Pro-people protests at propaganda by penguin

The Sunday Telegraph ^ | December 3, 2006 | Philip Sherwell

[MadIvan]

It should be the ideal family film for Christmas: the animated adventures of a colony of penguins singing and dancing on the ice floes of Antarctica.

But just days ahead of its British release, Happy Feet is struggling to avoid an iceberg of its own, after Right-wing critics accused it of targeting youngsters with anti-mankind messages.

Commentators in the United States, where the film opened last month, have labelled the plot – penguins struggling to survive man's wrecking of their ecosystem – as pro-green propaganda hidden in a children's adventure.

Fox News presenter Neil Cavuto said: "What I found offensive is that they shove this in a kids' movie – you hear the penguins are starving because of mean old man, mean old companies."

CNN talk show host Glenn Beck added: "If you're going to include those themes, the least you could do is tell me, a parent, so I know I'm walking into propaganda."

The film, which stars the voices of Hollywood A-listers Elijah Wood, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman and Robin Williams, is seen by studio Warner Bros as a rival to new Bond film Casino Royale at the British box office.

Alan Horn, the studio's president and chief executive and the founder of the Environmental Media Association which advises the industry on green themes, said: "There is a very strong environmental message but it's couched in the context of entertainment and a story that's personal and I think the film's over-riding message is that it's okay to be different."

[MadIvan]

Death of Mary, Queen of Scots/Exploding Penguin on TV Set

From 'Another Monty Python Record

---

The sketch:

Voice over: Number ninety-seven: a radio.

Radio Announcer: And now the BBC is proud to present a brand new radio drama series, "The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots." Part One: The Beginning.

(music)

Man's voice: Yoo arrr Mary, Queen of Scots?

Woman's voice: I am!

(sound of violent blows being dealt, things being smashed, awful crunching noises, bones being broken, and other bodily harm being inflicted. All of this accompanied by screaming from the woman.)

(music fades up and out)

Announcer: Stay tuned for part two of the Radio Four Production of "The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots", coming up...almost immediately.

(music then sound of saw cutting, and other violent sounds as before, with the woman screaming. Suddenly it is silent.)

Man's voice: I think she's dead.

Woman's voice: No I'm not!

(sounds of physical harm and screaming start again. then music fades up and out)

Announcer: that was episode two of "The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots", specially adapted for radio by Gracie Fields and Joe Frazier. And now, Radio Four will explode.

(music an then the radio explodes.)

Two old women are sitting on the couch listening to the radio when it explodes. One looks at the other

First Pepperpot (Graham Chapman): We'll have to watch the Telly-vision!

Second Pepperpot (John Cleese): Aaaaw. (sound of agreement)

(they turn the couch so it's facing the television. One turns the television on, and they sit down. There is a small penguin sitting on top of the television set.)

Both Pepperpots: (singing, mumbled) hhmhmhmhmh... mhmmhmh mhmhm hhmhmmhm mhmhmmhmhmh

First Pepperpot: What's that on top of the telly-vision set?

(pause)

Second Pepperpot: (matter-of-factly) Looks like a penguin.

(pause)

Second Pepperpot: It's been a long time there, now, has it?

First Pepperpot: What's it doin' there?

Second Pepperpot: Standin'!

First Pepperpot: I can see that!

(pause)

First Pepperpot: If it laid an egg, it would roll down the back of the telly-vision set.

Second Pepperpot: Ummmm. I hadn't thought of that.

First Pepperpot: Unless it's a male.

Second Pepperpot: Yes. It looks fairly butch.

(pause)

First Pepperpot: Per'aps it's from next door.

Second Pepperpot: (yelling) NEXT DOOR?!? Penguins don't come from NEXT DOOR! They come from the Antarctic!

First Pepperpot: (yet louder) BURMA!!!

(they both stop short, looking around)

Second Pepperpot: Why'd'j say that?

First Pepperpot: I panicked.

Second Pepperpot: Oh.

First Pepperpot: Per'aps it's from the zoo.

Second Pepperpot: Which zoo?

First Pepperpot: (angrily) 'ow should I know which zoo it's from?!? I'm not Doctor bloody Bernofsky!!

Second Pepperpot: 'Oo's Doctor bloody Bernofsky?

First Pepperpot: He knows everything.

