After all, theyve already gone cuckoo for the animals in DreamWorks CG flickMadagascar.
(Click here for Lisa Schwarzbaums review.)
But we never really worried about it.
Credit: LaBeouf: Steve Granitz/WireImage.com
Kids are growing up with tons of reality TV, and theyre really used to the documentary style.
So youre coming out at the tail end, as it were, of all these other penguin movies.
We did wind up looking at some parts ofMarchas visual reference.
We werent going to change the characters into squirrels or kangaroos or something else.
We just had faith in the fact that our movie is different.
When you get past the penguins, its a character story.
After people see it, they dont call it a penguin movie.
They hone in on the surrogate-father-and-son story.
I didnt seeHappy Feet, but Chris did.
But visually, were totally different from the earlier films.
Only a few species live in Antarctica.
Thats my educational portion of the interview.
Where did the whole idea of surfing penguins come from?
They surf standing up, on their feet.
There has been footage of them actually doing this.
Wow thats one for the DVD.
Our casting director put his voice in front of us.
He was so great to audition.
He drove himself to the studio, came in with some fast food in a bag.
No entourage, nothing like that.
And that manner of his never changed, even as hes gottenTransformersandIndiana Jones 4and all these other projects.
He puts across that adolescent angst that Codys going through in the movie.
And pairing him with Jeff Bridges really worked the upstart and the veteran.
We recorded them together as often as we could, for almost all their [animated] scenes together.
