Elijah Wood talks about his Happy Feet

By: The Dude, Lovey

LOVEY: Oh my God! Elijah Wood.
THE DUDE: Hey, it’s Frodo Baggins… How are you myyy precioussss? Ha.
LOVEY: No, it’s Elijah Wood, who voiced Mumble in Happy Feet.  Wow. Hi Elijah. How did you go from Lord of the Rings to Happy Feet?
ELIJAH: I read the script and liked it. But, with an animated film you can only imagine what it is going to be like, so I met with George Miller, who has directed it. I was a fan of his work, and it was meeting George and seeing what his perspective of the film that convinced me.

LOVEY: And this is such a lovely movie about penguins and their Heartsong. Can you tell us a little about the role of the Heartsong in the penguin culture?
THE DUDE: Forget the Heartsong, tell us about the love story between Frodo and Samwise.
LOVEY: No one is interested in Lord of the Rings… we’re here to talk about Happy Feet. The Heartsong Mr. Wood?
ELIJAH: The Heartsong is actually kind of a real thing. It comes from the idea that Emperor penguins in the wild recognize their mates by their voice. This way they can recognize them vocally and be able to pick them out in a crowd of thousands of penguins, which plays a major role in their society.

LOVEY: That’s adorable.
THE DUDE: That’s sickening. The real issue here is the similarities between Happy Feet and LOTR. Admit it Frodo, they are there, yeah.
LOVEY: What are you talking about?
THE DUDE: This little penguin fella…
LOVEY: Mumble.
THE DUDE: …goes on a quest to find one song to rule them all, yeah?
LOVEY: What? That’s not what happens, is it Mr. Wood?
ELIJAH: Umm… Mumble is initially outcast, and along the way he discovers, not only who he is and how to fit into the world, but also that there is a food shortage problem in his community. Mumbles takes it upon himself to find out what is going on, which ultimately becomes his quest, because he is blamed for this food problem due to his sacrilegious foot behavior. I think we have all felt at some time in our lives that we don’t belong.

THE DUDE: Ah-ha. So there is a quest!
LOVEY: Idiot! Mr. Wood, Have you ever been on a quest like Mumble?
THE DUDE: Der. He’s Frodo. He’s only been on the biggest quest ever undertaken by a Hobbit. Tell her man.
ELIJAH: When I was in my early teens I didn’t have a lot of friends my age and I felt older than I was because I was working in films and had responsibilities that most kids my age didn’t have. I didn’t relate to the people my age that I did know and it was a problem initially; but as I became a teenager it didn’t bother me anymore, I had friends that were a little bit older and I kind of grew into who I was, and a sense of confidence was born out of that. I think everyone certainly goes through that, but it is the individuality that makes us special, and conforming isn’t necessarily the best thing for us or anybody else to do.

THE DUDE: Boring!
LOVEY: If you were a penguin, would you be more of a dancer or a singer?
ELIJAH: Well, I think I am a little bit of both. I can carry a tune and I can mildly dance. So, I am sort of somewhere in-between.

THE DUDE: In between Helms Deep and Mordor. Middle Earth-style?
LOVEY: If you’re not going to ask a serious question, then leave.
THE DUDE: Alright. Here’s a serious one. We all loved Gollum in the trilogy. But, what was it really like working with the freaky little dude?
LOVEY: Gollum is not a real person.
THE DUDE: Der. He’s a Hobbit turned bad.
LOVEY: No, he’s an animated character. So the real question is - what’s it like to voice an animated character?
ELIJAH: I had a blast! And the other thing too about voice work is that you don’t have to worry about being on camera or wearing a costume. In a set you have to rely on your physicality and on how you are meant to move. Here you are very free standing there in front of a mike, and it’s all about your voice, which I enjoy. And being able to work with other actors in the same room, specifically Robin Williams, makes the experience so much more fun because you can bounce off them.

THE DUDE: What? Robin Williams is Gollum? No way! I thought Mrs. Doubtfire was a great costume, but that Gollum suit rocks!
LOVEY: He’s talking about Happy Feet! The movie he stars in alongside Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. What was it like working with them?
ELIJAH: I only got a chance to work with Robin Williams and Brittany Murphy. In the case of Hugh Jackman, he was ending the session as I was entering, so we kind of overlapped each other, but I got to see how he worked, which was great. The schedule of the voice recording in animation is a nebulous thing, because it depends on the schedules of the actors, so it is not always a community effort. But I was lucky because I did get to work with Brittany and Robin.

THE DUDE: When you first met Robin Williams did you greet him with a hearty ‘Nanoo nanoo’? Did you get to meet Mindy too?
LOVEY: Please forgive him, Mr. Wood. What is Robin like?
ELIJAH: He is amazing. There seems to be a million voices in that man’s head, and they come out a lot. He is a force of nature. I grew up watching him in films, and also watching animated films that he voiced. I always marveled at his ability to create characters and to inhabit them with these different voices in this very almost schizophrenic way. To be able to work with him was an honor, and often hilarious.

THE DUDE: You know who was really hilarious? Mearth. Remember when Mork and Mindy had a kid, and it was like this fully grown Jonathan Winters…
LOVEY: Have you even seen Happy Feet.
THE DUDE: Nup. Sounds major lame.
LOVEY: It’s not, It’s unique.
THE DUDE: A unique brand of ...
ELIJAH: What makes this film unique - in the mass of these (animated) movies - is that it has its own style, which is actually very photo realistic. That was problematic in regards to the animating process, as it took longer and was much more difficult to make the characters distinguishable, because obviously penguins look alike so much. But it is a very realistic experience and the landscapes are almost exact photographs of Antarctica.

THE DUDE: Let’s be honest Woody… if you don’t drop the animated kiddie flicks and get back to some major blockbusters, your career’s shot, yeah. You know it. I know it. The Eye of Sauron knows it. What are you going to do about it?
ELIJAH: I don’t have and never have had any kind of plan. I am always interested in trying different things, and there are a variety of reasons for why I would want to do any given thing at any given time. I like to keep the perspective relatively clear. It’s kind of nice to see what comes up and which path my life takes me on.

THE DUDE: Da, da, da, another career bites the dust.
LOVEY: I’m so sorry. I’ll just ask one more question then take this guy out and kick him right in his precious. What sort of audience is Happy Feet aimed at?
ELIJAH: I see it as a family film, entertaining for everyone. I personally love going to see animated films and this one is for the whole family.