Second Pepperpot: Oooh, I wouldn't like that, that'd take all the mystery out of life.

(pause)

Second Pepperpot: Besides, if it were from the zoo, it'd have "property of the zoo" stamped on it.

First Pepperpot: They don't stamp animals "property of the zoo"!! You can't stamp a huge lion "property of the zoo"!!

Second Pepperpot: (confidently) They stamp them when they're small.

First Pepperpot: (snapping back) What happens when they moult?

Second Pepperpot: Lions don't moult.

First Pepperpot: No, but penguins do. THERE! I've run rings around you logically.

Second Pepperpot: (looks at the camera) OOOOH! INTERCOURSE THE PENGUIN!!!

(The television warms up: a man is sitting behind a news desk)

Man: Hello! Well, it's just after eight o'clock, and time for the penguin on top of your television set to explode.

(the penguin explodes)

First Pepperpot: 'Ow did 'e know that was going to happen?!

Man: It was an inspired guess. And now...

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Ping!

[The Duke]

...Right-wing critics accused it of targeting youngsters with anti-mankind messages.

It all started when that #$%@! hunter shot Bambi!

[The Duke]

Ooops...Bambi's mom...(even worse!)

[Navy Patriot]

North Korea is soon to test an exploding penguin.

[kb2614]

I'm in the mood for some barbecued penguin wings all of a sudden.

[newheart]

CNN talk show host Glenn Beck added: "If you're going to include those themes, the least you could do is tell me, a parent, so I know I'm walking into propaganda."

You know, I really like Glenn Beck, but sometimes he says the dumbest things. Earth to Glenn, the movie was made in Hollywood. That it is a propaganda piece is a given.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Are they just angry that this movie beat Casino Royale in the United States?

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Penguin's supposed to taste bad.

[sockmonkey]

Saw the movie. Penguins good/People bad. That said, Hugh Jackman does a very good Elvis impersonation as Memphis the Penguin in the movie.

[MadIvan]

If you read the article carefully, you'll see the people objecting to the film are Americans.

Regards, Ivan

[CrazyIvan]

Penguin's supposed to taste bad.

Most anything that lives on fish tastes bad. Fish ducks are horrible.

I had an uncle on a polar sub expedition. A weather station they visited made a big deal out of giving them some polar bear meat. The cooks started to prepare it while underway and it stank like rancid fish. The crew's sentiment was that the weather station was lucky to be out of torp range.

[Little Bill]

What did she dress out at?

[ct_libertarian]

What?!?!?

The Ministry of Hollywood made another propogandizing movie to stick in our faces?

NO!

Who wudda thunk it?!?!?

You would think it was like a trend or something.

They are so blatant even my kid sees it.
And still they ask, "Why aren't the stupid proles going to see our movies?"

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

Glenn Beck recently devoted an entire hour to this movie on his radio show....he really socked it to the producers and other assorted libs.

[org.whodat]

Penguin's supposed to taste bad.

probably true, but I do know they stink.

[Mercat]

Casino Royale... wasn't that the name of a very strange episode of Startrek Generations?

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Not a Trekkie.

Sorry to keep asking these webpage questions, but there are continuing difficulties with making the page. Can you go, particularly if you use Internet Explorer, to http://www.freerepublic.com/~jedimasterpikachu/ and freepmail whether it looks organized or not to you. The width of the topic tables were set to 100% and the pixels of the non-table pictures were specified some minutes ago.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"THERE! I've run rings around you logically."

Who'll be the first to steal that for their tagline, I wonder? LOL!

I love those guys. They always make me laugh out loud. We used to have their 3-sided record, which was pretty amazing.

[5Madman2]

Saw it too, with my kids. The propaganda angle aside-it was just a bad movie. Plot continuity sucked, and that made it seem much longer than it was. The 98 minutes seemed like 98 days to me.

All the other crap in it-the humanization of animals, exclusion of someone different, raising emotion (song in your heart) to a pedestal above accomplishment and logic, and the enviro-happy crap, was standard fair for movies like this, except they pushed all it of over the top. To the level of absurd.

The final "you gotta be kidding me" was when the UN fixed it and made the people/penguin world one big happy place, where everyone danced and happily ate fish.

I don't usually comment on such things to my kids after movies, but I had to set them straight on this one.