically like more of like An outsider cult leader type right
[01:02:16] Like kind of like a revival tent guy Right And he's all about the pebble You gotta bring a pebble to him For one pebble you get any question Because the thing about What is this fucking thing We're like halfway through There's still plenty more Because with these penguins
[01:02:30] Their breeding is that The penguins with the The males with the biggest The stoniest nest Love a stony nest The females are attracted to The nest with the most They're like great I can put an egg right here Perfect Right I love my stony nest That's like
[01:02:46] It's just building a home right It's like I'm a good provider I've built you a great old Rocky nest here Right And but he's like I'm a messiah And I need my payment Is pebbles for my So he's just like And he has so many ladies
[01:02:59] He's got a little entourage He's got little groupies Yeah Right Because I believe the don blues The pebble and the penguin Also about pebble hunting penguins Okay 90s There's a Disney nature documentary too That came out within the past couple years
[01:03:15] That I think largely features this type of penguin Disney's penguins I believe it was called right Yes, indeed I did see it in the theaters And how was it? It was quite I didn't like Ed Helms as a narrator I'm gonna be honest
[01:03:26] I like him as a comedic persona Generally but Wasn't a fan of his narration really That is where All of those Disney nature documentaries fail Yeah Because Tim Allen did one about chimpanzee Which I was so fucking amped for chimpanzee Same It looks so good from the trailer
[01:03:42] But it's not a movie And it's a bunch of Tim Allen doing the grunt bits He ruined it Show weird Wait, can we backtrack for a second? So Mumble has been banished Or he feels unwelcome So he leaves his community But he still has parents who love him
[01:03:59] Sure I mean, their dad I mean, his dad not very understanding But it's sure they want him to be around They're not banishing him explicitly But they go through the Lion King motion Without there being the same kind of tragedy There's no catalyst
[01:04:13] There's no reason for him to excel himself Well, he just kind of goes on like a sort of rum spring He meets some new people And then when he comes back He's like, let's... Alright, plan A I'll Lip-sync To Ramon syncing my way
[01:04:29] But this is what's so crazy I remember watching this in the theater for the first time And even watching it last night But real Spanish, you know Right Watching it last night for the first time Since I saw it in the theaters I was like, right
[01:04:39] So this is... I remember the end is super weird But I guess this is the next hour of the film Is them slowly making their way back Facing multiple dangers He bonds with his seven Mexican tamones and pumbas And then he comes back
[01:04:53] And he teaches them all a lesson about acceptance And he saves the day, right? He teaches them a lesson by first trying to hide his You know, his difference All of what I thought would take up the rest of the movie Takes up 15 minutes Oh no, there's still...
[01:05:06] Right, and then there's just another like Half and a half, right? Before the hour mark Yeah, yeah, yeah He does his fake serenovroutine That doesn't work With Ramon singing for him And then they're like, you fucking freak Now we're casting you out But then he tap dances
[01:05:20] To Boogie Wonderland Yeah And she loves him now She loves her She's so resistant The elders are still like Uh-uh, this is not acceptable Yeah But we also... Okay, we skipped another part where Did we? Yes So as he's still hanging out with his little Shorter friends
[01:05:39] Right, right He sees this large piece of Quote alien, human machinery And he's like, wait a minute There's a big bulldozer He kind of says, right? Yeah And he's like, is this what's eating our fish Or something Which sort of like Kind of
[01:05:56] Right, so that's like the inciting This happens like over 40 minutes into the movie That feels like an inciting incident Of one of the three different storylines That is unfolding in this movie And then he goes back to it And he's like, but there's aliens out there They're real
[01:06:12] And I'm gonna go out there And figure out what's up with them Which confirmed for me that there Wasn't gonna be real aliens So you were still hoping like These squas just got nabbed by little green man Yeah I had a whole different movie in my mind
[01:06:27] So just like a cartoon fake bird In a fake movie talking about aliens And then they're just immediately like Guys, I think aliens are real And Greg is gonna show up any minute now No, it is funny to think that Right, it's like He's an outcast
[01:06:40] He leaves, he comes back And then he leaves again That is a very strange story structure And the first time it's sort of like He leaves on a whim And he comes back with like half a plan Of like, I'll do the one song
[01:06:51] And then take it from there Definitely go And Gloria's like, I should come with you And he's like, no He makes it I'm gonna like humiliate you To keep you away from me Because like God forbid There'd be a female character
[01:07:00] There'd be sort of, you know, narrative significance Well, because Robin Williams has his way In at least a few times in every piece of dialogue Yeah He's got Caitlin, there's no room for the woman In the film to speak more Robin Williams has five different characters
[01:07:12] That all need to speak in this one, Snape But this is when his dad disowns him Because Hugo we've been At least he's one that like Okay, you're not good Now they're like actually now please leave Right And then now for the first time in an hour
[01:07:25] Into the movie he's like I have things to prove Right At that point you're like What's, is it solving the fish problem? No at this point Is it proving that aliens are real This is when love laces Make tap dance happen Like I got these, this weird
[01:07:38] The soda can The soda can thing Well this is when they go back to what This is what I'm saying He's like, well I actually got it From like way out there beyond the seal Because he's been saying Like this is a necklace That was bestowed upon me
[01:07:48] Because I rule It was like a talisman Like a religious artifact Right And so mumble rather than being Like alright fun fact don't care Like I guess my answers will also be available If I go on that same journey Even though there's nothing about Love Laces you know
