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Mumble
Gender Male
Relatives Memphis (Father)
Norma Jean (Mother)
Gloria (Mate)
Erik (Son)
Maurice (Presumed father-in-law)
Michelle (Presumed mother-in-law)
Appearance Grey back, white front.
Grey baby feathers.
Black bow-tie.
Bright, blue eyes.


Deleted Adult Version:
Black back, white front.
Black head and black flippers.
Yellow bow-tie.
Bright, blue eyes.

Voiced By Elijah Wood (as Teenager/Adult)
Dee Bradley Baker (Baby sound effects)
Elizabeth Daily (as a Baby)
Appears In Happy Feet
Happy Feet Two
A Happy Feet Moment
"Come on, let's shake this world!"
―Mumble

Mumble is the main protagonist of the Happy Feet franchise. He is the son of Memphis and Norma Jean, the mate of Gloria and the father of Erik. He is unique in that he is the only Emperor Penguin to not have a Heartsong, and the first to be able to tap dance.

Information

Happy Feet

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Memphis picks up Mumble's egg after it is dropped.

Mumble is first seen as an egg, which is handed off to Memphis by Norma Jean. During his incubation, he is dropped and briefly exposed to the environment's sub-zero temperatures, before being picked back up. This dropping may be a contribution to his being different later on in the film.

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Memphis worries when his egg does not hatch when everyone else's does. The egg is spotted by Gloria, who taps on it and recieves a response from inside. Two feet emerge from the egg and start to walk off; the chick gets his name when Gloria playfully addresses him as "Mr. Mumble."

Mumble is shown to be an excellent dancer from the moment he hatches, though everyone fails to see this and assume that there is something wrong with his feet. While Mumble attends school, he is discovered to be lacking a Heartsong, which is said to be very important for being a proper penguin. In fact, he has a terrible singing voice, which does not improve despite him being sent to Mrs. Astrakhan, the best singing teacher. As a result Mumble is teased, and his mother worries that he will never find a mate and spend his life alone. But a defiant Memphis objects, saying that their son will grow up to be normal after strengthening his "singing muscles".

Having his dancing being looked down upon, Mumble finds a place to dance where no one can see him. He is discovered by and escapes from a group of hungry skuas, one of which who claims to have been abducted by aliens. Intrigued by the thought of aliens and worlds beyond his own, Mumble becomes lost in his imagination instead of paying attention in school.

At the graduation party, Mumble's friend Gloria sings Somebody To Love for everyone, but Mumble gets so caught up with the music, that he himself tries to sing. His out-of-tune singing, causes the other penguins to chuck him out.

The next day, Mumble is sleeping on an ice float, initially, he though it was his friends, until he started being chased by a leopard seal. The leopard seal chases him, and he eventually ends up where the Adélie Penguins live. He finds a group of penguins who call themselves the Amigos, who are led by Ramón. They taunted the leopard seal, until he gave up and flopped away.

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Mumble in "My Way".

The Amigos show Mumble where they live. Everyone was singing and dancing, and they use some of their newly learned tap dancing to impress some female penguins, to no avail. Mumble notices that some of the penguins there were carrying around rocks. He mistakenly assumed that the male penguin was going to eat it, until the Amigos told him it was a lovestone, for getting a mate.

Mumble and the Amigos are walking and dancing, when the piece of ice Mumble was dancing on breaks, and he falls down a steep mountain. The Amigos note, "This guy is so accidentally cool!" and jump after him. After sliding down the icy mountain, the Amigos and Mumble fall into the ocean, where a piece of ice breaks off and releases a bull-dozer, which intrigues Mumble. The Amigos advise him to talk to Lovelace, a guru penguin. Lovelace has plastic rings from a six-pack-soda-can around his neck, which he claims the mystic beings gave to him. After asking many questions, and not having any answered, Lovelace decides to stop answering questions for the day. Mumble then returns home, but after embarrassing himself in front of Gloria leaves. Mumble tries to find the humans, but ends up and gets put in a zoo, where his tap dancing attracts world wide attention, when he is released into the wild, with the humans stopping over fishing. He then mates with Gloria, and in Happy Feet Two, has a son named Erik.

Happy Feet Two

Mumble was married with Gloria and has a son named Erik. He is first seen at the Opening Medley when he was tap dancing and sing "Let's dance, LET'S DANCE.........." as the Emperors were saying "Mumble!", Mumble say "Sorry" to them. Then, Gloria was dancing and coming to Mumble and he faced the other way. He tap dance to Gloria as the emperors continue dancing. He first asks Erik about dancing together. But Erik falls and get embarased by the other chicks. Erik faults his father Mumble for making him join the dance. Erik, with his two friends, Atticus and Bo, follow Ramón to Adélie-Land. This makes Mumble worried about all of them.

