Blank Check with Griffin & David - Happy Feet Two with Sara Rubin

Episode Date: May 17, 2020

Visual artist Sara Rubin joins BC this week to discuss Miller’s second dancing penguin movie! Together with #thetwofriends they breakdown the billing order, question if krill are sea monkeys and try to guess the tagline to movie Surf’s Up.

So this is the end. I better make my will. I, Will Williams, do hereby leave everything to my podcast oh no i have a podcast the second sign of madness this isn't really a quote based no no that was good moment and it felt apropos to this our second proper Zoom record. Yes. Which does feel like its own form of badness. It does, and this movie feels like its own form of badness,

so it's just an absolutely vital combo, in my opinion. It is funny. The term I keep on overusing throughout all these Burge Miller episodes is fever dream. All of these movies feel like fever dreams, whether they're good dreams or bad dreams they all have that uh quality to them and most of this main series was uh recorded before the world shut down uh and it was just sort of an interesting look into uh a type of mania and then uh we're finishing out these final episodes while socially distant and terrified about the world surrounding us. And these movies play very differently.

Even one that seems somewhat innocuous on its face, like Happy Feet 2, now makes me question everything. I fled New York because of this movie. You watched this movie? Yep. And then got in a car and drove as far away as you could. New York because of this movie. You watched this movie? I had to get out. As far away as you could. I'm picturing Ben watching Happy Feet 2 and then

loading Pig and his significant other into a car and then enacting the Children of Men van scene. Just screaming about Eric and Svenen the false idol penguin that's right and that puffin you gotta watch out for those puffins rubes what do you think am i allowed to talk i don't know you gotta talk absolutely oh okay so

that's what you do on these all right i had I had never seen a picture of George Miller before this. I don't know what that says about me. And let me say, wonderful small glasses. Yeah, and he always has the little rope around his glasses. He has the rope. I don't remember, but he looks like the guy who tells, like, Brendan Fraser not to raid a tomb in the mummy. You know, like, he's the guy in the library who's like, well, you know, the evil curse guy in the library who's like well uh you know

the the evil curse if i consult my textbooks you know he looks like that guy like he's in act one of the mummy he is currently my background photo for this zoom record it is him doing happy feet to press so it's him sitting in front of a backdrop of happy feet 2 imagery and uh he is dressed uh all in black and white except for a bow tie with his little penguin vibe he looks like a penguin his round professor glasses and the rope around them and they're just two penguins popping and smiling big behind him uh i don't know if you know this. Rubes, but George Miller, an actual doctor with a PhD, was a medical doctor. I mean, I would trust him with my life. He took me on a wonderful adventure in Happy Feet 2, so I feel like I'd trust him. This movie also feels like it is made by an animal biologist.

I don't like how realistic they are i don't want to start out negative i don't want to set that i don't want to set like a negative tone but i have to say the realism of these penguins is very upsetting i i got two questions right off the bat and then i'm gonna introduce the podcast sure please do properly okay Okay. Question number one. Had you seen Happy Feet 1 before? I have seen Happy Feet 1 once. And I recall that it was it. I didn't mind watching it. I didn't mind seeing it. I remember that it was very scary with like the sea lions. I don't mind seeing it. I remember that it was very scary with like the sea lions. But you had not seen Happy Feet 2 before preparing for this recording, correct? I had not, you know, I had not experienced Happy Feet 2.

Okay, so now we're in a post-Happy Feet 2 mindset. Hello, everybody. My name is Griffin Newman. I'm David Sims. It's a blank check with Griffin and David. It is a self-quarantined, socially distant, responsible podcast about filmographies. Directors who have massive success early on in their careers are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. And sometimes those checks clear. And sometimes they tap it, tap it, tap it, tap it, tap it, tap it, tap it, tap it, baby.

And this is a mini series on the films of George Miller, Dr. George Miller, PhD. It is called... You keep saying PhD. He has an MD, not a PhD. Okay. Dr. George Miller, MD. not a ph okay dr george miller md this was the second and final film produced by his pop-up animation studio dr d productions which shut down promptly after opening weekend of happy feet 2 he tried to give the world the d and they said, please, no more. This is a Mad Pod Fury cast. The film's a George Miller.

MD. We're talking Happy Feet 2 and our guest today from BuzzFeed and from being one of my oldest friends and one of my favorite people in the world is Sarah Rubin. How are you doing, Rubes? You know, i'm okay no that noise that noise covered it i think that was that's how i feel yeah uh you know assembling my thoughts just constantly but you know uh our our dear mutual friend alejandra collini uh past and future guest uh had a joke that i think about all the time. Still has the joke.

It's still his. He still owns the joke. But about when people would ask him how he was doing and his answer would be objectively fine. And I keep on thinking about that. And I keep on thinking about that. Like, anytime anyone asks me how I'm doing amid Corona panic, I go like, well, I am doing OK relative to the state of the world, but I don't feel good. No, it's not a good feeling time. No, but Ruben, you live in sunny Hollywood, California.

Yes. You're going to come in to New York City for Passover. And then the world paused. And so we are breaking our anti-Zoom embargo just in time to take advantage of your thoughts on Happy Feet Day. I took notes. I took this very seriously. I've got graphs. If someone watched this movie and was like, I have no thoughts,

I would just be like, I don't think you watched the movie. You must have watched something else. You were just watching March of the Penguins. Sure. Right, exactly. I was somewhat concerned, and I don't know if you felt this way, David,

but I was somewhat concerned that this was going to be the one movie in George Miller's filmography that didn't really exist, where we were going to have to sort of vamp and come up with weird side bits because there wasn't much to say, especially after Happy Feet. And I am so pleasantly surprised that this movie is so dense that I almost feel like we cannot cover it within one episode. I know what you mean. We could probably do 10 part miniseries on it. I felt the same way. And then while I was watching it, I was like, why did I feel that way?

And I texted you something that I feel like we need to bring out into the open immediately. Would you agree? I was like, he's the king of sequels he has made so many sequels that are better than the original and weirder than the original or arguably deserve to be in the same conversation exactly you go big to the three Mad Maxes, the heightening of the Mad Maxes and have to feed two. He's made five sequels. They're all fascinating and they are none.

None of them are lazy. Like none of them are like, yeah, well, we'll just do what the first thing did. We'll kind of build on a little bit. Like none of them are that.

He's always like, no, no, no, no. Where can I take it that no one would expect it to be taken? That was my thing. My immediate take to you. I thought it'd be the same arc as the first one.

Like, Oh, the same. I'd be, Oh, the baby can't sing or can't dance or can't do the electric or something. The first two minutes where it's like,

Oh, he can't dance. I'm like, Oh great. So now he can't dance. It's just going to be the same plot in reverse. Like this movie is so fucking sneaky. Cause it tries to outsmart you in the

first five minutes it's like fucking john taturo and mr deeds it's incredibly sneaky it starts off and you're just like banging your head against the wall and you're like is it really gonna be now his kid is the only person who can't dance because everyone likes dancing and his kid looks exactly like him and now he looks like his dad and then the movie becomes the nashville of children's films then it becomes the most complicated narrative structure i have ever seen on a children's film that feels like it's completely disjointed until it somehow all unifies and becomes representational of the basic sort of like ecosystem of like all animals relationship to each other and the environment. In the environment, in a time of climate apocalypse, it's about how like, right, animals are all knitted in this sort of gossamer net that must be maintained to like keep up social order.

And that's all like driven through our heads by these krill who are like, but I don't like my position in society. I don't like my position in existence. What if I could change it? And by the end of the movie, they're like, this is why you are where you are. And it's a good thing. Don't speak up. And that doesn't mean you're meaningless. Know your place.

No, you're right. But it's also like, but that doesn't mean you don't have meaning. It's just how it has to be. Status quo is the most important thing. And you should never step outside of it. It's a fair.

Yeah. But it's, but that doesn't mean you're not a person. It's also about hippies eating chicken. Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, this film's about many, many things. almost a too clean kind of pat way where it's just about like let your freak flag fly society religion your political leaders they're all gonna say you need to function this one way

and that's not true your heart song is whatever you want to be it doesn't even need to be a song and the happy feet too is like but understand you need to find yourself and find your happiness. But also society collapses unless we all play our roles. So you be you. But also we all have parts to play or else this all falls to hell. That is all accurate. That's what this is about. And this is the fucking Miller King of the sequels thing is like the movie starts and you're like, he's just doing the same thing again. is like the movie starts and you're like, he's just doing the same thing again. But the reason he's so good at sequels is because he is one of the few people who thinks about sequels laterally.

