Trivia for
Happy Feet (2006) More at IMDbPro »

• The director used Savion Glover in a Motion Capture suit while tap dancing to record Mumble's dancing.
  
  
• This film is dedicated, among others, to Steve Irwin.
  
  
• Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Robin Williams and Nicole Kidman all do their own singing.
  
  
• The dancers for the dance sequences not only had to wear motion capture sensor suits for their movement, but also had to wear special headgear to simulate the penguins' beaks to force them to accommodate the anatomical feature for their characters' dancing.
  
  
• All of the dancers in the film had to go through "Penguin School" to capture the movements of penguins.
  
  
• The translation of Raul's Spanish speaking part of "Boogie Wonderland" is: "I am Raul, the coolest penguin, Latino of course, 100% Spanish! My brothers! (Yeah), Later the girl who lights me on fire will call, The party- dance, dance little girl! My heart has dynamite! BOOM!, (Exactly!), You look so beautiful to me baby!"
  
  
• The elder penguin at the Zoo (voice by Lee Perry) is a reference to HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Quote: [Mumble] Excuse me. What is this place? ["HAL"] You're in heaven, Dave. Penguin heaven. [Mumble] Is it anywhere near Emperor Land? ["HAL"] It's wherever you want it to be. ["HAL"] Try the water, Dave. It's really real.
  
  
• First Best Animated Feature Oscar Winner to feature live-action, non-animated elements (the film must be at least 75% animated to reach Academy standards)
  
  
• In the scene where Mumble dances for the "aliens" Ewan McGregor can be seen making a cameo as a man on his phone.
  
  
• During production, the code title used for this film was "Cat Don't Dance".
  
  
• When Gloria and Mumbles are tumbling around on the ice after emerging from the water, they briefly slide into a penguin mating position (with Gloria on her belly and Mumbles behind her).
  
  
• The "aliens" at the end strongly resemble the film crew responsible for La marche de l'empereur (2005).
  
  
• Norma Jean and Memphis are obviously named for Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. Elvis lived in Memphis, Tennessee and some of Memphis's movements are like his. Norma Jean is Marilyn Monroe's birth name and Norma Jean sings like her.
  
  
• Initially, Prince refused to allow the use of his song, "Kiss", for the film. However, after seeing footage of the film, he not only changed his mind and allowed the song to be used, but also wrote an additional original song for the film to use in the closing credits.
  
  
• Last movie involving Steve Irwin.
  
  
• When Mumble is dancing you can see three black spots over his ankle area, this is in reference to the spats that used to be worn over shoes in early Fred Astaire dancing movies.
  
  
• Not only does Steve Irwin provide the voice for one of the elephant seals, but he was also originally cast to play an albatross that Mumble encounters as he crosses the ocean after the aliens. The albatross scene was cut from the final movie, but you can see it in the DVD extras. The scene was cut before animation was complete, so no actual animation existed until they were preparing the DVD for release. The director and the production crew felt that they needed to do something following Steve Irwin's death, so they completed the scene and included in the DVD in remembrance of him.
  
  
• In order to tell the difference between the male and female emperor penguins, look at their beaks. If it has an orange spot, it's a male. If the spot is pink, it's a female.
  
  
• Mumble features a faded dark spot directly under his neck in the shape of a bow tie. This was added to make Mumble's appearance more tuxedo-like.
  
  
• When Memphis is singing "Kiss", he stops when the helicopter arrived. He tells his son Mumble "I think you better dance now". This line is actually part of the song "Kiss" in the version by Tom Jones.
  
  
• On a zoom out sequence to the globe, the Aquarium where Mumble is held is revealed to be in Miami. That Aquarium and the surrounding park do not exist however. Additionally, the aerial imagery in the movie is flipped.
  
  

• SPOILER: The "zoo" that Mumbles finds himself in is actually the penguin exhibit at Sea World, Orlando, Florida.
  
  

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