[01:08:06] Behavior that suggests that mumble should be like This is the guy I want to like You know mimic Yeah I'm just trying to unpack all this I'm sorry it doesn't really I know for a kid they're just like Yeah sure he goes somewhere else it's fine
[01:08:20] But he's like This alien what he interprets to be Like an alien artifact that is stuck around his neck Is now suddenly choking him Before it was fine I don't know what changed Nothing's really changed me but Yeah he ate too many pebbles
[01:08:36] They all went to his neck Yeah fair enough But I do think in terms of like the The story beats this movie is hitting So many of them are so classical right And like finding Love Lace choking Is sort of like the Wizard of Oz
[01:08:49] Like man behind the curtain moment Where it's like Oh this guy is just kind of like A weak scared little man And then rather than that being the reveal of like Well maybe all these ideologies are false They're like You're part of the skeleton crew now Right
[01:09:03] Come with us help us find the answers we need Like it doesn't sort of Remove Love Lace of any power They're still kind of using him as a compass Because they need Williams on board I guess Just to do jokes But there's already another character
[01:09:19] The thing made 200 billion So huge Who am I to judge It is bizarre And eventually they go to the forbidden shore And that's where they find the fishing boat Right yeah Right It's all these orcas Yeah which I don't like It's too cute
[01:09:37] We were talking about it you know It seems like The orcas are almost helping him Because there's all these sort of like Synchronized they're sort of batting them back and forth Yeah they're doing like a sea world kind of show Right It's weird
[01:09:50] It just gets weird in talking animal movies When some animals can't talk Yeah It's true What's the logic there And like the fish thing Why can't Sharp Tooth talk and land before time Right Because he's bad Yeah He can talk The others talk
[01:10:04] But we'll get to it eventually But at the end of the movie When they're just all fucking chowing down on fish When they're throwing fish in the air And eating the shit out of them I'm like so did they just not have Any interiority these fish
[01:10:15] This is a great question Right There's some animals obviously right That scientists are like These animals kind of Seem to have some sort of level of thought going on And others are you know all instinct I don't know The only other thing I know about Happy Feet 2
[01:10:29] Is that Matt Damon and Brad Pitt play Krill Yes So it feels like he's saying No even the little things are alive And they have their own little weird quirks In finding Nemo all species speak Right there's no non-verbal Even the Krill too Yeah Right they all talk
[01:10:47] And like the whale doesn't speak in English But Dory communicates with the whale Right Shouldn't the plants talk Great Wow This is a great kerfball throw The movie should throw it in lake Because this movie's under stuff That's why he's our finest film critic
[01:11:03] And we're submitting that question for the Pulitzer This year But I will say Yeah so this is where the movie Takes full on swing into nightmare When he's put in the zoo Yes Right And he decides I'm going to swim towards the boat
[01:11:19] Because I need to come back with an answer I need to figure out what's going on here I need to solve this Suddenly there is so much narrative urgency too We need to solve the fish problem Right And you're like He was banished Fish problem?
[01:11:33] Yes but the banished fish The fish problem also like Let's figure out what the aliens are Right And his punishment essentially is You know Zoo imprisonment Which I think a lot of movies Have a narrative thing where it's like Oh the main characters are misinterpreting
[01:11:49] A thing as a different thing I mean it's almost like the aliens An interstellar But as we said They show you human technology so early on That you're like I'm way ahead of them I know these are fucking humans Right We're not going to see some almond eye
[01:12:03] Aliens are on here No I know Well Ben clearly did You didn't think you were going to see Live action human beings That's the thing that is And I also just didn't think he was going to go to this Like
[01:12:14] He's too far away in a weird sort of way You know what I mean Because he swims towards the boat Right He gets caught in the net Then they use some horrifying looking hook To peel him off And then he keeps swimming after the boat For
[01:12:30] Where do they end up? Australia? Like where does he like Cut to blasts And then there's narration that's like He swam father beyond Anyone could have That anyone could imagine And then suddenly he's either Like in LA Or like on the coast of us Like some Australian city
[01:12:50] All possibilities All solid ideas With the dialects in this movie Who knows where they are But just that scene where he's all like Dazed and drugged And like out of his mind Well it feels like the Truman Shull Like him like touching the walls
[01:13:04] And like recognizing the painting And the glass And then one of the penguins is like Just hypnotized The thing about all of this is Oh what's the thing when it keeps on saying Dave, Dave, the fish are great, Dave, Dave, Dave
[01:13:14] Yeah, this is a great idea for a movie Yeah I just don't know if it's a great idea For like five minutes at the end But kids moving and it's about dancing You're just like I can't believe this is going And the first moment when
[01:13:24] And especially considering this is like Two years before Wally The first moment when An hour and a half into this movie He swims towards the glass And you see the reflection of a human face Right And you're like am I imagining things? Not CG
[01:13:37] Right you're like is this like Really realistic CG And then they cut back to the ultra angle And you're like no they're just real people In this movie Yeah Like it's like what if Billy Elliot 90 minutes in got like captured And imprisoned By CGI penguins For 10 minutes
[01:13:53] And then he danced for them And they were like oh You're one of those Get him out of here Get some scientists But then there's like There's a good amount of time That's just him losing his sanity It's only a few minutes
[01:14:05] But for this movie it just feels Like it is twice as long as the amount Of time they spend showing the U.N. making planet changing decisions That montage is all the 45 seconds And it's gavel gavel speech News broadcast What if there had been a penguin U.N.