This is my whole take. That he doesn't just go like, what's the next obvious story in the narrative? Like what would happen next? And he doesn't just go, how do you make it bigger? Or how do you flip the last thing? Or how do you heighten the last thing? He goes like, what's a lateral move? What's a thing that exists on the same lateral plane as the first film I've established in the world I've established that I find equally interesting? And I'm just going to move sideways to that, which sometimes works wildly well in the eyes of the public and sometimes does not at all. And something like Babe Pig in the City, where people were angry when it came out. This movie, it just feels like got a collective shrug. Big shrug. Big shrug. And especially for a movie where like the first the first one wins Best Animated Film,

critics love it, it's a massive fucking hit, I felt like, you know what, that first one, not for me. I seem to like it less than most. Define whatever it is, I'm fine with it. It's respectable, but it's not necessarily my tempo. And then this movie just gets, like, a giant shrug. I don't think about it for the better part of a decade i don't even consider watching it until this miniseries starts up and five minutes

in i was like god damn it this thing honks right there's something there's something working here didn't the first one come out like around the same time as march of the penguins or was there another penguin movie correct the first one comes out I believe a year after March of the Penguins it was okay yes incredible timing penguin fever yeah but it was pure happenstance because animated films take so goddamn long no one thought March of the Penguins was going to be a fucking blockbuster it's a redubbed French documentary and somehow the same studio releases that movie pretty much a year and change before this the first happy feet comes out and that like happy feet just fucking leapfrogs off in march of the penguins rides the penguin wave is such a big hit

that they're like george miller keep your studio open you're never gonna stop making animated films George Miller, keep your studio open. You're never going to stop making animated films. Keep the staff on retainer. Give us Happy Feet 2 as quick as you can. And he's like, I really want to make that Mad Max movie. And they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Mad Max movie.

He's like putting all the penguin statues away, taking them back out again. Yeah. But it was one of those things where they were like, we promise you, if you make Happy Feet 2, we'll let you do the Mad Max thing thing and so they're like kind of like a parcel deal it feels like yes although there is also justice league in between these two movies right uh after happy feet he's hired to make justice league colon mortal one of the best titles ever not me um and uh he you did you know that he was the second choice to direct that movie for justice league mortal was the first jason reitman jason reitman coming off of wow i mean was he was even i guess he was he was coming off of juno i guess juno had

been made but like george mill Miller signed on in September 07. So Juno was just Juno had had premiered at Toronto. Right. Just it was it was building momentum. This is the interview that I sent to you several months back that I'm obsessed with, where Jason Reitman talks about how he thinks he doesn't have it in him to possibly ever make a big studio film. And then Howard Stern asks him about, uh, if he'd ever do a Ghostbusters, uh, let me find this. Um, he said, uh, I'll just, I will point out, I believe Wrightman turned it down. Yes, he turned it down. He turned it down he turned up he took the meeting

and he said that all sounds good i'm not the person you want to make this right right he's like i'm not a big studio guy i'm an indie filmmaker i'm fucking jodorowsky jr over here uh so i can't find the quote right now i will have and post it on our twitter when this episode comes out but he says something like i could never make a big film like people think that i should direct ghostbusters 3 because my dad did the first two my ghostbusters would be so indie it would just be like people sitting around having a conversation about right it would be fucking jerry it would just be guys walking around in the desert and nothing would happen i'm so fucking indie i couldn't make a ghostbusters three with any sort of plot and now there was no gunner seats right no gunner

seats whatsoever no nostalgia button pushing and now as we know was unanimously elected the president of ghostbusters was that movie part of a uh was that a movie part of covid push or is that still when is that movie supposed to come out that's a good question or was that because i feel like it just disappeared it is one of the few movies that has been completely silent in the wake of COVID. It is set for July, which remains a slight gray area. Like July movies are sort of waiting and seeing for a little while longer, I guess. But yes, Sony has not weighed in. They're playing chicken.

I'm sure by the time this episode comes out, we'll have a better sense of where Ghostbusters Afterlife will lie. The ARG will have started. I will be deep in it. Look, maybe it's already happening. Maybe we don't realize it. Maybe all of this is part of it. This is part of the ARG?

Maybe. But I feel like they're playing the waiting game of is it possible for Ghostbusters Afterlife to be the first movie released once the... They might have to change that name. Yes. They should call it Ghostbusters Pandemic, is what they should call it. Look, I'm just talking from a studio perspective.

I don't like the title. You're right, you're right. Anyway. Putting on my marketing hat title. You're right. Anyway. Putting on my marketing hat here. It'd be the boo-demic. It would be a boo-demic, yes. That's a good point. It would be a boo-demic and five comedy points for that.

That's good. Thank you. But yeah, so George Miller obviously spends a year-ish, you know, trying to make his Justice League movie with freaking you know adam brody and uh theresa palmer and whoever whoever i can't know not teresa palmer oh yeah it was teresa yeah army hammer megan gail common yeah she was gonna be talia i'll cool i forgot anyway uh and then the writer's strike tanks that movie along with the dark knight doing so well that warner brothers is like wait what why would we do this this is insanity it's even before that Nolan is like shut this thing

down yeah like what is this what's you know and Miller has never gotten over that and has always been like my movie would have been crazy and I have no doubt that it would have been I would love to see it yes call me Monique because I would love to see it because you'd love to see it what am I monique because i would love to see it because you'd love to see

it what am i not getting the meme where she's like i would like to see it i don't know yeah i don't think i know the monique meme let me just google monique brush up brush up on your you would like to see the meme i'm behind on on the Monique memes. While you're looking that up, can I just point out that also riding the penguin wave is the movie Surf's Up. I love Surf's Up. That is true. Oh, Surf's Up.

Freaking rules. Literal penguin waves. That is very true, and Penguins of Madagascar, the movie is actually the legitimately funniest penguin movie I've ever seen. I have not seen the Penguins of Madagascar. Do you not like it, Griffin? You haven't seen Penguins of Madagascar?

Oh, it's got such good bits. I have not seen it. I do know I am not a huge fan of the first two Madagascar movies. I have never seen the third. I am fascinated by the fact and I've railed about this on the podcast before. Multiple times. There are three different continuities within the Madagascar

universe. There's three mainline Madagascar films. The proper trilogy, if you will. Then there's a TV show called Timeline Alpha. Timeline Alpha. Timeline Alpha, okay? Yeah. Then there is what I would like to call the Kelvin Timeline.

This is an alternate reality in which the penguins make it back to the zoo or never leave the zoo, never end up in Madagascar, and have their TV show, the Nickelodeon TV show, Penguins of Madagascar. Is that not a prequel? It is not. It is not. It is if the films don't happen, even though it is called The Penguins of Madagascar. Griffin is now... As if being from Madagascar

is their defining characteristic except in the universe of the TV show, they have never been to Madagascar is their defining characteristic, except in the universe of the TV show, they have never been to Madagascar. Griffin is now speaking with the energy of Kevin Costner at the end of JFK, as he always does anytime this topic comes up. They're the penguins of the film Madagascar. The penguins of the film Madagascar. Well, no. Yeah.

So now there's the third. So we're done. The third timeline I would like to establish. Okay. And this is the would like to establish. Okay. And this is the lone gunman timeline. Okay. If I may. This is the timeline for Penguins of Madagascar, the movie, which is separate from both Madagascar, the film series and Penguins of Madagascar, the TV series.

Penguins of Madagascar, the TV series, because they want to set it in a universe where animals hold down people jobs, where you can have a fucking animal who's a special agent or a squid who's a bad guy or whatever. But they don't they don't they're not interacting with people, Griffin. They're not interacting in their own. They have animal jobs in animal. You know, they're also I think the penguins are supposed to be insane. So the penguins, the penguins are nuts. So the penguins are like, we're secret agents,

but they're not secret agents for anyone. They're just like insane penguins. But there are no humans in the film. The penguins of Madagascar. Correct. I think there's like some, some in the background, but I don't think they have lines.

I mean, that is what necessitates it taking place on a third timeline. No, there are humans because the penguins are in like an aquarium. Humans don't have like roles necessarily, but a lot of it is about the penguins all getting kidnapped and being put in an aquarium and the humans go see them. Fair enough. So I just want to say it's just great. Great. Malkovich has an octopus.

Also, the octopus is pretending to be a human. That's important to know. Okay. If you can all open your chat window, you'll see that I posted the gif. If you just want to take a look at Monique. I love education. Oh, yes, I do. Oh, that's a you know what?

That's a really good gift. It's a great gift. It's a hit meme. I just want to say to Ange's point, three comedy points for saying that Surf's Up was riding a wave. It was. Thank you. I had to get it in there somewhere. You got it in there and it landed.

