History WesternAnimation / HappyFeet

* CarnivoreConfusion: The penguins, skuas, and humans in the film all eat fish. It's okay for the penguins to do so, but the skuas are shown as thieving bullies, and the humans are explicitly told that they shouldn't ''over''fish - the penguins' declining catch is a major plot point). The skuas also try to eat Mumble as a chick, but he manages to distract them and escape. The killer whales are portrayed as scar-covered, possibly unintelligent monsters that, unlike the other animals, never speak "penguin", the elephant seals are passed off as "vegetarians" ([[UnreliableNarrator though only according to Ramón]]) and they act rather thuggish and intimidating, and the leopard seal is basically the Antarctic equivalent of an evil dragon, though it does speak to the penguins threateningly. All in all, the predators are basically portrayed as the penguins would view them, rather than how humans would.

* TranslationConvention: Emperor Penguins tell their mates in colonies by their vocalizations, which humans can't readily distinguish differences in but the penguins can. How to translate these subtle vocal variations into human terms? Have them each sing a different song! It becomes a PlotPoint, because all the humans hear when Mumble tries to speak to them is squawking. ''Dancing'' is a ''visual'' medium, and the humans realize something is wrong when the penguins begin to ''dance'' like humans (and are led to believe that humans did it to them somehow.)

* LoveAtFirstNote: This is the "usual way" Emperor Penguins find their mates. This sort of makes sense as their society revolves around singing as their main way of expression, communication, and religious worship.
* MamaBear: Despite her calm, loving demeanor, Norma Jean is this. She is openly accepting of Mumble's differences and yells at her husband to ''not'' talk negatively about him during the film's climax; [OOCIsSeriousBusiness the only time we see her truly angry with Memphis]]. She was also the first and only emperor penguin, in their extremely conformist and conservative society, to dare oppose the Elders, verbally lashing out at them (which alone was shocking to the colony) when they exile Mumble. She also expressed great disdain for them during the graduation ceremony when they refused to let Mumble graduate, mocking them as she says that her son had every right to graduate as the other students.

* MistakenForAfterlife: An inversion of the trope's usual form - [[spoiler:when Mumble wakes up in the zoo enclosure, the other penguins tell him he's now in heaven, but he doesn't agree. (It's an environment tailored to their comfort, safe from predators and with a guaranteed food supply - from their point of view, it couldn't be better, though the film also implies they're somewhat brain fried.)]]

** This is further confirmed by the release of an early, undated draft of the screenplay, which includes the above-mentioned ending, as well as an even darker tone - confirming that, among other things, the film was originally and unequivocally aimed at much narrower age-bracket, rather than the all-embracing tone of the finished film. The characters all curse like sailors, and the famine subplot is even further examined, along with the penguin society and religion, various character name changes and a much more eclectic soundtrack, featuring The Who, The Ramones, Iggy Pop and later-era Beatles, in place of what would become John Powell's orchestral soundtrack. You can find it [[http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Happy-Feet.html here.]]

!!This film provide examples of:

** Mumble's father's worries are genuine that ''he'' was responsible for Mumble's inability to sing because he allowed the egg to freeze a little, causing some sort of brain damage (the equivalent of dropping a newborn baby on its head.) Even worse, Mumble's egg was slightly late in hatching -- there's a moment or two when Memphis is clearly thinking he's responsible for the death of his and Norma Jean's child.
** Worse, just before he dropped the egg, he sang, "I think I'm gonna dance now!" and it was his little jig that dislodged it, so to him, dancing was the villain that might have caused him to be careless.
* AgainstTheGrain: Singing is an inherent to the penguins' culture, but Mumble has a terrible voice. When Mumble wishes to dance instead of sing, he disappoints the governing elders and his father (who feels he is to blame after dropping Mumble when he was an egg). By the end however, the colony accept Mumble's quirks. Dancing even becomes commonly practiced.

** Subverted. Mumble only believes in aliens (humans) outside the ice, nobody believes him until he gets proof (even then, some ''still'' don't believe him), and he's right. Played somewhat straighter with the Boss Skua.

* AllTheOtherReindeer: How Mumble is treated by not only his peers, but by the leaders of the penguin society.

* CarnivoreConfusion: The penguins, skuas, and humans in the film all eat fish. It's okay for the penguins to do so, but the skuas are shown as thieving bullies, and the humans are explicitly told that they shouldn't ''over''fish - the penguins' declining catch is a major plot point). The skuas also try to eat Mumble as a chick, but he manages to distract them and escape. The killer whales are portrayed as scar-covered, possibly unintelligent monsters that, unlike the other animals, never speak "penquin", the elephant seals are passed off as "vegetarians" ([[UnreliableNarrator though only according to Ramón]]) and they act rather thuggish and intimidating, and the leopard seal is basically the Antarctic equivalent of an evil dragon, though it does speak to the penguins threateningly. All in all, the predators are basically portrayed as the penguins would view them, rather than how humans would.

* IShallReturn: After the Elders exile him from the colony, Mumble tells them that he will return once he finds out what's happened to the fish. Sure enough, he does.