[01:14:22] In this movie that would have been fun You could have had all the species You can't spell penguin without U.N. Good point Wow Happy feet three I mean But that's what's so crazy Is you go into like sort of two montages That are narrated
[01:14:35] One of him losing his mind Loosening his friends there Hitting the wall Throwing fish against the wall To feed them Seemingly becoming borderline suicidal Or the very least like brain dead Like he says like he lost his mind Yeah
[01:14:50] Right and then he just has this one little tap Comes out Because the girl's tapping on the glass Which is making the beat Which you're not supposed to do But in this movie It's actually good You save his life They always say don't tap on the glass
[01:15:03] And this girl's practicing Because they don't want the penguins to start tapping They don't want to acknowledge Their intellectual dancing capability Right So he does the dancing and they're like Of course we should have realized That this penguin belongs in the Antarctic Because he dances
[01:15:18] All of this happens within less than ten minutes From the moment he swims towards the boat To then him getting noticed The girl leaving bringing back her mom A bigger crowd than it's filmed It goes viral The entire world comments on it They place a locator
[01:15:35] A tracking device on him Bring him back home so they can figure out If it's his species or not Right Because they're like If penguin are dancing They must be trying to tell us something Okay here's the other crazy part about this So they bring him back
[01:15:54] He shows up to his community He just arrives He's like alright The aliens they're real They are taking our fish And they're like what's that weird thing on your back He's like I don't know But I think it's to help them find me And then
[01:16:09] They're like proof alien technology Right And meanwhile Noah's like I don't know what's happening But then the thing starts beeping And then some human Some live action humans show up But they had just dropped him off Wouldn't they already be right there?
[01:16:26] They're at the top of the cliff It's a very sort of fungible object in Happy Feet I don't really know But their arrival is enough for people to be like Turns out aliens are real let's do a damn thing
[01:16:36] Because he gets into this logical argument with Hugo Weaving Where he's like You know like we shouldn't work with the aliens I thought you said aliens weren't real He's like they're not And that's why we shouldn't work with them Right And then everyone starts to recognize
[01:16:48] He's a lion and they're like Well if this guy's lying Maybe we should fucking tap dance And I guess the concept is it's all It's been within them all along They're all good dancers Well cut back to like a half hour or so earlier When he comes back
[01:17:05] He tries to sing the song that Ramon's actually like singing Yes this is my way And then he's the worst of confidence in the tap And then the whole community gets on board They're like actually this tap thing is cool They all start dancing
[01:17:18] And then it's not until like Noah The evil like you know the religious zealot alien Or penguin is like He makes them feel shame Right And then his dad is like You're dumb And then that's when he leaves again But there's a moment where like
[01:17:35] The community is on board That's the other thing that has to happen Within this ten minute strike Is he comes back And before he sells everyone on tap dancing He's like where's my dad They're like you don't want to see what's happened to your dad Oh yeah
[01:17:47] And you're like is the dad like half dead Has he been like attacked And so he's just I was like is he drinking now Like what's going on It's no he's just sad in the cave He's just sitting in the cave And he goes son You know bummer
[01:17:58] I ain't ever done right by you one day your entire life And then he's just like Jackman selling it I love you I'm glad you're back Let's fucking tap dance Yeah Jackman like putting some spit on the ball You know he wants some real English on that
[01:18:09] That final line reading Another thing But it's just like immediately But there's also His dad has done all of the emotional work Of coming terms To terms with his son In the time The son was gone The son arrives and he's like I'm glad you're here
[01:18:23] And not a moment too soon I fully accept you You don't have to say anything The other moment you have to have Is where fat Joe shows up And it's sort of like When you return to your hometown Kind of like Like oh my my childhood crush
[01:18:38] Or those all you were And it's like are they together And it's like no Just kidding We're teachers now Our students I thought that was all her kids They're her students I mean you know They are her children Exactly she's an educator So you thought that they were
[01:18:53] Had a bunch of babies together Yeah And then also started a school To teach only their biological children What then stuck out to me later Is when they kiss I'm like oh my gosh She's cheating On fat Joe no less Yeah The fattest of the girls
[01:19:12] But then right This is where like And he's actually Cause jealous ones do still envy Sure That was his album But when he's in So it's good to have in place Someone that you might be envious of What a great title Jealous ones still envy
[01:19:25] When he's in the zoo What was I saying And he's trying to yell That player I just crushed a lot At the zoo goers Right Well by the way are all Like half of them are stylized To look like they're from Like the 50s or 60s Yes
[01:19:40] And then everyone else is like Modern They're weird like Babe pig in the city humans Where they're like very heightened Yeah Like they're very made up The performances are very big Someone like gets on his cell phone And he's like Have you heard about this These dancing penguins
[01:19:55] Right It reminds me of the hula hoop montage From hudsucker proxy There's hula hoops how to control These penguins to tap dancing Extrey The flashes almost are like The kind of like Where they would take the light bulb out And throw it Like it's got that vibe