It landed beautifully. But Surf's Up comes out in between happy feet and happy feet too and surfs up performs mezzo mezzo in the box office so that was not a huge sign not a huge hit that was maybe the first sign oh penguin fever fatigue might it might have crested a little bit yeah and then George, old Georgie Miller still has four years to go until Happy Feet 2 comes out. So Happy Feet 1, a film that is all about its insane world building and mythology, the sort of very casual, we all know that penguins have a hard song. What if a penguin were to not have a hard song and instead had a heart feat and how would society reject them and what journey would a penguin have to go on to find their inner confidence to meet other societies of

penguins to come back home and win over his religiously conservative parents and uh save all of his uh penguin brethren uh from uh global warming by becoming a viral medial star. And also there's a medley of pop songs. Right. Exactly. Happy Feet 1 is, I feel like, a little more like of a musical. Happy Feet 2 is like there's music

at the beginning and the end, but not so much in the middle. Oh my god. This is a hot take that I'm probably going to get a little bit of flack for. Throw it down, Ruth. But on your flack jacket.

I think it's on. It's on. I think that the, what's the, what is the, what the, oh, Love Laces song about Sven on par with the Genie song.

It was so good. Wow. I think it's a really good song. That's the other weird thing, is this movie is less of a musical than the first one, but it has, like, more original songs. Right, right. The first one is fully jukeboxy,

and this one is more of a mix. Right. It's, like, all jukebox medleys. It's all elephant love song. And this one has like big medley at the beginning, big medley at the end and then like three big original ballads in the middle.

One of which is like an opera ballad. Love that part. Great part of the movie. Alright guys, I just want to backtrack a minute. Okay? There's two things I want to bring up. One, can you tell me the tagline of Surf's Up? The tagline of the film Surf's Up. I just saw it and I just need to address before we move on.

Hang ten. This time they're surfing. Does it include the word wave in it? No. Is it like Cowabunga? Cowaburda? All great. No. A major ocean picture.

Love that. Wow. Yep. all great uh no a major ocean picture wow yep that's good that's very good yep yeah just let that settle kind of like you've like cracked open a soda and it's kind of fizzing just let it let it kind of like you know someone definitely brought that up as a tagline for nemo and they were like absolutely not we We will never do that. And then Surf's Up was like, we'll take it. Yeah, we'll do it. Yeah, whatever. Make your ocean picture, sure. If we're talking in memes now, I just truly did the Antonio Banderas reacting to the laptop.

I've just been reeling from that news here. That's beautiful. It's weird that Shark Tale didn't do that. You know what I mean? it's weird that like shark tail didn't do that you know what i mean it's it's weird that every film before exactly that like every movie had been like major ocean i don't get it like and it finally surfs up grabbed the grab the gem there are even many live action films that could have used that tagline yep wow a major ocean picture here all right now here's the second thing and this is i feel like a good start i just want to run down the poster billing for happy feet 2

oh it's insane it's some of the weirdest billing i have ever i'm gonna read it left to right it's two blocks all right elijah wood sure of course yeah remember and then robin williams just casually playing three different characters and none of those characters are problematic and it's all very cool also at the end there's casually a jamaican penguin at the end also it's like all right robin do a jamaican penguin real quick yeah that was just him riffing right he was it's like what if one was jamaican he didn't have a sequel deal in place right so when they came to the table to negotiate for him to come back to happy feet 2 he said i would love to find a way to appropriate one other type of language if i can

i'd like i know we already got three in there i'd love to find another patois that i can throw into this i mean it's robin williams you're just describing his stand-up career please make sure the penguin is wearing a rasta hat that is very important otherwise people won't know this can't be subtle i believe i thought that was supposed to be the same penguin just doing a new thing it is it is but that's where he got tricky because i'm sure george miller came to him and said look you're playing the same three characters again narrator lovelace Ramon there's no room for you to invoke a third identity a fourth identity rather and he was like can the can the third character just inexplicably for the last scene much like Adrian Brody introducing Sean Paul on SNL

yeah that's Lovelace just suddenly becoming Chet Hayes for his final scene exactly exactly and that's what's good about it alright and the hat is made from his shirt where his belly has ripped right correct correct good job Ben well noticed

alright number three third build Hank Azaria of course right the breakout star of the film All right. Number three. Third build. Okay. Hank Azaria. Of course. Right. The breakout star of the film. The breakout star of the film doing a Scandinavian accent. Okay. Number four.

And she's billed this way. Alicia Moore. Begin brackets. Pink with an exclamation point. End brackets. And that's an exclamation point instead of an I. Thank you. It's not like she. I needed you to specify. Where was it placed? It's pink. That point instead of an I. Thank you. It's not like she,

it's a pig. Where was it placed? It's pig. That's pig's real name. I don't even know how you would read that. I think it's pig. That's so cool. I wish I could like,

could you just have your name and have an exclamation point in it? Like legally? Do it, Ben. Sure. Why not? Ben Hosley. Um um all right okay so pink is fourth build fifth build brad pitt yes love that brad pitt the famous actor yeah you heard of him sixth build what does he play he plays a krill he plays uh will the krill yeah right one of the biggest movie stars on the planet

yeah right make seniors money ball yeah six build matt damon okay oh another one of the biggest stars in the planet now here's where happy feet what is yeah what's his role what's his what's he doing you're never gonna believe this okay. He is also playing a krill. Interesting. This is where the marketing team for Happy Feet 2 runs into a problem. Because you have the two biggest stars in the movie, who are also two of the biggest stars alive, playing what are fairly probably the fifth and sixth biggest characters in the film. And are literally the smallest characters,

physically the smallest characters in the movie. I would put them third and fourth. I think they have more screen time than Azaria. Definitely more than pink. No offense to pink. Yeah. I disagree on Azaria. I'll accept pink.

I will accept pink and we will move on from this. All right. Seventh build. But this is where, okay, go on. No, go ahead.

Okay. Okay. Seventh build. Sofia Vergara.... Okay, go on, go on. No, go ahead. Okay, okay, okay. Seventh build. Sofia Vergara. Sure. You're okay with that? I will accept it. I will accept it.

She was popping at the moment. I'll accept it. Okay. Eighth build. Hugo Weaving. Reprising his role. Well, you got it. Was he the elephant seal?

No, he's the elder penguin. He has, like, two lines. There's so many freaking penguins in this elder penguin. He has like two lines. There's so many freaking penguins in this goddamn movie. I saw how many penguins the scenes overhead where there's just like tons of penguins and I was like, there's not this many penguins on Earth. There's so many freaking penguins.

It's terrifying. Ninth build is Richard Carter. He's build on the poster. Now he's the one. He's the big seal guy. He's billed on the poster. Now, he's the one. He's the big seal guy. He's the big seal. He's also the bullet farmer in Mad Max Fury Road.

He's like a journeyman Australian actor who's been in, you know, he's a detective in Bay Pig in the City. You know, he's in Muriel's Wedding playing a cop. 12 million penguins in the world. You're just looking up random stats and showing us your phone?

All right. Tenth build. Common. Replacing Fat Joe. Inexplicably. Fat Joe. Inexplicably. Maybe Fat Joe is just busy.

I don't know. Sure. 11th build. Magda Subansky, who of course we all know is the star of Babe Pig in the City. She plays Farmer Hoggett's wife. In this movie, she plays Bo's mother. I mean, it's a tiny role in this film. Yes.

She makes the 12 build actors, though. Yes. She makes the 12 billed actors, though. We're talking above the title. We're not talking about the lower credit block. This is the top of the poster. It goes this deep on billing to include her. Yes. I like that somebody maybe wouldn't be convinced until they got to her and they were like, okay, now.

Oh, Magda's in there? Okay. Oh, okay. You've won me over. Take my $12. No thanks. Yes. 12th bill me over. Take my $12. No thanks. 12th build, Anthony LaPaglia. Not even getting an and.

He plays a skua. Yes. He's one of the bad birds. Yeah, who's like, I want to eat them penguins. Ah! Like that. Okay, so you're... The poster that you're reading is the teaser poster, right? With all those names listed. The tagline is Every Step Counts.

And that says November 2011. Correct. Okay, but they start to realize, the marketing team, that they have a problem. Because they're two biggest stars are Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. But they're right there in the middle of the billing and they might get lost. You don't want people to not make it that far into the credit block, right? Right. So the final theatrical poster for Happy Seat 2,

this is what they do that I find fascinating. They cut out the second tier, right? Yes. So they go, okay, it's just one line of billing. Wood, Williams, Azaria. That's top three. And then they go Pitt, Damon

dead center in the middle of the poster not any higher, not any lower but they're dead center. And then continue Alicia Moore, Pink Sofia Vicar, Common. But what they do is underneath Brad Pitt and Matt Damon they put like a little Looney Tunes

circle with their two characters heads poking out of it, like breaking through the poster to spotlight them, and it says as Will and Bill the Krill. No one else gets

that spotlight treatment, so it feels like the movie is selling Will and Bill as the main attraction before you even get to the title. You don't even know what the movie is. Then you have to scan down and go, oh, it's Happy Feet 2? Every step counts. Every step counts. November 18th.