* MamaBear: Despite her calm, loving demeanor, Norma Jean is this. She is instantly accepting of Mumble's differences and yells at her husband to ''not'' demean their son or talk negatively about him during the film's climax; the only time we see her truly angry with Memphis. She was also the first and only emperor penguin, in their extremely conformist and conservative society, to dare oppose the Elders, verbally lashing out at them (which alone was shocking to the colony) when they exile Mumble. She also expressed great disdain for them during the graduation ceremony when they refused to let Mumble graduate, mocking them and stating that her son had every right to graduate as the other students.

* SanitySlippage: Mumble at the Florida aquarium. The Village Voice stated that it was perfectly realized envisioning of penguin insanity.

* TranslationConvention: Emperor Penguins tell their mates in colonies by their vocalizations, which humans can't readily distinguish differences in but the penguins can. How to translate these subtle vocal variations into human terms? Have them each sing a different song! It becomes a PlotPoint, because all the humans hear when Mumble tries to speak to them is squawking. ''Dancing'' is a ''visual'' medium, and the humans realize something is wrong when the pegnuins begin to ''dance'' like humans (and are led to believe that humans did it to them somehow.)

* AnimalReligion: The Great Guin, whom the penguins believe provide them with fish in the sea. Thanks to overfishing, the penguins think the Great Guin is testing them. Mumble discovering it's humans, not the Great Guin, causes a temporarily schism between penguin factions.

** Memphis's egg should have frozen before he even got to it. Justified in the context of the story, because that's what Memphis feared happened, and that even a millisecond in the cold made Mumble mentally disabled.

* BrickJoke: Mrs. Astrakhan tells Mumble to be "spontan-you-us!" with a Russian accent. Every time he says it afterwards, he pronounces it the same way.
* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: Taking on the "aliens" consuming all the fish is only going to end this way. [[spoiler:When Mumble finds a factory ship, he swims out to confront the aliens and clings on the rising net, but is easily dislodged, and the ship leaves without acknowledging him. He swims on to find the source - the narrator says he swam beyond all hope of return and became a legend. Eventually, he washes up on a distant shore to be recovered and put in a zoo. Finally face to face with "the aliens", he tries to communicates and, of course, fails. "After three days, he lost his voice. After three months, he all but lost his mind." Then things pick up again.]]

* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Mumble and Gloria are close from childhood; Gloria saw Mumble come out of his egg, and defended him when his classmates mocked his inability to sing. Eventually they become an item as adults.

** Just replace the word "penguin" with "normal" every time someone tells Mumble he's not being, or acting like one. The entire first film portrays him like a person with autism (or any other condition).

* EasyEvangelism: [[spoiler:Mumble is returned to the colony by biologists, who follow him with a tracking device. Their studies of the penguins dancing makes people care about them more; a frantic montage of political activity leads to international fishing fleets withdrawing from Antarctic waters.]]

* GetOut: Noah banishes Mumble not only for not having a heartsong because Memphis dropped him as an egg, but under the belief that his dancing has lead to their shortage of food.

* GreekChorus: Ramón and his friends often do this, such as narrating Mumbles efforts to get Gloria to leave, and at one point providing Mumble's singing voice.

* LoveAtFirstNote: This is the "usual way" Emperor Penguins find their mates. This sort of makes sense as their society revolves around singing as their main way of expression, communication and religious worship.
* MamaBear: Despite her calm, loving demeanor, Norma Jean showed flashes of this. She was the first and only emperor penguin, in their extremely conformist and conservative society, to try to oppose the Elders, verbally lashing out at them (which was shocking enough to the colony) when they forced her son Mumble into exile. She also expressed great disdain for them during the graduation ceremony, for Mumble had not been permitted to graduate.

** "Mumble" can't sing, and has a name that denotes trouble speaking.
*** Original materials such as storybooks and press materials reveal that his name is "Mambo", but baby Gloria called him "Mumble" and it stuck. "Mambo" is a kind of a dance.

** [[invoked]] Gloria's heartsong is *Boogie* Wonderland, of course she'd be attracted to someone who can dance. [[Fridge/HappyFeet You'll notice she can't say the key word - "DANCE!!!" - her entire life until Mumble practically forces it out of her.]]

* MistakenForAfterlife: An inversion of the trope's usual form - [[spoiler:when Mumble wakes up in the zoo enclosure, the other penguins tell him he's now in heaven, but he doesn't agree. (It's a environment tailored to their comfort, safe from predators and with a guaranteed food supply - from their point of view, it couldn't be better, though the film also implies they're somewhat brain fried.)]]

* NeverTrustATrailer: Watch the trailers and there's no sign of the (often heavy-handed) environmental message in the film, just happy dancing. This was actually one of director George Miller's big points of content, after the film was released. He has a rant about it on the Scene/Unseen podcast, where he compares the studio advertising machines to ubiquitous soda bottling companies, always pushing everything down to the norm.