[01:20:11] And like crazy Dutch angles Like fading into each other I just feel I think we shouldn't Feed the penguins That's what I think we should Like it is just like So there was this one dancing penguin from a zoo Okay
[01:20:24] The scientist decided to return him to his habitat Well but this is the I want to make this point And the penguins danced for the people Sure And it was filmed Uh huh And this prompted the UN to be like Fishing as a concept
[01:20:36] We just got a ban on it Ban it No fishing allowed whatsoever Just the leaps where you're like I can take this Right from A to B From A to Z How are you feeling in these gaps It's a mess It's a tangled bureaucratic nightmare
[01:20:51] They solve that fully Before they even put him on the helicopter To go back and make good with his dad He's like by the way No big deal I've changed the entire fabric of the world To solve a problem To solve an issue that the penguins are having
[01:21:08] Which is like This fish scarcity that we barely even knew Was a conflict in the film Right and the ecological threat of it But also there's the one moment in one of the meetings Where the woman says like Well I think we should just do nothing
[01:21:22] Like she just cleanly states Like why should we change anything we're doing It'll cost money Um No the point I want to make though is When he's in the zoo box Yeah And he's like yelling at them Like fish, fish, fish
[01:21:35] And then it cuts to the other side of the glass And it's like Rrgh Just the worst sound in the world And you go Oh I guess that's what this movie Has all been building up to narratively Is his superpower is because he figured out
[01:21:48] How to tap dance and not sing He's the only penguin who can communicate To the humans Right If he had been normal Right He never would have made an impression He just sort of squawked But you also then have to take the leap
[01:22:02] That they are so blown away by his tap dancing That they then go There has to be some message being conveyed here Right And research everything going on In the penguin ecology Now here's Dance is a non-verbal way of communication Sure It's true It's a universal language
[01:22:20] Here's some other facts about this film The end of the movie is they solve everything Everything's perfect But no one's bad But happy feet 2 is coming though Yeah Some things are going to get fucked up for that And you zoom out to the world in a feather fly
[01:22:30] Yeah you zoom out way out Way out The world's a marble And then we see a feather Don't know what that's supposed to mean It's directed by George Aliens Aliens You're gonna pop it in that Men in Black bag Here's some other things Yeah
[01:22:43] They showed this movie to Prince To gain his approval Yes I read this For using the song Kiss A great song And he loved the movie so much that he wrote them a song The song of the heart I believe it's called
[01:22:54] Right Prince who notoriously did not say yes to many things Right Openly volunteered me on Originally he was like happy feet No I'm not letting you do my song And then he saw the movie He loved it though so much He wrote it within one week
[01:23:05] Of watching the movie He's like here's an extra song for you And one of Golden Globe Prince Batman has a movie Snubbed at the Oscars He spoke to me so fully Yes weird that it was snubbed at the Oscars
[01:23:14] You know the Oscars are weird about the pop song sometimes Do you remember that his globe win He was stuck in traffic It was one of the early awards Given out And they accepted it And then he showed up like 40 minutes later And they let him give
[01:23:26] And accept and speak 40 minutes later It was great So you got that What are some other facts about this movie Savvian Glover He was taught to Walk like a penguin And a penguin apparatus on his head Yeah taught by who A penguin He probably like a My mumble
[01:23:44] Yeah mumble Love Lace is an EVP At Warner Brothers Savvian Glover you must walk like me Even doing an impression of it Makes me feel uncomfortable David maybe you can fact check this But IMDB said that This is the highest grossing movie
[01:24:00] That Nicole Kidman has ever been in I think that's 100% correct Well now that Aquaman is swept in That's not no longer true But it might be her second highest grossing movie I think up until that point She wasn't Batman Forever That's another big hit for her
[01:24:13] Gross less than I believe obviously came out You know 10 years prior Right Let's see Nicole Kidman's top five movies Number one Aquaman With a bullet Number two happy feet Number two happy feet Number three Batman forever Number four the upside Wow What Last year Kevin Hart
[01:24:36] Brian Cranston remake of inspirational French drama Lane Toutra Brian Cranston's in a wheelchair Kevin Hart's to take care of him That was a high grossing movie $100 million domestic Wow Number 115 in January Number Dumped three years after Number five Just go with it The Adam Sandler movie Wow
[01:24:54] Number six the others Those are her six hundred million grossers In the US That's crazy But if you sort by worldwide Guess what jumps into the five Two movies jump into the Mulan Rouge No not Mulan Rouge Okay something that's a disproportionately well overseas Two movies jump though
[01:25:13] One directed by a friend of the pod One directed by a friend of the pod Is it a movie we've covered on the show? No He's been on the show Multiple times Directed, oh Golden Compass Correct Which was a bigger hit internationally Right
[01:25:28] And the other is a great film A great film that we both love I'm not sure Caitlin likes to Maybe not I don't want to speak for Caitlin Oh Dogville Made $500 million In China Yeah I don't know It's a great film that you and I love
[01:25:43] And maybe me Let me think about it I hope you like it Is she a main character? She's a villain Paddington Paddington Which made 76 domestic But 258 worldwide I mean you said you don't want to make an assumption I did spy Did you answer your question?