So this movie starts exactly the way you expect Happy Feet 2 to start. expect happy feet 2 to start it starts with crazy camera movement into the middle of the antarctic where a bunch of penguins are dancing and doing a medley of pop songs and you go okay it's this shit again right i cannot explain why but from minute one this was going down smoother for me than the first film which i do not dislike but, but do not love. And for whatever reason, I'm getting more into this. I don't know if it's just that, you know, Happy Feet 2 can run where Happy Feet 1

walked. I think it's a little bad. I'm entering at a high floor. I understand the heart songs. Society has reworked itself around mumbles. Everyone's singing and dancing i'm just like give me this crazy shit why i fucking give up i surrender go ahead sarah we should address your complaint right now about the realism the real but i see i think the first

one is i'm a huge pebble and the penguin fan and i feel like we can't talk about this film without acknowledging pebble and the penguin yeah and the first one to me is is pebble and the Penguin fan. And I feel like we can't talk about this film without acknowledging Pebble and the Penguin. Yeah. And the first one to me is Pebble and the Penguin. Not Pebbles. They're little songs, but whatever. But this one, you know, it's going down whole new roads that have never been traveled before. It really, you know, broke out of, I feel like, what made the first one a little formulaic.

This one, I could not tell you. If you were like, what's going to happen in the next scene? I think every guess would have been wrong. Correct. Every scene, if you tried to guess, okay, I know what's happening next, you would be wrong. Do you know what I kept thinking about watching this movie? And not only had I not seen it, had I not really engaged with it, but I truly had no idea what it was about outside of, Oh,

he's got a little son now. Yeah. So I was truly astonished at every single plot development, but I kept on thinking during this, when we, uh, uh, did our little Q and a with James Seamus after screening the,

the whole, uh, at the draft house in Brooklyn. James Seamus after screening the Hulk at the draft house in Brooklyn. And we asked him if he had had ideas for what Ang Lee's Hulk sequel would have been. And the pitch he gave us that he had worked on that just disappeared once Hulk bombed was that it was about Hulk on like a Native American reserve, connecting spiritually to the land and understanding the tapestry of like humanity.

Yes. And it sounded so abstract. And I was like, there's no way anyone would ever let someone make a big budget sequel with that as the log line. And that's kind of what happy feet too is. Yes. I think I would agree with that.

Yes. Um, it's well to quote from the first line of its wikipedia plot summary an evil iceberg is plotting to destroy antarctica that's not that that's not what we we see an iceberg break off and it sort of looks like an angry monster that's gonna like eat them so i guess i guess that's where they're getting it from an iceberg goes into a room of other icebergs and they plot this whole movie out i would love to have seen that scene i couldn't tell because there's so much within the Happy Feet mythology of them interpreting human beings as aliens. They're sort of misunderstanding of everything. Right.

I thought watching it that the iceberg was what they perceived a ship to be. No. But am I supposed to take it that it is an actual iceberg that is just moving rapidly towards their little land? Yeah, because of climate change or whatever. Sure. Yeah, it broke off because of climate change and it trapped the panguis. It trapped the panguis. But it is an iceberg that looks like the Titanic, right?

Sure, sure. It's a massive ocean liner iceberg. Yeah. But they see a boat later and they know what it is. Or they know that it has humans on it. Yeah, played a role in yeah right right yeah but the thing i just wanted to say griff because you were saying it i do think it looks a little better they've just i do too they've just sort of you know clean things up they've they already made one movie so like the animals look a little cleaner. I don't know.

The penguins don't look as samey. Obviously there's more animals anyway. So there's a little more diversity. The graphics for me, I thought were incredible. I was like, this is, these are top notch penguins. I mean, too real in a creepy way, but. Yes. But I think they are executed far better than they are in the first film there's like an

amazing kind of leap in the graphic ability of this film uh ruben you and i complain about this a lot uh because you're a very talented illustrator and we're both big animation fans and i feel like we will often vent to each other when we think an animated film has a boring character design, like what a waste it is, when they're not pushing the limits of animation. And this falls into that category of like, why are you just making the penguins look like real penguins? You know? Like, why are you stuck in this weird zone between actual photorealism

and being able to have the character design say anything about the characters i think in this one it doesn't it is creepy on some of them but then other creatures i feel like the elephant seals like look really good but then it's i don't know why the penguins maybe because penguins in general are like samey looking. They're very samey. I think like they just have a hard time or I don't know if they just thought if they look more real, people take the messages of climate change more seriously rather than if it was like cartoon penguins. The other thing they've done that's kind of annoying is they've kept Mumbles in his teen look. That's I was very confused and upset. Just to distinguish him. He still looks like an adolescent penguin and not a grownup penguin.

Yeah. But I think that's just so he sticks out. Maybe he has a teen dad. I mean, I guess he's a, I don't know enough about like penguin, you know, sex and reproduction to know if like they can reproduce when they're teens.

David, you don't know enough about that? I don't. I think it's time for me to learn more. Listen, you've got time to research. Yeah. I do think, Sarah, to your point, it's like the characters who work better graphically in this movie

are the ones who are new to this film. Like the elephant seals, like Sven, like Will and Bill, even though Will and Bill fall into that penguin problem of their designs are great, but also the two of them look exactly the same and look the same as the thousands of other girls in the movie. Do you think that they just made, they kept the same models from the old movie and then just did new models for the new characters? And that's maybe why I think I was trying to gauge this. The models look better for all the characters in this film than they did for the first film, having rewatched the first one recently. So I think they rebuilt the models, but they didn't want to change the design that much for the sake of continuity. But it is I think there was that weird thing in like the 2000s in particular. And by 2010, it's pretty much out the window of CGI animated films wondering whether or not photorealism was the goal.

photorealism was the goal. When the first Shrek came out, they were talking so much about, like, look at this. Look at how close we've gotten to photorealism. Right, because Fiona looks very human. It looks just like this photo of Shrek. Yeah, they were like, look at Shrek's pores. It looks just like the real Shrek.

And I think Happy Feet was still in that sort of zone of like, oh, the challenge is, can we make this look more like a live action film? And by the 2010s, everyone's like, maybe the goal is to make everything tune-ier. And I think it leads to a better wave in CGI and it makes CGI grow. And then we circled back around to let's make it so realistic that there was no point in doing this. Yes, exactly. Happy Feet 2.

Begins. So first five minutes. Mumble and Eric, his son, dancing. Eric can't dance. He can pee all over himself. He does pee all over himself. In an early humiliation. I wanted to forget that.

And Ramon is still around. to forget that and ramon is still around the rest of his uh penguin entourage is back in their zone with lovelace but the daily penguins he's uncle ramon he hangs out with the kids all the time and he is thirsty on maine he cannot stop talking about how much he wants to get laid yes he's looking for a trap queen a lot of penguin romance is is like not taking no for an answer correct in the first one too it's like just not it's being rejected and then trying harder all penguins are disciples of mystery i think that is canon within this film um right this first five ten minutes're like, this is exactly what I would think it would be. This feels like a thousand other movies. This feels like the obvious studio notes, like Brainstorm Session for Happy Feet 2, the version that George Miller doesn't direct.

And then the film just veers wildly off course. disappears wildly off course yes um eric after his great humiliation in which and when trying to dance he is upside down and pees on himself uh flees to a daily land uh which is where all the daily penguins are and meets the mighty sven who is a puffin who's pretending to be a special kind of penguin with flying powers and is trying to like bewitch all the other penguins into thinking they can fly. And he's voiced by Hank Azaria. He's a cult leader. Yeah. Yeah.

Which is, again, a thread from the first movie. The first movie also has a lot of cult leaders and false prophets. Right. And the penguins are kind of easily led sheep you know uh communities george miller loves cults of personality he does uh and this character is kind of similar to uh rocky from chicken run except rocky is like a con artist who's trying to like get out of a situation and this guy is just basking in the sort of uh idol tree he gets right he's not in it for the money or whatever he's just he just likes the attention i think

right that's also a bad god yeah he's not very horny he's everyone in this movie is fairly horny he's not a bad guy um but he is he's in way over his head and everyone's always looking to him for advice and and you know that's i don't know it's it's so weird and but he's got a stapled together beak because he was rescued and nurtured by the quote-unquote aliens on their big ship and that is where he met lovelace who was was also abducted by them. And they made him a little sweater, which is the key marketing angle to all of the stuff for Happy Feet 2. Because they seemingly didn't know how to sell this movie to people. They were all in on the sweater. They put the sweater on the work too.

