Tappy Toes is an obvious knockoff of Happy Feet ...up to a point.
Other than the fact that it's about a penguin learning to dance, the plot is somewhat different from Happy Feet, as it mostly deals with evil sea lions (which came from a minor plot point in Happy Feet) under the command of a villainous hermit crab.
The animation is done by Renegade Animation; you might be familiar with their work on The Mr. Men Show, Christmas is Here Again, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi and Chop Kick Panda.
Tappy Tropes:
- Author Appeal: Like with most of Renegade Animations' productions, the style and animation is reminiscent of Jay Ward.
- Detail-Hogging Cover: Like with Back to the Sea, the cover depicts the characters very detailed, contrast to the actual scenes are very basic.
- The Eeyore: Pingo's dad, Ozzie. Even to the point that he didn't cheer up his wife after Pingo was kidnapped.
- Lampshading: Does this several times.
- Evil Egg Eater: Subverted with the skuas. They appear to be antagonists at first and the narration even describes them as "nasty little scavengers". They steal Ozzy and Gertie's egg with the intention to eat it, but when it hatches before they can do so, they end up lovingly raising the chick, who they call Pingo.
- The Mockbuster: Of Happy Feet. However, except for the most basic details, the plot is not very similar.
- More than Meets the Eye: Downplayed. As stated before, the plot is different compared to Happy Feet. It does recycle a lot (but not all) of the tropes and characters used in Happy Feet, however. For example, there was an antagonistic seal in Happy Feet, but it wasn't the Big Bad.
- Penguins Are Ducks: The penguins have long bills, feet resembling that of a duck's, and can even fly.