[01:26:00] To answer your question Yeah, it is David There he is He's such a I am obsessed with Paddington Here's the thing I feel like people don't talk about He's a very nice bear But he'll give you a hard stare He will
[01:26:13] He'll give you a hard stare if he has to And if you're good in play at everything The world won't be right You got Moulin Rouge, Cold Mountain Kind of a big hit overseas The interpreter did okay overseas She's made a lot of movies
[01:26:25] She's made a lot of movies She has And only one of them outgrows happy feet I just think it's important to point out This movie is so colossal That after this, not only are they like 100% you get to make your Mad Max Unlimited budget
[01:26:40] Take your time, whatever it is Recast at younger actor You're good to go But they also go, hey George Miller Do justice league And this is right before the writer strike Is about to happen When studios are trying to stockpile scripts As fast as they can
[01:26:56] Bamiam begins his come out The Dark Knight has not And Warner Brothers is like We're gonna set up a second Batman franchise We're gonna do a different parallel Batman on screen At the same time They hire George Miller He works on this movie for like a year
[01:27:14] Justice League, Colin Morton They cast it, they're an active pre-production The plug gets pulled at the absolute last second Because of the writer strike among other things Right Well I mean they were trying to get it done Before the writer strike
[01:27:28] And I think they thought the script was like 10% less good than it needed to be But also apparently Christian Bale And Christopher Nolan complained And we're like you're just gonna put some other Fuckin' Batman and it's some It was a dumb idea Some random 20 year old name
[01:27:43] Let me look at this Arm and Hammer Oh Armie Hammer was cast? Armie Hammer at the age of like 20 or 21 Was cast as Batman You can read the script if you want I believe it's been It was written by people Adam Brody was the Flash
[01:27:58] Common was Green Lantern Hugh Key Barnes, aka Morton Joe Was Martian Manhunter And Megan Gale Who plays Valkyrie and Fury Road Was gonna be Wonder Woman Like he rolls over a lot of the things But then a bunch of other Like Tessa Palmer
[01:28:16] And Zoe Kazan were supposed to be in it I think J. Baruchel Was supposed to be an actual lore Another thing that happened is that It was supposed to start filming in July 2008 Guess what came out in July 2008 The Dark Knight
[01:28:29] And I think after that it was like You know what? This is fun And they didn't They were like please don't do this But now but then it was like They really had the clout After the Dark Knight comes out Anyway, instead Warner Brothers
[01:28:40] Pivoted to a surefire hit A Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern film I'm not kidding, that's what they pivoted That was the movie they did Anyway, let's play the box office game So this movie, I remember this very specifically This movie was number one For three weeks in a row
[01:28:56] With the same movie at number two For all three weeks And every week people went That movie's gonna beat Happy Feet And it kept on suplexing Casino Royale Correct, Casino Royale was the number two movie They were released at the same time
[01:29:10] They basically grossed the same amount of money Like Happy Feet was just always a little higher And Casino Royale is one of those Highest grossing, never number one movies And Casino Royale was so beloved The word of mouth was so good that they were like
[01:29:23] This weekend it's gonna jump up And it's gonna take over Happy Feet And Marvel was like, hold my fucking beer So those are the top two films Happy Feet debuted to $41 million on November 17th It was a sort of Thanksgiving movie And Casino Royale debuted to $40 million
[01:29:39] And Happy Feet ends up at two And change? No, just under two, I think, 198 And Casino Royale was like 190 Let's find out, Griffin And it was like 167 Actually, pretty much But number three At the box office was The big breakout comedy of the year The big breakout comedy
[01:30:01] I haven't checked in with this movie recently I'm sure if I watched it now there would be No issues In the harsh lighted day with this one Sounds like there would be some issues This movie kind of ruined culture For like a 10-year window
[01:30:15] Yeah, this movie you could point the finger at it Bora? Yeah, I think... It is just so wild to think that I grew up in Britain Wait a second, what? Alright And like I had grown up with Ali G With Sasha Baron Cohen's Ali G