The two in the title is wearing a sweater. It is some of the best human, like the effect that they put on the human actors to make them look like they're part of the film i'm very impressed by oh that is a whole it's so weird but it's another example of this movie just going to 90 almost immediately because all of happy feet one is building up to the eeriness of the human stuff and happy feet 2 gets there in like minute 15 in a massive story song that robin williams and hank azaria sing together where they explain their whole weird journey uh with the aliens it very much reminded me of um in sweet charity have you seen that the song that they sing is it sammy davis jr i forget what song it is that they sing about him where he's a

cult leader yeah but also like it feels like a music man like number like it feels like we're gonna explain to you why you gotta listen to this guy and here's his whole epic backstory and he saw something in the window that even i don't know but the point is i used to be your leader and i look up to this guy now So everyone has to double look up to this guy. So you have this whole sequence where Ramon is set up with, I forget her name, Carmen by Sven. Carmen is voiced by Sofia Vergara. She's not that interested in Ramon, at least initially. Amid all this chaos, mumble finds his kids he finds eric in the in the

babies and he's like we gotta go back to emperor land um but they're like we're never going back okay so that's all happening cut to to krill i just want to very quickly say at this point i'm not giving the movie credit and i assume or i had assumed the movie is going to be entirely uh mumble trying to find eric and bring him back home that is going to be the central conflict and instead mumble finds eric exactly it's 15 minutes right it's not like a finding nemo quest movie at all right so then i don't know what the fucking film is and then it cuts to krill then it cuts to krill will and will and bill krill they are part of a swarm of krill of millions of krill that moves around in the ocean being krill

um krill is like photo you know plankton they're little tiny shrimps little shrimpies they get eaten by whales and that's all they do they're just shit they're just like popcorn that whales eat all day and it feels like they have a very tight bond bordering on a domestic

partnership yes they have well so here's what I knew going in i knew that that uh someone had told me probably griffin brad pitt and matt damon play gay krill and i was like okay that must be like one funny scene that like that was they did as a favor to george miller it must be just like a little jokey moment in the movie no no no this is plot b yeah and it's will and bill uh well i always i have to keep checking because i get all right so will brad pitt is very much like what is our purpose why do we just do this right he's trying to figure out we have to gain some understanding of what our

places in relation to this universe um and he's sort of preoccupied with the fact that they're at the bottom of the food chain and like what if we try to eat uh meat then we would be higher on the food chain like it's sort of like what if we could just leap the food chain that way right because the the first installment with them bill bill's kind of the grounding element yeah bill's just like he's there for will i feel like like that's, Bill's just like, he's there for Will, I feel like. That's why he's on the ride. He's not as existentially concerned. It goes from, let's question, why are we following this stream?

Should we follow the pack? To cutting off from the stream and recognizing, oh, they're all just being led into the mouth of larger predators so they narrowly avoid their death and that's when he gets activated where he's like this is all a fucking our life is fucking bullshit not only am i not going to accept this but i'm going to reverse this we need to find something we can eat I must become dominant in some corner of this universe now. Right. Now question, krill, what do they eat normally?

What is the diet of a krill? Amoebas, microbes. Okay. Yes, they eat algae and phytoplankton. Yeah, you know. Little bits. Whatever's floating around. Got it. Are krill sea monkeys, or is that different?

What's in a sea monkey container? Sea monkeys are kind of related. They're brine shrimp. They're similar. Okay. All right. Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, you are now making me long for the sea monkey plotline in Happy Feed 3 that we will never get. Goddamn. God. Escaping the sea monkey plotline and happy three that we will never get.

God damn. God escaping the sea monkey container. Did you guys, I had sea monkeys. Did you guys ever have sea monkeys? Oh yeah, absolutely not. Oh,

come on. They're the best. Terrifying. No. Griff, did you have the aquarium that had like the little magnifying glasses built in? So you could,

of course. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. Of course. Yes. Disgusting. Anyway, there's Krill. Yeah. So there's the Krill.

So that's so that's just sort of going on separately. And I would say for 90 percent of the movie, these two plots do not interact. They're just happening in parallel. Every once in a while, they'll sort of pass by each other and this is where the nashville comparison comes in like every once in a while during a big set piece they will literally just pass each other within a geographic space very quickly and it just feels like the movie is sort of like very quickly shaking hands and moving on and you wonder if that's going to be the full extent of the tie between these plot lines right um and but yeah go ahead sven sven gives a motivational speech to eric

telling him because eric is so impressed with the fact that sven can fly and he decides that's the thing i'm gonna do because his father mumbles had told him look I went through this whole thing everyone thought I was a freak I wasn't good at the one thing that everyone else did don't beat yourself up about it you'll find your thing so he sees the flying and he's like that's my motherfucking thing and spends like 100% I'm behind

you and announces to everyone like this is the kid so then Eric is immediately seen as a demigod and then Mumbles shows up and is like, not a demigod. My stupid kid. Powerless. They never even try. Because in the first one, it was everybody sang and nobody danced, right?

And in this one, they don't even see if Eric can sing. You can't dance. Dancing's the thing now. Get out if you can't dance. You gotta dance. Wait, it's like, it's suddenly they go into a similarly suppressive and reductive society

where there's only one language accepted. If you want to sing a little on top of that, knock yourself out. And no wonder he doesn't like his dad because his dad is the one who made that change. Yeah, his dad's become a fucking cop. Yeah.

That's what happens, man. I don't know what it says about me that his disrespect for his father made me so furious. I was like, respect your father. He is very disrespectful of his father. I will say it doesn't help that his father looks like a teenager. So he's not exactly an authority figure. But like there is a scene right after what we're talking about where eric is like i want to go up the bridge and he just walks over this perilous ice bridge

and his dad's like oh don't do that no all right i guess we're doing it like it's just because he has no control over his little chick spineless like they sort of have a nemo marlin relationship except in that movie it is marlin is so overbearing so neurotic that nemo has reason to rebel and in this mumble is just kind of an overwhelmed teen dad who's trying his hardest and his son's like fuck you like constantly well marlin is acting from a place of love and mumble is just has no idea what having a child is. He really doesn't. So out of his depth. There is no warmth in his relationship with his baby penguin son.

But then there's this crazy showdown standoff with an elephant seal. I'm trying to remember. Named Brian, I believe is the name of the elephant brian the beach master is his name correct um and the beach master will not back up off this ice bridge which is all he needs to do to let them go by oh my god that's just like against his his deal he won't do it. Because it gets into the same thing of like, you have to know your place within the ecosystem.

Right. He's like, I can't cede ground to you because then when I face off against an actual predator who stands to possibly attack my children, I will have the reputation of the man who backed down to some dumb tap dancing penguin. Yeah. It's a philosophical issue I refuse to literally

back up. It's based in natural, like, I like that it's based in a realist, natural perspective. That he's like, when I fight later for my mate, if they know that I gave up space to a penguin i'm never gonna fuck again yeah anyway this movie starts really working for me is

everything it's doing is tied into actual weird animal behavior rather than evolutionary one which is just what if penguins did shit that penguins don't do? This movie is like, isn't it weird all these weird ways that animals behave, even though they can't talk to each other? Which is reflecting on how weird our behavior is. And how all these patterns that we can't get ourselves out of might be the only things that are keeping us alive. Right. Anyway, this elephant seal should be called tom petty because he won't back down sorry i just need to say that for a moment i thought he was both viola davis and maggie gyllenhaal because he won't back down oh god i saw that movie in theaters

i can't believe you're referencing that film not possible the movie doesn't exist you couldn't have seen it truly does not exist a pro charter school film starring viola davis who's like there was like a two-month period where that could happen uh anyway this scene is i agree where the movie sort of is started to vibe with me because it's very long it's like a 10 minute scene the whole movie just grinds to a halt right it's like its own short film within right the movie that has highs lows it's very strangely paced and then it ends with the elephant seal falling down into the abyss and then calling up to his children who are adorable little elephant seals and being like it's's over. Possibly the cutest creatures I've ever seen on this planet were those two little English or Australian baby elephant seals.

It is weird how like some of the animals have accents and others don't. You feel like this movie is about to kill off this character, that this guy is is gonna die in order to prove a point. Because the ice starts cracking underneath him, and his children are screaming, and Mumbles is like, there's one way you can survive. You know what it is, right? And he's like, if you're gonna throw that

backing down shit at me, you can shove that up your penguin ass. I already told you. Homie, don't do ass. I already told you. Homie, don't do that. I'm only moving forward. Oh, God. Those little penguins.

Those little elephant seal babies calling out to their father. You think and they think that he is dying. You're watching him fall down a great divide. It almost doesn't matter that he doesn't die because we've already experienced the emotions of him going. Yes. You've already, children have already been exposed to this. There's a pretty extended fake out. He is knocked out for enough time that you think the movie killed him, that this is a narrative dead end, and this 10 minute set piece exists only to further underline the themes of Happy Feet 2. Right.

