Happy Feet is a 2006 animated jukebox musical comedy film directed and produced by George Miller and written by Miller, John Collee, Judy Morris and Warren Coleman. It stars the voices of Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving, Anthony LaPaglia, Magda Szubanski and Steve Irwin. An international co-production between the United States and Australia, the film was produced at Sydney-based visual effects and animation studio Animal Logic for Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures and Kingdom Feature Productions. It is the first animated film produced by Kennedy Miller and Animal Logic. Set in the cold land of Antarctica, the film follows Mumble (Wood), an emperor penguin who is able to tap dance brilliantly despite lacking the ability to sing a heartsong to attract a soulmate. After being continuously ridiculed and rejected by peers and his own father (Jackman), Mumble departs on a journey to learn what is causing the local fish population to decline — and to find himself along the way.
As an initial inspiration for the film, Miller cited an encounter with a grizzled old cameraman whose father was Frank Hurley of the Shackleton expeditions, while partially inspired by earlier documentaries such as the BBC's Life in the Freezer. Although primarily a computer-animated film, the film incorporates motion capture of live-action humans in certain scenes. Composer John Powell composed the score, while the film features more than ten popular songs, usually to fit with the mood of the scene or character.
Happy Feet was released in North American theatres on 17 November 2006, and in Australian theatres on 26 December 2006. It was simultaneously released in both conventional theatres and in IMAX 2D format. The studio had hinted that a future IMAX 3D release was a possibility. However, Warner Bros., the film's production company, was on too tight of a budget to release Happy Feet in IMAX digital 3D.
Happy Feet received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its visuals, storyline and songs, and grossed $384 million against its $100 million production budget, becoming the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2006. It earned the recipient of the inaugural BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, and the fourth non-Disney or Pixar film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It was nominated for the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature and the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film, both losing to Cars. A sequel, Happy Feet Two, was released in 2011, and failed to match the critical and commercial success of the original film.