[01:30:37] You had been making learning for Glorious Benefit of Nation of Kazakhstan forever Right, Bora had been this sort of side character That he was... and he had done an Ali G movie That had like hit in Britain but obviously Not overseas, Ali G was a very cult figure
[01:30:49] Had his HBO show That movie was a scripted Ali G It's a scripted one of Ali G Was the Prime Minister type And it was Ralph if you will Sort of situation Was not a respected film People were like this is garbage People were golf clapping
[01:31:07] Ali G into house And he was like I'll do a spin off I'm gonna do a Borat Sure, okay The HBO show runs for two seasons And it's very beloved but it was never like a massive cultural hit But when Borat came out
[01:31:23] All of the world was like We'd been waiting for this It was so weird, I remember thinking like that's so weird We wanted a mockumentary of a fictional Kazakh The whole world said Very nice Or my wife Or my wife Where is my wife right now
[01:31:41] Three ironic loops, is it funny right now I think it's back to being the funniest thing in the world But remember when it was from Borat And then you're like got sick of it And then just saying it became funny again
[01:31:51] Then it was from the guy down the hall of my dorm And then like that got overdone But are we now just back to like my wife Like we're like I think so, I think it's number one funny Do you have any Borat takes Oscar nominated screenplay
[01:32:07] Is that true? It's a intensely written film Oh for sure No but on the Bechtel cast we have A gimmick where we do Instead of my wife But this is based on a gravestone From the movie The Rock Michael Bayes The Rock where he says his wife
[01:32:25] So we always do his wife His wife Is that real? Can I throw out two things I find fascinating About Borat before we move on from Borat One, Todd Phillips The only man brave enough to tame Retired bit himself Was hired to direct the Borat movie
[01:32:43] Filmed the Borat movie For multiple weeks and was like This is too dangerous I can't do this Quit the film Larry Charles takes over He gets a producer credit He gets an Oscar nomination The man Who was so twisted He put us in the mind
[01:33:03] Of someone who laughs at the things That make us cry Couldn't handle fucking Borat Weird, what if Borat came back right now? Perfect time Number two thing I think Borat is another really fascinating box office thing where The hype
[01:33:19] Because it was low budget studio film based off a cult TV Show then the hype went through The fucking roof and people were losing their minds Then Fox got really scared That the expectations were getting too high Because it was the same year as snakes on a plane
[01:33:31] Where the internet was blowing up about something And then no one went to see it So the weekend before it came out They were like never mind We're not releasing it wide They're releasing like 800 theaters And it still made 26 million dollars
[01:33:45] That's what's insane, they were like let's limit the theater count So we won't look like we're underperforming If we don't And instead every single screen sold out It was like one of the biggest per screen averages ever The next weekend they put it on 2,000 screens
[01:33:57] And it was number one again Crazy, number three of the box office Is the kind of movie About what if you signed A sort of mystical contract To take on a role in society Mr. McGuigan is wondering for him? You gotta give me points for that Yes, sure
[01:34:15] But you sort of spiritually signed this contract Through the act of murder Is it the Santa Claus 3? Colon It's called the escape clause And who's the villain? That's right I don't know anything else about that movie But I know it's about a clause In his Santa Claus contract
[01:34:37] Which he of course unwittingly Agreed to through murdering Santa Claus Is it a good movie? He's burned out Time travel, I know that It's kind of like a Knitzen Wonderful Life So I may be But it does follow the trend of the third movie
[01:34:53] Of a sequel having time travel elements Because we do that with Ninja Turtles We do that with others That I can't remember Harry Potter And yet others But I'm sure your listeners all sweeten me It also has the Santa has to fight Bad Santa thing
[01:35:11] Cause it's like Jack Frost hates that he never Rows to an elected position He never got the chance to murder Santa himself So he exploits the fact that Tim Allen's like I'm burned out, I could use a vacation Shows him the escape clause loophole
[01:35:23] And then because he knows they want to come To Santa, he builds an evil bad robot Santa Where they're like this looks like Tim Allen But he's an asshole He keeps on complaining about the fact that he can't use the N word What's up with this guy?