Instead, then there's a whole sequence where Mumbles rescues him by like diving down and getting a leopard seal. And like, there's a whole thing that goes on and then Mumbles goes back to Eric and it's like, pretty cool, huh? And Eric is like, what? I don't care. Like Sven did that. Right. But also only after Will and Bill tried like pretty cool. Huh? And Eric is like, what? I don't care. Like Sven did that. Right. But also only after will and bill tried to eat him. This is where I think.

Yeah. They try to eat. What they think is his dead body. Cause they're like, this is our prime opportunity to start eating bigger things than us. Right. We can give this a shot right here. So then everyone just moves on.

Right. Right. That's happened. everyone just moves on. Right, right. That's happened. We're moving on. Still reunited with his children. Will and Bill thrown back into the ocean. Mumbles and Eric going back towards home. We're probably about halfway through the film at this point. The penguins get back to Emperor Land to find that

everyone is trapped because of the iceberg. The iceberg dropped down the section of Antarctica where the penguins, our main penguins live as if it were the hole in a bagel. It is now recessed. And so no one can get down there and they can't get back up to level ground and they are socially distanced. They're socially distant. They can't eat. There to level ground and they are socially distanced they're socially distant they can't eat uh there's no food for them and um then that's when i guess that's when the daily penguins all show up to feed them they're telling mumbles and eric and eric's little like baby friends like

hey this is fine don't worry about it can you just grab a bunch of fish and bring it back here to us can you grab two million fish and bring them back real quick can you postmates some sardines to the hole and then pink does an extended song an original song she sings to her son to calm him down which also causes the aurora borealis at least it's the aurora australis because we are in the the southern hemisphere just fyi but um but also yes i couldn't tell if she's summoning it or if she's sort of drawing power from it i don't really know is eric having a panic attack is that what we're seeing yes they fight he fights with his he fights with mumble and it's so scarring and emotionally visceral and mumble's just screaming where he's like they're all gonna die that old hijink the echo of like going down to the community

they're all gonna die right the community hearing, like, they will starve or whatever. It was such a weird fight, too, because, like I said, there is almost zero familiarity. It just seems like he's mad at a strange child. No, it feels like he's yelling at himself. Like, he has not become as much of an intolerant asshole as his father was, but it feels like he is now yelling at himself for his own childhood being difficult right sure so that whole psycho drama is playing out um meanwhile i believe this is when bill and will separate because um bill is a little too clingy will is all in on predator lifestyle bill has tried to sell will on the idea of settling down and raising children together

which he is into conceptually but he's not quite ready to domesticate yet it's not that he doesn't want to do it with bill it's that he he needs to, like, go out, venture, backpack across Europe. Right. He's got to get through this whole, you know, existential thing. His rumspring. Yeah. Right. And then they'll adopt other Krill.

Yes. There's got to be some fan art of these Krill somewhere. Oh, my God. I mean, what's it called a place of its own the slash that must exist out there yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah um but but yes and then also around this time we've gone back a couple times to ramon just being completely ignored and shut down by Sofia Vergara. Yes.

And Mumble is separated from his wife. So this is like peak drama in the movie. No one is getting any. That's a fair point. There's a lot of thwarted romance. But then I'm trying to remember how this all works. Then the birds show up,, the birds show up. The predator birds show up.

Oh, yeah. The skuas. What kinds of birds are those? Skuas. Italian, I think. Skuas? What? They're called skuas.

They're predatory seabirds. They attack. They love to eat fish, but also I think they can be a little bit of a pain in the neck for penguins. The gangster birds have surrounded or here. And it is. Yeah, it's Anthony Napalia doing his classic like mobster voice. Yes, that is the vibe. Then a daily land arrives, led by Sven, right?

Sure. And they're bringing the fish. And then the humans show up. Right, that's when the humans show up in their boat. They do a guitar solo. They do a guitar solo to

We Are The Champions. Right. For some reason. And Lovelace air guitars. Was Lovelace trying to dance or was he trying to like alert them to trouble and they were i believe that's the vibe he's trying to be like oh my god and they're like yeah guitar solo and then there's like a blizzard and they leave let's also mention a the reason why sven hates the humans but hasn't explained this to Lovelace is when he peeked through the window, he saw them all eating chickens. And so he thinks they were only rescued in order to be rotisserie later.

Right, right, right. And of course, puffins are a national delicacy in Iceland and other places like that. So he might be right. might be right um i also want to mention there was a complete narrative loop that happens at some point before this where uh when they get recessed and they're stuck the uh um uh what should we call it uh why am i forgetting his name uh agent the elder yes the weaving the hugo yeah no he has like a weird he's like gotta he's like yes yeah right he's like the weird sort of like hunchback like crooked penguin yeah he's a little a little gnarled and skinny right right he comes back he sees an opportunity to like uh seize control again uh retain his grip

on these penguins and makes a big play and gets shit on by a bunch of birds and immediately is dismissed that is the bathroom humor is is limited but it's it's it's placed very um artfully i'd say yes meanwhile eric is very much he's all in on like sven can just teach us how to fly and we will we'll just zip out of here. Yeah. That's when the pressure is on spend to really deliver in terms of like getting everyone flying. He has to take everyone to flight school. Yes. And there's multiple fake outs where he's like,

uh, what does he cut? There's that whole thing where he's like, I'm a bird. And then he's like a burden. If I don't teach you how to fly. Right. Like there's that,

there's all that. Yeah. But now like the remaining 45 minutes of the movie, like a burden if i don't teach you how to fight right like there's that there's all that yeah but now like the remaining 45 minutes of the movie it's a lot more movie but not a lot more plot yeah no it all takes place at this precipice like all of them on the edge looking down at their family who are going to starve to death and trying to solve the problem of the space between them and um what was i gonna say they have this like massive ice slide they have this massive ice slide and they're all sliding down it and then using the force of that to gain air and none of them get close and the one who gets closest is common whose son is also played by young rapper little peanut and is one of eric's friends who he ventured out with little peanuts gonna come back

in a later in this episode i want to mention something uh little peanut did peanut corner but but common who is the biggest of the penguins is the last one to go down this slide and spin is aware that the results are looking really bad for his argument that he can fly uh and that he's a penguin so he flies underneath common to try to propel him over the edge with his tiny little puffin body and then they both collapse to the ground and that's when he owns up that he's a bird uh and this thing i really like where his whole physiology changes and you realize that he's been like affecting the posture of a penguin right and then his whole body transforms into like uh a standard puffin posture puffins are are horizontal penguins are vertical right yeah

but penguins are birds right they are they are flightless birds but they do count as birds yes okay but you know you know i don't all right fair fine you don't know um so sven flies away and he's like look i'm sorry i never meant to trick you i just stepped on some ground it turned green it's global warming but i let you think that i was magical they do really skim over the global warming like when it's like oh he left his homeland because it became too green in the iceberg but they never really like explain it in any way i guess because the animals don't perceive it as global warming but i don't know if anyone would like because he's even like excited he's like oh look it's green

cool a big theme of both happy feet movies is the penguins don't understand global warming they're constantly terrified by all these threats around them they don't understand the thing that's actually going to kill them this is all true the other thing that's a major threat in happy feet is that they all sing songs and the big song that they sing is under pressure is there like that's that's the big closing dance that finally seals it it's with the help of the elephant seals well first they try to dance and they can't they can't get it they can't get in they're trying to get the snow down to like make a ramp but they need the seals and but then there's someone else that they need griffin who else do they need the krill

they need the krill well but they don't even know about this that's why it's good agree um because yeah Mumbles goes off he goes and gets the elephant seals the elephant seals help with all the banging that's cool but then but wait I'm sorry you're skipping over the biggest thing what David you are you're gonna feel

like a fucking fool uh huh when you realize you almost skipped over this how do they get the seal on board the seal is reticent they can't get through to him sure eric has to find what his language is yeah the opera scene right everyone sings mumble shows up now everyone's gonna learn how to dance and eric is like it's opera motherfuckers i gotta aria this shit this is this is true this is this is a little baby eric with the singing voice of e.g daily pickles and babe pig in the city herself does the opera that finally makes the seal, the elephant seal, throw away his pride and his ego and agree to help others.

