Happy Feet

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 Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving, Anthony LaPaglia, Magda Szubanski and Steve Irwin. In the film, Mumble (Wood), a tap-dancing emperor penguin who lacks the ability to sing a heartsong to attract a soulmate and is ridiculed by his peers and family, departs on a journey across Antarctica to learn what is causing the local fish population to decline — and to find himself along the way.

Happy Feet is the first animated film produced by Kennedy Miller and Animal Logic. 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. The film was first released in North America on 17 November 2006 and then in Australia on 26 December. It was simultaneously released in both conventional theatres and in IMAX 2D,^[4] but a future IMAX 3D release was not released due to budgetary issues.^[5]

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 inaugural BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature (Miller's only personal Oscar win to date).^[6] 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.