December 8,2006
The Racquette
8
Happy Feet dances into moviegoers' hearts
Drew Jackson
The Collegiate Times
Firginia Tech
Parents of small children used to
cringe when any highly publicized
animated movie brightened the
faces of their kids while the family
gathered around the television.
Now they have to go to the mall
some Saturday and watch the
English-speaking animals or inanimate objects save the day. Lately
though, the heartwarming slapstick
has been laced with timeless sexual innuendos and better animation,
allowing adults to say more about
animated movies than "cute" or
"sweet." Happy Feet, directed by
Babe: Pig in the City director
George Miller, is not the aforementioned typical cartoon. It is not a
kid's film with dirty jokes for
adults. It does, not just have something for everyone, it is for everyone.
In the frozen and beautifully animated Antarctica setting of Happy
Feet, a specific comrriunity of
Emperor Penguins relies so heavi-
ly upon Singing that any penguin
without a "hearlsong," a personally
defining song every penguin naturally possesses, is not a penguin at
all. No penguin has to worry about
this, though, because they can all
sing, that is until Memphis, an
Elvis-impersonating
Hugh
Jackman, and Norma Jean, a
Marilyn Monroe Nicole Kidman,
produce Mumble, voiced by Elijah
Wood, a penguin that is a lot less
Barry White and a lot more
Gregory Hines.
Mumble's rhythmic step just
does not fit in with the penguin's
tune-dominated society, and he of
course falls in love with Gloria,
voiced by Brittany Murphy, the
penguin with the most beautiful
voice of all. He becomes an outcast
and a joke. He cannot even molt
correctly, staying a mostly gray,
blue-eyed fuzz ball that, with the
right taxidermist, would make the
world's best nighttime cuddler.
After escaping a very hungry and
ferocious sea lion, Mumble meets
five penguins apparently from East
L.A. who are actually impressed
by his moves. The dominant chap-
acter of the five is Ramon, one of
the three characters played by a
Robin Williams who does not quite
stretch himself as far as his Genie
in Aladdin, but Williams plays an
animated character in real life, so
he is still entertaining.
Besides an occasional narrator,
Williams plays a Rockhopper penguin named Lovelace whose neck
is caught in the plastic from a sixpack, that foreshadows a future
theme of the movie, which he passes off as a talisman bestowed upon
him by the mystical beings. He is
therefore seen as a guru by all the
Adelie penguins. He also offers up
a memorable line of the' movie.
After Mumble doubts his powers,
an angered Lovelace, with four
concubines on his arms, says he is
"retiring to the couch of perpetual
-indulgence."
It is really hard for an actor to
steal the show with his or her character in an animated film. There
are no candidates in Happy Feet,
but for those still mourning the.
death of Steye Jrw-lii, his voice can
be found in an elephant seal.
Bf anything, it is the literally
stunning visuals in the movie. One
can feel a chill while watching the
harsh, snow-blown winds of
Antarctica and the speed of sliding
head first down an ice bank and
into the icy deep blue water. Even
1
on a normal screen I once felt the
slight fluttering of the stomach that
typically only IMAX can achieve.
This may have never been said
about an animated movie, but the
choreography was addictive. A
seemingly infinite sea of tap-dancing penguins forces your feet to
attempt to keep up with the black
leathery feet on screen. Driving
away after the movie a kid could
be seen on the sidewalk, obviously
from the same theater, improvising
his oyn little dance.
In terms of plot, it is kind of thin.
Happy Feet relies a little too heavily on the outsider theme without
actually accomplishing very much.
It admittedly works and is entertaining but just barely. The latter
message can also come across as
preachy.
The movie can be easily divided
into halves. The first is an innocent
blend of March of the Penguins
mtvU provides contest to
promote college musicians
Melissa Tinklepaugh
A&E Editor
mtvtj's Best Music on Campus
contest for this year has begun
with four contests continuing until
March. The prizes will be four different record and video deals.
Also, one grand prize winner will
receive the opportunity to perform
on Late Night With Conan
O'Brien. Artists entering the contest will also be featured on the
mtvU channel and website weekly.
mtvU is stating, "This year, the
BMOC is better than ever.
Interested musicians can enter
by
submitting
work
at
http ://www.bestmusiconcampus. c
om. The website features a webpage for each artist to post their
own work for visitors to vote for.
The four different contests reward
winners with the chance to work
with Epic Records, Definitive Jux
Records, Epitaph Records, and
Drive-Thru Records.
Web pages such as myspace.com
and You1 Got Served, subtly telling
kids and reminding patents, by the
powers of singing and dancing
penguins, that it is alright to be different. Things then get very serious.
Without giving too much away,
let us just say that the second half
of Happy Feet may make for an
uncomfortable moment in the
minivan, when mommy and daddy
have to explain why they are stealing all the fish from the penguins.
It is dark and strangely intense. I
could not believe they were actually targeting children with these
occasionally heavy and depressing
images and things like significant'
2001: A Space Odyssey references. >
;Then,'it became clear while!
watching an animated little girl In*
the film. Miller has made environ-mentalist propaganda at its finest)
and solved it with the target audi-l
ence: the children. Happy Feet\
pla.ces the hope of global welli
being in the hands of the upcoming!
generations. There is something,
about the dancing kid on the side-;
walk that says the message was
well received.
>,
••••
:#..:
1
Movie times at the Roxy
20 Main St. Potsdam, NY 13676 (315) 265-9630
Tuesday night is college night at the Roxy.