That's the power of art. Meanwhile, Bill has come back to Will and is like, look, I figured this out. Out of loneliness. I figured out. Right. Out of loneliness, but is also like, I figured out a way that we can help and do something better and bigger maybe we can't become predators but we also don't need to be prey we can do a third thing which is weak in the ice tap little tap tiny little feet against ice

i think it's cool i think it's cool that when he comes back he's a legend oh yeah their lives are so short they're such tiny little creatures but I love this idea that he has like a mythology now they're great guys they're like oh I thought he'd be taller it's funny because he's a krill

there's this message of like right of like yes he's a krill and he's just a tiny infinitesimal cog in a giant machine and that's tough to handle but his is the final like step that brings down the ice to free all the penguins and so like it's kind of like when people are like oh is there is even like well why should i even vote like you know i'm one of millions it's like you have to write your congressman there is a reason that they like you could be the one right right right but but the

key to that is also the penguins will never know they They'll never know. No, they'll never know the krill. They are now legends, but they're also be dead at the end of this day. Yes. They're going to get eaten by whales almost immediately after this. And yet they're in a cave now. All right. They're in a cave.

Fine. They won't get eaten by whales, but like they'll live forever where the first happy feet movie is very much that more Disney style. Like, you know, the message is like, be yourself and,

and it's good to be yourself and you'll figure it out. And it's nice if you're different, don't worry about it. Right. And then this one is like, no, we all have our parts to play, but there's meaning in that.

Right. I mean, this, like when they all start doing under pressure and you're like cross cutting between like the penguins down below the elephant seals, like Eric singing, mumbles, tap dancing, the krill eating at everything. It feels genuinely operatic. Like it's like thrilling. Yes, it is genuinely thrilling.

And I liked it. And I liked the movie. I thought it was good the ledge collapses the the ramp is built everyone is reunited uh all the penguins get out yeah i mean to your point david what is fascinating is the relationship between this movie and happy feet one is almost identical to the relationship between babe pig in the city and the first babe where the first of both movies are like here's a weird animal society and it's all about an animal who dares to do something different than the others and is rejected and ultimately has to win everyone's respect it's like the innocent who questions the norms and changes everyone a little

bit and then both bay pick in the city and happy feet 2 are great you have your amazing little journey of self-discovery you don't understand how fucking big and scary this world is it will eat you up you are meaningless your little personal journey is nothing everything is out there trying to kill you yes and in both cases i feel like the first movies are like a classic like young artist journey of like finding your voice like finding your confidence in yourself building up your craft and then the second movies are george miller being like and then you have to figure out how to work within a fucking industry right like there's like go to hollywood and it's a nightmare you just can't win the best you can do is figure out the right

amount of compromise great lessons these are great lessons they're the hard lessons. They're the hard lessons. What were you going to say, Ben? Yeah, go ahead, Ben. Well, for a kid's movie, it's kind of just so weird. Get ready for the big city. Yeah, exactly. But it also is like stuff that I feel like kids should know and be exposed to.

A hundred percent. I am so wildly into this movie i can't believe i had i had not heard a single person say anything good about it i had never read a positive review of it i'd never spoken to anyone who had actually seen it especially for a first movie that is weirdly beloved i feel like it had no reputation whatsoever. I greatly prefer to the first Happy Feet. I like it so much that I was texting with David, despite already owning the Blu-ray that I bought

at a discount in preparation for this mini-series, saying, am I gonna double dip and re-buy Happy Feet 2 so I can own it on 3D Blu-ray? Because I want to see what George Miller's doing with that actual dimension. Let's play the box office game.

November 16th. I listened to the first half of an episode, so I don't know what this is. It's fine. We're going to play the box office game. Griffin's weird and he memorized box office. Oh yeah, I'm familiar with that. But they do not leave my brain.

Right. Okay, sorry. And so he's going to guess the top five movies of when this movie came out. And you can jump in if you have a guess. So this is November 18th, 2011. So I guess it's around Thanksgiving time. Right around the same time that the first film opened five years earlier everyone assumed it was just like yeah of course i guess people want to

see another one of these and then people just didn't show up um no was it number one no it wasn't happening well that's we're gonna griffin's gonna try guess, but it opened to number two at $21 million. It grosses $64 million domestic, $157 million worldwide. Not a complete disaster, but not a hit at all. No, it cost $150 million. The first one opened to high 40s and ended up making close to $500 million worldwide. Yeah, definitely a disappointment. 40s and ended up making like close to 500 million worldwide. Yeah. Definitely a disappointment.

But number one at the box office, also a new movie, is opening to 138 million dollars. So that's pretty good. Yeah. Is it a Hunger Games picture? No, but you're in the right ballpark. Is it a Twilight movie? Yes, but which one? Breaking Dawn Part One? in the right ballpark. Is it a Twilight movie? Yes, but which one?

Breaking Dawn Part 1? That's right. Weird. Which, yeah, which opened huge. 138 makes 281 domestic. Big hit. I'm almost surprised. I mean, I guess it's counter-programming,

but I'm almost surprised. Assuming that Warner Brothers must have felt really bullish about Happy Feet 2 that they would open it up against a movie that big. You would think they would want a weekend they could own fully. I guess audiences are different. Yeah, that's the Thanksgiving approach. There's always a grown-up blockbuster and there's always an animated film.

And they must have just figured, like, oh, well, we'll be the animated film and we'll do just fine and you know i don't know it was i think the real problem was what you said it's like it was old news like no one was out out for penguins in 2000 like that was that was yesterday's news and and heavy feet one as we talked about in that episode opens the same weekend as casino royale and they're the number one and number two movie in America for like three weeks in a row. But Happy Feet is the one that outgrosses the James Bond movie.

Correct. And this is the opposite where like the Twilight vampires just fucking body the penguins. Is that the second Twilight movie movie or is it the fourth the fourth twilight movie it's the fourth twilight oh that's not good you don't want to get beat by the fourth twilight um number three of the box office had been number one the weekend before it is a like ancient action film and yeah sort of in the vibe of like a 300 you know uh is it the one i'm gonna struggle for the title but is it the henry cavill tarson one that's correct but what's it called isortals? Yes, it's called Immortals. The loose adaptation of the myth of Theseus starring Henry Cavill.

That doesn't exist. Number four at the box office. It's a film that we might have covered. Had a certain bracket winner triumph, but he was knocked out in the first round. It's a round. Uh, it's a comedy. Oh, it's a comedy.

And, and it was in the March madness. It was, it was briefly in the March madness. Um, and, um, Hmm.

Is it a Dennis Dugan picture? It's a Dennis Dugan picture. That's correct. Is it the motion picture? jack and jill that's that is right it is jack and jill which outgrossed happy feet too oh pretty embarrassing because that was like one of sandler's biggest flops up until that yeah that was basically when sandler starts to think about his retreat to netflix This is near the tail end of Adam Sandler can do anything and make $100 million. That was the first Happy Madison to not make $100 million in over a decade.

Right. Do you guys address the March Madness on this podcast right now or no? We don't address what's happening in real time. No, we're addressing it. It'll be a time capsule I is it I that's that's my that's my

uh that's my solutions right now how many times has it been it's been like four years that he no he is not he always makes it this far he makes it this far and no further every single time. It's just, I feel like it's unfair, the setups every year.

I want to open up the sidebar. Okay. Ruben, for years, you have said, the only way I will ever come on Blank Check is to talk about Pacific Rim. Oh, I didn't say the only. I just said I really... I'm very passionate about Pacific Rim. Oh, I didn't say the only, I just said I really, I'm very passionate about Pacific Rim. I think in a way a lot of people are, but I just, you know,

I can't even, it would take a whole episode for me to go through all my feelings, my emotions about big, wet monsters, robots. There's a big sword. Yeah. There's funny little men. Sometimes he uses a boat as a sword they do fling a boat at the kaiju at one point

I guess they use it more like a bat the casual world we can't start talking about it right now it wouldn't be fair it's like your favorite cinematic universe is that fair to say? it's definitely my favorite cinematic universe. It's sad that they only made one film.

I would have loved to see more in the universe. Wow. I agree. Pacific Rim Uprising found dead in a ditch. That's what it was called, right? John Wayne is my enemy. I will say, you backed on at some point, and I don't want to drag up receipts,

but I swear at one point, at least, you said to me, I will only come on the show to talk about Pacific Rim. If you want me on the show, I'll do Del Toro. That was probably just because I felt like, you know, you've had some really strong guests, and I feel like I'm not up to caliber, but I feel like I could confidently speak about Pacific Rim for I have to strangers for several hours. I viewed it more as a bargaining chip like you trying to force the issue. I mean you've already told me that like

unless he wins the bracket it's not going to happen so I've kind of you know I don't like to you know so but Ruben let me tell you a little story about a certain director who two years in a row came really close in march madness until we finally had to throw our hands up and go i guess we're doing him he didn't win but i guess we're doing him and that man's name is george miller and we're doing this mini series right the fuck now and we've been having the

internal conversation i'm not committing to anything not confirming anything but we keep on talking about internally the del toro thing feels kind of similar now it feels like at this point we kind of just it feels unfair in a way it feels like you're against monster lovers and i just you know i just want to put that out there. Monster lovers everywhere saying Blankjack hates us. He was losing against Francis Ford Coppola, and you tweeted out and just immediately threw it in Del Toro's favor. Completely swung the button. Yeah.

