Headscratchers / Happy Feet Two

• Many of the penguins are trapped on that high mountain and spend most of the movie trying to get back down. What bugs me is there were a few wide shots of that mountain and on the mountain's sides were steady trails and pathways the penguins could have easily taken to get back down. The movie should have been over in 30 minutes!
  • Thepenguins on top of the iceberg are trying to free the ones trapped at the bottom by bringing them up to the top, not get down to them.
  • But then that adds in some fridge logic pertaining to the first film. How did baby Mumble get all the way up on top of the ice shelf by himself in a short amount of time (when he's dancing to "I Wish" before the Skua show up), while none of the other penguins in the sequel can seem to get up there? Is it that he went all the way around and get very close to the ocean to get up to the top?
  • It melted into a more-difficult-to-climb shape. That's the point.
• Uh, why is Mumble treated by Gloria as making things worse by pointing out that emperor penguins physically cannot fly and that it is false hope to believe so to Erik?
  • Because Erik is just a kid and telling him that he's trying to do the impossible might make him even more depressed and feel more like an outcast. It's kind of like telling a kid that there's no Santa Claus. Likewise, finding out your idol was lying or was wrong can be really devastating on a kid. I'm not saying that Mumble wasn't right about Sven (he was), but rather that him dumping all of that negativity onto Erik wasn't a good idea.
  • Mumble was pouring salt onto Erik's wounds, and it may have been a reality check, but it was pretty messed up.
    • On the other hand, Erik had just nearly plummeted off a cliff because he thought he might be able to fly. Which would obviously freak any parent out, and prompt a "What the hell were you thinking?" speech as a reasonable response.
• Am I the only one that saw Erik's supposed outcast status as an Informed Attribute? Sure, he was laughed at when he hurt and crapped himself the first time he tried dancing. But he's still cared for and supported by Mumble, Gloria, Attacus, Bo, Viola, Ramon, and Seymour and they didn't care that he made an ass of himself. They still loved him and supported him. The thing that makes it much more striking is that Mumble was much more of an outcast in the first movie, since the Elders treated him as though he were causing a famine, everyone pretty much hating him or thinking he's insane aside from Gloria, the Amigos, and Norma Jean, and everyone trying to force him to stop being himself. There is no systematic discrimination against Eric.
  • I didn't even think the main plot was supposed to be an outcast story.
  • OP: But it drives Eric's actions for most of the story. It makes Eric look like he's really overreacting.
    • I'd say Erik considers himself more of an outcast than he actually is because he's a little kid rather than the teenager/young adult Mumble became during the first movie. Little kids exaggerate; it's part of who they are. Cut the little penguin chick some slack.
  • Erik doesn't have an outcast status (as mentioned earlier, he's not short of a support system and encouragement from friends and family and he's not incapable of singing or dancing). He has a severe case of Social Anxiety. Those with anxiety find it very stressful to "let loose" and are always fearful of ridicule when they do express themselves openly. The opening of the movie where he's introduced makes this crystal clear: he's content to watch the festivities and has to be encouraged to join in, only to be very embarrassed to have an accident. Like the troper before stated, yes, he does consider himself an outcast, but it's Truth in Television that those with anxiety don't feel that people can understand them or fully connect with them.
• Was I the only one bothered by how the Amigos, aside from Ramon, seem to latch so quickly onto Sven's ideology, despite how the first movie proved that Lovelace was making things up and Raul even says "I Knew It!! It was all a lie!" when they find things out in the first movement?
  • People...erm, Penguins can be stupid like that. It's not unusual for us to latch onto someone whom we think is a great role model/leader, find out he's a fraud, leave him, and move onto the next Snake Oil Salesman. The more amazing someone sounds, the more we want to be a part of their group and we want them to lead us to greatness. Sven's message of "You can do anything if you put your mind to it" was further enhanced by him being a puffin, a bird that can fly and that the penguins had never seen before (Hence why they thought he was a flying penguin). To them, Sven was a miracle worker and they thought that him leading them would bring them a new era of prosperity. In other words, it's like all the other religious and political leaders out there. They promise big things, but can only deliver the small ones...if even that.
  • Adding to this, Happy Feet established that the Amigos aren't really bright, so this is probably normal for them.
• At the end of the first movie, Mumble had lost a lot of his fluff to the point where his "bowtie" disappeared. In this movie, which probably takes place at least a year later, Mumble should have lost more of his fluff, but instead it all grew back. What gives?
• Sven probably isn't the last puffin in the world; he may have been the last in the wild, although there are 3 species of puffin; the rest are most likely in captivity.
  • There are puffins in the wild (ask anyone in the northern US or northern Europe) but his particular species might be in captivity and it's not like he'd know otherwise. Likewise, for all we know, he could be making that up.
    • Sven is a Tufted Puffin, which is least concern. So he probably either made it up or was lead to a mistaken belief.