Tickets are $3.50 with student ID
and purevolume.com have proved
to be a new successful way for new
artists, with less risks of losing^,
money, to get their musicxnit-tp'the
masses and to build a fan base. By
taking advantage of mtvU's Best
Music on Campus contest, this
allows for musicians to make thenmusic available to record labels.
mtvU has reported, "The labels are
really excited about this. They are
convinced that astounding bands
are out there, and this is the way to
find them."
Casino Royale (144 min)
PG-13
6:45, 9:30 Nightly
Sat/Sun 12;15, 3:00j>.m.
The Nativity Story (101 min) PG
7:00 Nightly
Sat/Sun 12:45, 3:00 p.m.
Happy Feet (108 min)
G
7:00 Nightly
Sat/Sun 12:45, 3:00 p.m.
Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (97 min) R
9:00 Nightly
The Fountain (96 min)
R
9:00 Nightly
The Apocalvpto f 137 min') R
6:45, 9:30 Nightly
Sat/Sun 12:15, 3:00 p.m.
TV music supervisors create show
Tessa Strasser
Arizona Daily Wildcat
U. Arizona
Most people have a tendency to
turn off their favorite TV shows
once the credits start rolling. But if
you actually watch the credits,
some unfamiliar titles may come
up. Best boy grip? What does he
do? Foley artist?
Music supervisor may seem
slightly more straightforward. "I
had no idea what a music supervisor was until I came to L.A.," said
David Sibley, music supervisor for
Desperate Housewives,
Both Sibley and Jon Ernst, music
supervisor for the shows Laguna
Beach and The Hills, worked with
composing music before they
became music supervisors, Sibley
had written and played music all
along, working his way through
college on a music scholarship
before eventually getting an internship with the Television Academy.
This led to the profession of music
supervisor. Ernst spent quite a few
years working as a composer for
television and found there was a
natural progression to coming on logue or if the song has a foreign
board to work With shows like sound -that will distract from the
Laguna Beaeh that are scored by ongoing events, Finding the right
songs rather than instrumental balance is a delicate task.
scores.
"A lot of times> the story is told
On a day-to-day basis, the job of in the song itself," JErflst said,
music supervisor entails a lot of "Especially in the scene where perlistening to music and getting the haps the people in the scene aren't
rights to the songs, Ernst said. The saying much, so the songs, in a lot
job requires more technical parts of ways, need to tell that story to
as well, Sibley said, such as pro- the audience."
ducing any live music required for
Bands that are featured on a; Hit
playback, troubleshooting possible show can feel an effect in record
issues that may arise during shoot sales and fan adoration. "The Fray,
days that utilize music, and advis- who recently played the University
ing budgets for requested music of Arizona's Centennial Hall,
uses, among many other tasks.
received a boost in their fan base
Being a music supervisor is not from the show Grey's Anatomy,
just about getting the opportunity Which used their song "How to
to give your favorite bands some Save a Life" in promotion 'fat the
promotion through the job. "The new season. Music soundtracks^ in
scene is paramount. It's about fact, helped Joshua Radin establish
which song best compliments the a music career.*
story. I try not to let my personal
Radin had only written one song
taste in the music I would listen to and played one open mie night
at home affect my job," Sibley before his song was used on the
said.
'
show Scrubs. He played the song
Lyrics can often at times be dis- in his living room for friend Zaeh
tracting and take away from a Braff, who loved the song and
scene. Some of the worries of a encouraged him to send it to promusic supervisor are whether the ducers. Radin recorded the song in
lyrics will get iiUhe way of the dia- a friend's bedroom, sent it to pro,*:,
ducer Bill Lawrence, and three
weeks later, the song "Was onthe
.show:
_ - ;'
- / - • : . ' ; . - . ,.:••' ~
"I had such an amazing response,
from that sOng being on the show:
that people kept writing m e and
writing me, saying,, 'Pjease write
more music,' andso I land of fell
into this career," Radin said. "Ever
since that day, I've had a career as
a musician, so it's been amazing"
Two of Radin's song? .also
appeared on Grey's Anatomy after
the music supervisor attended one
of his shows. After they Used his
song "Closer" in an episode, his
independently released record shot
tip to the top 25 albums On iTunes,
"That's when all the labels got
interestedj" Radin said, ''there was
this bidding War, and I ended up
signing With Coiumbia."
A close friend of Radin's,
Sohuyler Ksk, had a similar expe^
rience; Fisk is Still working on her
first recordj but she had a duet with
Radin included on the soundtrack
for the movie The Last Kiss before
a recent touring jaunt on the Hotel
Cafe tour.
"She had never toured or anything. '
ii^t
all these fans she had gotten!
already just by toeing, on thati
souhdtraeky" Radin said.
;
•-••. Radin said any chance at expo-^;
sure is a great opportunity when!
you am in independent artist, brj
even a signed artist. Radin said hei
is open to any kind of exposure,.!
even letting students who wrote or i
called use Ms songs; for their films, j
"I don't know how it all works, I
just see an immediate response
from people once a song is ott ai
sht>w or in a movie," Radin said-:
"It's kind of like film tod TV is!
really the new radio;"
I
Ernst had similar thougfttSj Say-^ j
ing that he has received a greatresponse from sortae of the indie;
artists he has included, who havegotten great publicity from the!
usage. Even major labels see thei
benefits, Ernst said. Labels have toj
come to rely on shows \\k&Laguria\
Beach as a way to get their music]
Gut there.
j
"It's, probably atit of the most!
important exposure vehicles forj
music these daySi" Ernst said.
f
*•*%