You did, it's true. I did, yeah. I feel bad that I manipulated the vote, but I also don't care because I just really want to talk about giant robots. Guys, we need to discuss the fifth film at the top five in the box office. It's an animated film. It's an animated film. It's been out for four weeks. It's a $122 million grosser at this point It is a spinoff

Hmm Is it? The Penguins of Madagascar? No, that's later It's a spinoff It's 2011 It came out in October It came out on October

16th 28th, sorry Damn This movie premiered on a cruise Ship October 16th. Minions. 28th, sorry. Not Minions. Damn. This movie premiered on a cruise ship. I am not joking. This movie premiered on the Allure of the Seas, which is a giant cruise ship.

Is it the film Puss in Boots? Yes. And now can you tell me one other thing about this film? I will tell you, I watched it pretty recently. Yeah. After my anti-Shrek take

that then resulted in the Shreckening in which I got dragged by all of the internet, I watched it for the sake of completism

and I want to say it is the best Shrek movie. If you can count it as such, Puss in I want to say it is the best Shrek movie. If you can count it as such, Puss in Boots is far and away the best Shrek movie. I feel like it was pretty well received. People were kind of into it. It got an Oscar nomination for animated film. Remember that cat, that one cat that's like, ooh, that was a pretty funny cat.

And Alpy Cruz is the love interest of the film. But here's another thing about this film that you might not remember, although you just watch it, so maybe you do. An executive producer on that film, Guillermo del Toro. I was going to say, yep, Guillermo del Toro. Sarah, literally, she was looking down at her desk, and David said, Guillermo del Toro, and her head sprung up and a finger pointed up in the air he's got his little spooky fingers and a lot of pots and a lot of pies making magic happen everywhere he's a

magician and that is really what i'm was like chief creative consultant on that movie gets a producer credit apparently took a pass on the script like consulted from the direction seriously i will say you feel his fingerprints on the movie like the film feels a little cinematically more sophisticated than the trek franchise and certainly than most dreamworks movies i kind of like the film i will also now admit at this point, I got an email to audition for one of the lead roles in the 10 years later Puss in Boots sequel that is now happening. More than 10 years later. And I did not send an audition tape because that audition email came in the week after the episode where I dragged Shrek to the high heavens and I got really paranoid about it.

That's why you said no? It wasn't like I refused thing because then I watched Puss in Boots and I was like, fuck, this is good. And then I just felt like, am I gonna look like an asshole hypocrite if I just dragged on Shrek? That's what you get for dissing Shrek.

We should have never dissed Shrek, Griffin. Griffin, do you think Puss in Boots 2 is going to be about like Puss is sort of like chilling out and he's thinking of putting together like a retrospective and he starts, you know, smoking heroin just because his back's really hurting. There is for sure a Puss in Boots 2 already. There's not. They never made one. No, there's not they never made one they made a Netflix animated series there's some fucking holiday special or whatever they held up on making a proper sequel

I got this audition email I know what it's about it sounds fucking cool there was a character that I'm sure will be cast by one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood they were like we wrote this for you Griffin it kind of felt like it. And I'm sure I will be proven wrong

when fucking Will Smith ends up getting the part. But in the breakdown, I was like, this is in my goddamn wheelhouse and I didn't do it and I regret it. I think I was overthinking it. The other movies in the top five, Tower Heist, Griffin A movie

I like J. Edgar One of the least watched films I don't like it very bad Who's J. Edgar? I saw that in the theater. Leo Leo Armie Hammer is good in that

He's the best one He was really sad it features some of the worst old age makeup of all time terrible old age makeup insane insane yes uh you've also got a very harold and kumar christmas 3d christmas of the trilogy uh yeah i don't think i've ever seen that one uh in time uh what if time was a currency we all know time is money what this one presupposes is what if money was time right and then opening at number 10 the descendants uh in 29 screens opening with a colossal uh per screen average remember when uh everyone was all crazy about that movie yeah i never i never understood it i guess we could do pain we could do pain

we could enter the house of pain that is my jump around it is my least favorite film of his what i like is filmography a lot overall. I would agree. I would agree. And I famously, infamously stand for downsizing. Well, and that would be the blank check. That's the blank check. Have you ever seen Downsizing Ruben? I have not seen it.

I feel like you might be the rare. That's where they get little. They get really little. where they get little they get really little you might be the rare person who also likes downsizing maybe I have a feeling that that one's gonna click for me on rewatch I think it's a grower

I think it's a real Roman J is real I really recommend Matt Damon on B sims's podcast being like like unapologetically being like man that movie is good people will figure it out like he's not even like i guess people didn't like it he's like that one's good and he's like griffin's letterbox review was brave he's an american hero he was the only person willing to give it four out of five um rubes i'm so glad we finally got you on the podcast me too you're one of my favorite people um and i'm glad that we have finally broken the seal and laid out the track work for the

inevitable pacific rim episode and like i just want people out there to know, like, you know, Happy Feet 2, I'm fine with, but, like, Pacific Rim, it's just... Hell yeah. I have so much, so many feelings. I could, yeah, can't even describe them right now. Ruben, is there anything you want to plug? I have a website where you can, like, see my art and buy prints of my art, if you're interested in that. It's sumsararuben.com.

And there's no H on Sarah. It's just S-A-R-A. That's how you be. And sweetest Sarah on social media. Yeah. And Sweetest Sarah on social media. Yeah. And let's say the reason why I wanted to get you on for one of these Happy Feet movies.

I don't know if you're still, this is still in the works, but you had told me that you and your beau are planning to do a podcast where you only talk about talking mice movies. Yeah. Okay. Well, hopefully no one steals this idea because we're in the process of getting another podcast, Mike. So we haven't done it yet. You have until May 17th when this episode posts. Oh, perfect. Okay, then we'll probably be then.

Yeah. So hopefully by May, we'll have a podcast called Of Mice and Movies. And it will be about movies that only feature rodents and mice which is a lot of films. It is, yeah. I don't know why

so many animated movies focus on mice but they do and it's a wonderful gift and hopefully by then on my website I'll have a link to it if it exists. If it doesn't exist, please don't take it. I'm sure we'll eventually do it if it doesn't exist by then on my website, I'll have a link to it. If it exists, if it doesn't exist, please don't take it. I'm sure we'll eventually do it if it doesn't exist by then.

I look forward to all 500 episodes of your mouse movie. Thank you. Thank you. They're definitely I mean, you know, eventually we're probably going to have to branch out into like rabbits and shit. But, you know, you'll go there eventually. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you for being here on. Yeah. Yeah. Um, well,

thank you for being here on the show and thank you all for listening. And please remember to write, review, subscribe. Thanks to Andrew Guto for co-producing that show. And thank you to Lane Montgomery for a theme song, Pat Reynolds and Joe Bowen for artwork. Um, go to blankies that read.com for some real nerdy shit go to patreon.com

backslash blank check for blank check special features where we're doing commentaries and at this point we're probably getting ready to do whatever one march madness uh if we're not already uh deep into that um at this point well we're still no we'll still be in our toy stories oh well then even better. You're going to get to hear us talk about Forky, and you're going to get to listen to Ben meeting David's fiancée live on mic for the first time. I'm excited. I've heard great things.

The way you phrased it sounded like his fiancée was Forky. Yeah, no, that's what he's doing. That is the canon on this show. And tune in next week for, of course, the obvious follow-up to Happy Feet 2, Mad Max Fury Road.

A film nominated for Best Picture. Recorded pre-quarantine with, should we announce who with uh oh yes yes why not we originally thought we were gonna do that episode without a guest because it felt like one of those movies that we sometimes come across that is so big we just need to tackle it on our own uh but the timing worked out perfectly and right right before all travel shut down, along with the world.

Truly. Hollywood Yoshida herself, the mother of blankies, came back to New York for a week and is our guest on the Mad Max Fury Road episode. It is one of our longest episodes ever, if not the longest we've ever done. It's very long. It's the longest. Yeah. So get ready for that. And what fun has been doing George Miller?

It has. And that's all the stuff I usually say at the end of every episode. And as always. It's a weird title. Yeah. It's a little weird. Like happy arm.

That sounds so weird. Keep going, having happy feet that's what i don't think so i think it's like it's just like happy chest yeah happy chest happy chest happy arm was the original title for bull durham i don't know i don't Bull Durham. I don't know. I don't know, David. I don't know. Why not? Come on, that was good. Why not give it a shot?

That was not bad.