[01:35:35] And then I think the two Santas Have to fight Can you give me The sort of three taglines From the Santa Claus three The escape clause poster Number one is just Billy Not even nice No it's Santa Claus versus Jack Frost Formal Number two
[01:35:57] I'm sure you can't but it's pretty good It's not, it's naughty versus nice I could have sworn more Twas the fight before Christmas I mean It looked like a boxing match poster Right, you've got both of them sort of Have a fist up
[01:36:13] Both of them are sort of like Contemplating But they're also treating it like it's like Pacino de Niro heat Weirdly made up Martin Short and Tim Allen Punch each other And then weirdly they were like let's tag one more tag Right on the bottom Frost bites November 3rd
[01:36:31] You really needed that And then there's a teaser poster His time at the North Pole is about to go south Oh Wow, clever It's just so funny that this and that Are in theaters in fucking November They can't wait till Christmas
[01:36:47] They're like we gotta get the Christmas movie out in November The first week of November Because their whole thing is if you release it Right before Christmas It can bounce back for Christmas December 26th, no one will go see it The day after Christmas
[01:37:01] No one wants to see a Christmas movie So you have to get your business leading up to it It peaks on Christmas day and then you're out Alright, number five of the box-up Is not a movie that I like at all
[01:37:11] But it is genuinely the kind of movie That a studio would just never make anymore Mr. McGuire is on airport It's a comedy, like kind of a meta comedy Stranger than fiction Stranger than fiction What's his name? Zach Helm, the writer and director of
[01:37:27] Mr. McGuire was wondering for you Stranger than fiction Will Ferrell, he's hearing a narrator Narrate his life It's just like I don't like That movie that very much I only saw it once, I don't hate it But I remember being kind of excited for it
[01:37:43] And then kind of not quite loving the execution Buying frenzy and every big actor Joining the cast of that movie and they were like This thing's a surefire Thompson, who else is in that one? The queen graced us with her presence, Ms. Latifa herself Of course
[01:37:57] And like, it's just, you know, Sony made that Yeah And then they were like, I don't know, I'm surprised this underperformed This movie about a man who's in a book It made 40 million dollars That's not bad Maggie Joan Hall, right, complaining about taxes I remember that scene
[01:38:13] The other movies flushed away Horrible movie Saw 3, not good but excited for Spiral But had time travel in it because it's the third of a thing Also Men in Black 3 Yes You're right about Saw 3 because that's where they have to be like
[01:38:27] Why the fuck did we kill the guy basically In movie 2 Why did we give him cancer? This is terrible So let's have flashback I guess I was making a joke but Yeah, I'm sure that does happen Saw 3 is the one with all the flashbacks, right In Saw 3
[01:38:43] I think that's probably the reason it happens Is by the third movie they go like, oh fuck We put ourselves in a bad position It would be easier to make a third movie if we could go back And change this thing that happened in the first or second
[01:38:53] Movie and they're like, let's make the movie about them Going back and making this film easier to write Are you excited for Spiral From the Saw book or Saw? I'm very ready to open the book You see the trailer for the Chris Rock Saw movie? No, get ready
[01:39:07] Chris Rock, Samuel L. Jackson, Max Minghella Taking on Saw Very bizarre, I've talked about this before But the press release when they announced that Chris Rock Was going to executive produce and Start a new Saw film There's this quote from the head of Lionsgate that is
[01:39:21] When Chris Rock came in and pitched us His terrifying new vision For the future of the Saw franchise We were chilled to our core It's something like that But I just picture the Lionsgate executive Lying awake in bed at 3 o'clock in the morning
[01:39:35] I can't get it out of my head His wife just going, honey what's wrong? Because Chris Rock came in this morning And God I don't even have to say this He pitched us his terrifying new vision For the future of the Saw franchise
[01:39:49] Some other films you've got Babel The table Yeah, you know, are you two movies that are aged? How's that? Is that the Brad Pitt's in it? Yes, he is, he's in it Cape Lancet's in it Reconcuching The fact A tragedy We can't talk to each other
[01:40:11] If only we could learn how to tap dance We could cross language barriers You've got the Departed Best Picture Winner Let's Go to Prison Bad Movie Directed by Bob Odenkirk A film that is mostly about Trying to not Get sexually assaulted in prison But it's a comedy
[01:40:33] Anyway, Happy Feet We did it! And after that there were no more Happy Feet movies Right? That was it Just the flip of it being like We hand you Justice League That goes down They're like, please put all your energy into Happy Feet 2 And he clearly says
[01:40:51] I'll do Happy Feet 2 if you finally let me make the Mad Max movie And that Happy Feet 2 is like The thing that gives him the chance The leverage To make Fury Road The way he wants It's insane It is funny to think that they were like
[01:41:07] Fine, you can do Mad Max That's the hit Happy Feet 2 Give us some money in the bank A five year wait for a sequel A happy feat which does not demand a sequel Animation takes so long Especially if you don't have a studio up and running
[01:41:23] This movie does not pass the Bechtel test Right? I doubt it She teaches But they don't talk to each other If anyone would interact I guess it would be Gloria and Norma Jean I think the teacher and Gloria have a brief conversation Oh that is true
[01:41:41] Probably about her son To contextualize that And then they talk When she's like, I know what a heart song is Like when she's a baby To contextualize that It's all about I need a heart song So that I can find a male Lover
