An international co-production between the United States and Australia, Kennedy Miller Mitchell and Dr. D Studios[4] from Sydney, Australia, produced the film, which premiered in North American theaters on November 18, 2011, and in Australia on December 26, 2011 in Digital 3D, RealD 3D and IMAX 3D formats. The film was released with an attached 3D Looney Tunes short entitled I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat.[5] The film received mixed reviews with critics praising its animation, music and voice acting, while criticizing its narrative, and grossed just $150.4 million against its $135 million budget (not including marketing costs), becoming a box office bomb, which resulted in the closure of Miller's Dr. D Studios, making this their only animated film.[6]
Erik, son of Mumble and Gloria, cannot dance like the other Emperor-Land penguins. He and his best friends, Bo and Atticus, follow one of Mumble's friends, Ramón, leader of the Amigos, to Adélie-Land, which is now being ruled by flying penguin con artist Sven. After surviving the loss of his native fishing grounds due to his "miraculous" flying ability, Sven partnered with another of Mumble's friends, Lovelace (who was fired from his job as "Guru"). They tell the others they were saved by humans but fled to Antarctica after believing they'd be eaten. There Sven performs his first miracles by revealing moss to the locals and using his power of "Sven Think" to help Ramón find his prospective mate Carmen, who is uninterested. Mumble finds the kids and tells them to return to Emperor-Land, with encouragement from Sven.
Meanwhile, Will, an adventurous and existentialistkrill, is determined to discover what lies beyond the swarm. His best friend, Bill, reluctantly follows to ensure his safety. Once separated from the swarm they realize that they're at the bottom of the food chain. Will attempts to "move up the food chain" by eating another creature while Bill believes he's going crazy. Mumble tells Erik he's unique and that he'll someday find his calling, but Erik is still enthralled with Sven. While trying to cross a perilous ice bridge, an elephant seal, Bryan the Beach Master and his two sons, refuse to let the penguins pass. An argument results in Bryan falling off the bridge and getting trapped below. Mumble lures a leopard seal to chase him into the ice, freeing Bryan and earning his respect. Erik, however attributes the successful rescue to his attempt at using "Sven Think", dismaying Mumble.
When the penguins return to Emperor-Land, they discover a large iceberg has trapped the emperor penguins in a deep pit surrounded by ice walls. While Mumble, Erik, and Atticus deliver their meager supply of fish to the stranded penguins, Bo returns to Adélie-Land for more help. When Erik tries to deliver fish by flying like Sven, he nearly tosses himself over the iceberg. Mumble saves him and says penguins cannot fly, hinting that their friends and family are doomed. Erik begins to panic until Gloria sends Mumble away to fish and sings to calm her son down. Meanwhile, Bill creates another swarm after spying a family of jellyfish, but Will adheres to his new predator lifestyle. The next morning, a large flock of skua attack the trapped emperor penguins. Noah the Elder encourages them to fight the birds. When all seems lost, Bo returns with Adélie-Land, led by Sven. Sven orchestrates a cooperative effort to feed the trapped emperors through hunting and bringing back flows of fish from the sea. Still trying to be a predator, Will attacks a fish, that is later scooped up and carried by Sven into Emperor-Land.
The humans who saved Sven and Lovelace come to Antarctica again to help the penguins, but a blizzard causes them to flee. Erik urges Sven to teach the penguins how to fly, but Sven reveals he's not really a penguin, but a tufted puffin. Mumble, after watching snow fall into a crevice between chunks of iceberg, begins to tap-dance and leads the penguins in a dance, weakening the ice. The plan works until several chunks break loose, sending Bo, Atticus, and several penguins into the doomed crevice. Erik and Lovelace tumble towards the edge, and Mumble grabs the threads from Lovelace's vest. The threads snaps and causes Lovelace and Sven to tumble, but Erik is pulled to safety. Having injured his foot, Mumble can't lead the Adélies. Ramón realizes Carmen is trapped below and jumps down to be with her, finally winning her love. Sven proves himself a worthy dancer and despite public outcry he leads the remaining Adélies in dance while Erik and Mumble head to the elephant seal beach to seek Bryan, to help in collapsing the ice. Meanwhile, a newly reformed Will reunites with Bill and their swarm. Bill reveals they are now legends after sharing their journey with the swarm.
Mumble and Erik arrive at Elephant Seal Beach where Bryan is in the middle of a dominance fight. Mumble pleads for help freeing the emperor penguins but Bryan declines because of his Beach Master duties. Using his singing abilities, Erik praises Mumble for his bravery and condemns Bryan for refusing to help after Mumble rescued him. The elephant seals travel en-masse to Emperor-Land. Mumble, Gloria, Erik, the other emperor penguins, the elephant seals, Will, Bill, their krill swarm, Ramón, the Amigos, Carmen, Lovelace and the newly-reformed Sven work together to destroy the iceberg by slamming it to the beat of Queen's "Under Pressure". Finally, the iceberg crumbles, creating an uphill passage and the penguins are saved, and Mumble and Erik reunite with Gloria.
Cast
Robin Williams, who voiced Ramon and Lovelace, at the film's Australian premiere in Sydney
Ava Acres as Erik, only son of Gloria and Mumble and Memphis and Norma Jean's grandson.[7] (singing by E. G. Daily; Daily played Baby Mumble in the original film)
Elijah Wood as Mumble, husband of Gloria and father of Erik.