** This is further confirmed by the release of an early, undated draft of the screenplay, which includes the above mentioned ending, as well as an even darker tone - confirming that, among other things, the film was originally and unequivocally aimed at much narrower age-bracket, rather than the all-embracing tone of the finished film. The characters all curse like sailors, and the famine subplot is even further examined, along with the penguin society and religion, various character name changes and a much more eclectic soundtrack, featuring The Who, The Ramones, Iggy Pop and later-era Beatles, in place of what would become John Powell's orchestral soundtrack. You can find it [[http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Happy-Feet.html here.]]
* RogerRabbitEffect: Reversed, as it's human actors superimposed in the CG film. You know it's good when it's hard to tell.

* StealthPun: The penguins use the term "backsliding" several times. This is a real term used to refer to a relapse into sinful behavior, and was probably used because penguins are known for sliding on their bellies, therefore "back-sliding" would be a defiance of the natural way of things.

* TranslationConvention: Emperor Penguins tell their mates in colonies by their vocalizations, which humans can't readily distinguish differences in but the penguins can. How to translate these subtle vocal variations into human terms? Have them each sing a different song! It becomes a PlotPoint, because all the humans hear when Mumble tries to speak to them is squawking. ''Dancing'' is a ''visual'' medium, and the humans realize something is wrong when pegnuins begin to ''dance'' like humans (and are led to believe that humans did it to them somehow.)

* RealityEnsues: A young Mumble tap-dancing all by himself, [[FreeRangeChildren without any adult supervision]] on top of the cliffside away from the Emperor Penguin colony makes him an easy target for predators such as the Boss Skua and his goons.

''Happy Feet' is notable for being one of the darker animated family films of UsefulNotes/TheMillenniumAgeOfAnimation (not that [[NeverTrustATrailer the advertisements would have tipped you off]]) and is often compared favorably to ''Literature/WatershipDown'', both in its tone and the fact that it is shown entirely from an animal's point of view. It was also a groundbreaker in MotionCapture technology: while most of the character animation was done by animators, all of the dancing was mocapped from legendary tap dancer Savion Glover.

Notable for being one of the darker animated family films of UsefulNotes/TheMillenniumAgeOfAnimation (not that [[NeverTrustATrailer the advertisements would have tipped you off]]) and is often compared favorably to ''Literature/WatershipDown'', both in its tone and the fact that it's entirely from an animal's point of view. It was also a groundbreaker in MotionCapture technology: while most of the character animation was done by animators, all of the dancing was mocapped from legendary tap dancer Savion Glover.

* GetOut: Hugo banishes Mumble not only for not having a heartsong because Memphis dropped him as an egg, but under the belief that his dancing has lead to their shortage of food.

* JukeboxMusical: A lot of the music is oldies songs.

* ChildhoodBrainDamage[=/=]ForWantOfANail: Mumble's egg being dropped by his father is the main reason he's so odd among the other penguins. '''Maybe'''. Dancing may be InTheBlood, since Memphis does dance even during the march.

* GetOut: Hugo banishes Mumble not only for not having a heartsong because Memphis dropped him as an egg, but under the belief that his dancing has [[TheFundamentalist offended the Great Gwen]] leading to their shortage of food.

* GetOut: Hugo banishes Mumble for not having a heartsong because Memphis dropped him as an egg.

* BreakHerHeartToSaveHer: After Mumble's exile, Gloria follows him and admits her feelings for him, and it's implied that he sent her away because he knew she'd be better off with a penguin who could sing, and that he's about to go on a potentially dangerous journey and didn't want to put Gloria in danger. She's aware of what he's doing, just disgusted by it.

* BreakHerHeartToSaveHer: After Mumble's exile, Gloria follows him and admits her feelings for him, and it's implied that he sent her away because he knew she'd be better off with a penguin who could sing. She's aware of what he's doing, just disgusted by it.

* CarnivoreConfusion: The penguins, skuas, and humans in the film all eat fish. It's okay for the penguins to do so, but the skuas are shown as thieving bullies, and the humans are explicitly told that they shouldn't ''over''fish - the penguins' declining catch is a major plot point). The skuas also try to eat Mumble as a chick, but he manages to distract them and escape. The whales are portrayed as scar-covered, possibly unintelligent monsters that, unlike the other animals, never speak "penquin", the elephant seals are passed off as "vegetarians" ([[UnreliableNarrator though only according to Ramón]]) and they act rather thuggish and intimidating, and the leopard seal is basically the Antarctic equivalent of an evil dragon. All in all, the predators are basically portrayed as the penguins would view them, rather than how humans would.

* {{Troll}}: Seriously, the rockhoppers singing "Baby Don't Go" after Gloria storms off isn't appreciated by Mumble.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: Gloria is less than pleased at Ramon after he flirts with her after singing "My Life".

-->'''Ramón''': ''(after hearing Mumble singing)'' Yeah, I heard an animal once do that, but then they rolled him over and he was dead.

* AbhorantAdmirer: Gloria is less than pleased at Ramon after he flirts with her after singing "My Life".

* AbhorrantAdmirer: Gloria is less than pleased at Ramon after he flirts with her after singing "My Life".