[01:41:59] So it doesn't pass the Bechtel test Do you guys want to see a picture Of Robin Williams with a life size Lovelace This is one of my favorite Subgenres A premiere photo Whoa That's so much bigger than I thought
[01:42:17] Plastic Wikipedia, we have the rights to this image only So like his eyes are half closed I also love Here's what I love about these types of photos Huh, Lovelace There is no Warner Brothers theme park It's not like they built that costume
[01:42:31] So that they can ship it over to Orlando It's bigger than life size, you're right It's also weird that he has a sweater People don't need sweaters I think Happy Feet 2 has a bunch of sweater shit There's a sweater thing
[01:42:43] Because all I know is the logo for Happy Feet 2 Is wearing a sweater I got that from the trailer as well But you know what I'm saying They built this giant walk around Lovelace costume It's not gonna be put at Universal Studios
[01:42:55] It exists only so that Robin Williams can stand next to it At a red carpet And then just goes into storage It's also just so funny This is George Miller's Full look every time How do you describe it? He looks like he's about to invent flubber
[01:43:11] You know what I mean? He's got the round glasses He's got a suit with no tie And he's got the long hair That sort of swept back He's got a very loud colorful shirt The glasses on the It's something about the big round glasses
[01:43:27] But also that they're always on the Necklace thing He's always got the strings hanging off I don't mind his look You know what I mean? I think it rules And it's also like I was watching all the behind the scenes Mad Max documentaries
[01:43:45] And the first 10 years of his career He looks normal and pretty cool Mad Max said he's just like some dude wearing a leather jacket And then he starts looking like He looks like an out of work conductor Who's really let himself go What a weird guy
[01:44:01] He's a weird fella I love him Happy feet doesn't really do it for me But that's okay You seem like you're pretty mixed at all The old feetsies I'm heavily anti-happy feet Heavily anti-happy From a screenwriting standpoint Alone it is An abomination I was watching it going
[01:44:25] Like what the fuck is this? And then the last 15 minutes Kind of won me over Just in the audacity Of just how big they go so fast Can I ask Do you think that they wrote the dances Like in the screenplay Like how do you write dance
[01:44:41] This has come up on the show before Can you write a dance It's probably depends Probably not to that extent Shimmy to the left, shimmy to the right Probably not, you'd leave that up to The choreographer to figure it out
[01:44:57] But you'd be like yeah and now the character does This type of dance You put it down as like a character name Like mumble's left foot And then the dialogue is tap tap Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap
[01:45:09] And then the next line is mumble's right foot Someone in our sub right foot The reddit is figured out that we're doing Miller Because of my habit of vlogging Everything we watch I think it's good because it tips off the die hard fans
[01:45:21] To what they want to watch and rent and stuff And I think our fans can go suck a lemon Fair enough This is the fourth film we've covered That Prince wrote an original song for Along with Batman, I'll Do Anything And Showgirls There's a Prince song in Showgirls?
[01:45:37] That's the one I didn't know about Wow, the Mount Rushmore of films Are there any... Outside of Prince's own films Rippo Godzippa Outside of Prince's movies Are there any other movies that Prince wrote songs for? I don't fucking know, I have to look this up right now
[01:45:57] Well hopefully at this point Prince has won our March Madness Bracket And we'll be doing a miniseries on the films of Prince He's on the ballot Caitlin thank you so much for being here Thank you for having me You're so confident People should listen to BecDell Cast
[01:46:13] Although I can't imagine they aren't already But they should, if they're not Appreciate it One of the best And you have another podcast sludge About how our fucking health care system Is a nightmare Yes, yes I do, check that out And it's a fiction podcast
[01:46:31] That's like sort of a hypothetical science fiction It's actually where Largely me dancing on the podcast What if there's a podcast where we just don't know how to talk so we have to only dance into the microphone?
[01:46:43] That's like our version of happy feet is every penguin mates with another penguin by broadcasting their own podcast. You find the podcast that matches yours and then one brave penguin doesn't know how to podcast,
[01:46:56] so he just holds a mic up to his feet and does some soft shoe. What a weird movie. Yeah, $200 million. Insane. Insane. Insane. A very bizarre film, I can't believe it exists. Next week, happy feet too. We're right back at it. Get excited.
[01:47:12] So tune in for that. Caitlin, thanks again for being here. Thank you. Social media. Oh sure, at Caitlin Durante on Twitter and Instagram. You can go to my website, CaitlinDurante.com. Hell's yeah. Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate, review, subscribe.
[01:47:29] Thanks to Andrew Grudeau for our social media, Joe Bowen and Pat Reynolds for our artwork. And coming for our theme song, go to blankies.ret.com for some real nerdy shit. Tune in next week for happy feet too.
[01:47:41] And as always, fuck I was trying to land the puffin joke. Oh god, I give up. They're not good landers. They're not. Puffins can't land. You know what I'm going to do after this? I'm going to do some puffin. Oh there's the joke. I tried, I don't know.
[01:47:59] I tried to save you and you're just going to abandon me? No, I don't vape. No I don't vape. It's my weed. It's a wanky tobacco. Sounds like another mumble brag to me.