Robin Williams as Ramón and Lovelace, Mumble's two friends. Ramón is a laid-back and comical Adélie penguin who speaks in a thick Spanish accent and Lovelace is a spiritual rockhopper penguin and Sven's partner. He is also this film's narrator, like the first film. This was Williams' last animated feature before his death in 2014.
Alecia Moore (P!nk) as Gloria, wife of Mumble and mother of Erik (replacing Brittany Murphy, who had died in 2009)
Meibh Campbell as Bodicea "Bo", daughter of Miss Viola, and Erik's best friend. (singing by E. G. Daily)
Hank Azaria as The Mighty Sven,[12] a tufted puffin who speaks in a Scandinavian accent and is a small-time con artist. He is also the ruler of Adélie lands.
Brittany Murphy, who originally voiced Mumble's love interest Gloria, was set to reprise her role and scheduled to begin recording sometime in 2010,[15] but died from pneumonia on December 20, 2009. Steve Irwin, who voiced Trev the elephant seal and an albatross, died of a stingray injury on September 4, 2006. P!nk replaced Murphy's role (P!nk had already contributed a song "Tell Me Something Good" to the soundtrack of the first film). Brad Pitt and Matt Damon voiced the tiny krill, Will and Bill.[16][17]Hank Azaria also signed on to voice The Mighty Sven.[18]E.G. Daily, who played young Mumble in the previous film, played the vocals for Mumble's choreophobic son Erik and the daughter of Miss Viola, Boadicea, as well as additional voices. Sofía Vergara appears in the film as a new character, Carmen.[19] There is a live action scene in the movie as in the first Happy Feet.[20] Mitchell Hicks signed up as the movie's choreographer.[21]
The film grossed $64 million in the United States along with $86 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $150.4 million.[3] Produced on a budget of $135 million,[2] the film ended up losing the studio around $40 million.[23]
On its opening weekend, Happy Feet Two earned $21,237,068 while playing on 3,606 screens.[3] This was barely half of the $41,533,432 that the first Happy Feet made on its opening weekend in November 2006. Approximately 50% of Happy Feet Two's box-office take came from the 2,825 screens that showed it in 3D.[24] Thus, when adjusted for ticket price inflation, Happy Feet Two achieved less than 45% of the attendance figures of its predecessor. Major box-office prediction websites were almost unanimously predicting an opening weekend of $35 million - $45 million, so Happy Feet Two's box-office performance has thus far been underwhelming. Among 2011's animated films, Happy Feet Two's opening weekend ranks 8th. Kurt Orzeck of the Vancouver Sun has reported that "due to the poor performance of Happy Feet Two, 600 of the 700 employees at the Sydney-based Dr. D. Studios, the digital production studio behind the animated movie, have reportedly received their walking papers."[25]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 45% of 121 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.50/10. The website's consensus reads: "The animation is as eye-popping as ever, but Happy Feet Two's narrative is too noisily incoherent to recapture the Oscar-winning charm of its predecessor."[26] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 50 out of 100 based on reviews from 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[27] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[28]
Richard Corliss of Time gave the film a positive review and said that Miller is "not content to duplicate the pleasures of his first penguin film; he dares to go bigger, deeper, higher — happier."[29]Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two-and-a-half stars (out of four) stating that "The animation is bright and attractive, the music gives the characters something to do, but the movie has too much dialogue in the areas of philosophy and analysis."[30] British newspaper The Telegraph named Happy Feet Two one of the ten worst films of 2011, saying "Happy Feet Two is an appalling 3D animated sequel about a colony of all‑singin', all-dancin', all-infuriatin' penguins."[31]
The soundtrack album for the film was released by WaterTower Music on CD on November 21, 2011 and on iTunes on November 15, 2011. Unlike the previous film's two album releases—one for its songs and one for its score—both the songs and John Powell's score are included on this album. The songs "Happy Feet Two Opening Medley," "Bridge of Light," and "Under Pressure/Rhythm Nation" are led by P!nk, who lends her vocals to the character Gloria, taking the place of Brittany Murphy from the first film.
The deluxe edition of the album contains an addition of 5 songs performed by Ozomatli; these songs and more can also be found on the soundtrack for the video game, which was released on iTunes on November 8, 2011.
Possible third film
When director George Miller was asked if he had any plans for Happy Feet Three.[33]
If you put a gun to my head and said, 'You have to come up with a story for Happy Feet Three,' I’d say shoot me. I would have no idea. I really would have no idea. The stories creep up on you. You just have to allow the stories to come, and then they get in like little ear worms in your head and they won’t go away. If that happens and we’ve got the energy, we’ll do it is a fantastic movie a third one. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. That’s the only way you can do it. It has to be authentic. I really wanted to make this film better than the first one. Otherwise, at my age, what’s the point? You really want to make it better. If something comes up that’s really exciting and I can convey that enthusiasm to other people, then there would be a third one.
— George Miller.
References
^"Film - Happy Feet". Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
^Dargis, Manohla (November 17, 2011). "Happy Feet Two - Review". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 24, 2015. Retrieved October 13, 2014.
^Roger Ebert (November 16, 2011). "Happy Feet Two". Chicago Sun-Times. rogerebert.com. Archived from the original on November 18, 2021. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
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