Then Mumble goes to Adélie-Land to search for the kids. He finds them with the Amigos and their leader Ramón. Mumble is forced to bring the kids to home. Erik, who is reluctant to go, still has a "penguin" named Sven in his thoughts and almost forgets his father.

On the way home, Mumble meets an elephant seal named Bryan. Bryan blocking the path across the fissure and he doesn't want to back up away from the crossing so Mumble can go home. Bryan then falls and brings the crossing with him. Mumble saves Bryan after seeing his children. After he saving his life, Mumble, Erik, Bo, and Atticus continue their way to Emperor-Land.

Things get worse when the world is shaken by powerful forces. Emperor-Land is trapped by a massive glacier of ice and snow. Mumble asks Bo to bring as many Adélie penguins as she can. The Adélies arrive with their "leader", The Mighty Sven. Mumble and Sven want to bring Erik's attention to themselves to prove one of them can save Emperor-Land. Mumble saves his home by bring the elephant seals to "tapdance" on ice, making enough snow and ice fall to create a sort of stairway to the top of the glacier.

Appearance

When Mumble is born, he resembles a normal baby Emperor Penguin, except for having bright, blue eyes, as opposed to the brown eyes on everyone else.
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During and after his encounter with the skua, he is seen with a clump of dark feathers on his neck that resemble a bow-tie.
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When he matures into a young adult, his baby feathers have failed to shed, but he has mostly molted near the end of the film. The yellow feathers on his neck resemble a bow-tie as well.
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In Happy Feet Two, Mumble regains his baby feathers. The reason for this is most likely to keep his trademark look.
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His difference in appearance from other Emperor Penguins (along with his inability to sing) may be interpreted as birth defects, since he was dropped as an egg.

Mumble - No Fluff

Several Happy Feet books depict Mumble without his downy feathers by the climax of the story. This is because until late in the film's production, it was intended for Mumble to lose his down feathers during his pursuit of the fishing fleet. However, it was decided that Mumble would keep half of his juvenile down throughout the story, to make him different to the other emperor penguins.

Personality

Mumble is shown to be kind and friendly, as well as shy, but he can also be extremely brave when a situation calls for it. 

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Mumble attempts to chase after an alien ship

This is shown when he retrives a fish he caught for Gloria from several skua, and when he chases an alien ship into the unknown in hopes of finding the fish that are being taken from his home.


In Happy Feet Two, Mumble is very caring towards his new son, Erik, although the two have trouble seeing eye-to-eye and gaining each other's favor throughout the sequel.

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Mumble and Erik arguing

Frustrated, Mumble even yells at Erik at one point, which upsets Erik greatly. By the end of the film, though, the two seem to have resolved their conflicts.

Relationships

Gloria

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From the start, Mumble is shown to admire Gloria very much. When they are in school together, he finds her singing voice to be wonderful, and when Mumble himself is revealed to be a terrible singer, Gloria tries to stop the other kids from teasing him.

Mumble's status as an "outcast" often tests their relationship in Happy Feet. When Mumble unintentionally annoys everyone during the class' graduation party, she does not convey any annoyance with him, and kindly tries to tell him to keep out of everyone's way. Mumble goes to great lengths to impress Gloria and drive her away from danger. She initially does not understand Mumble's dancing, but she does not disapprove of it. When Mumble tries to impress Gloria by pretending to be able to sing, this embarrasses her, but her Heartsong, "Boogie Wonderland", is revealed to go quite well with Mumble's tap dancing.

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Gloria decides to come with Mumble.

When Mumble is exiled from Emperor-Land, Gloria strongly objects, and eventually

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Mumble (adult version) and Gloria.

catches up with him on his quest to find the aliens. Knowing that his quest is dangerous, Mumble purposely starts an argument with her and upsets her to the point of leaving in a huff. Mumble feels bad about this, but knows he did the right thing.

Eventually, Mumble returns to Emperor Land, and convinces Gloria and everyone else to dance with him so the aliens will see and help them. Having succeeded in this, Mumble is praised and he and Gloria are free to be together.

By the end of the film and sequel, they become proper mates and have a son.

Ramón and the Amigos

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Mumble first met Ramón and follow him to Adélie-Land with the Amigos. Over time, they become good friends. And Mumble was assisted by Ramón, with the singing for him to draw attention to Gloria.

In Happy Feet Two, Ramón and the Amigos comes for Mumble to help him feed the trapped Emperors.

Lovelace

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In Happy Feet, Lovelace hates Mumble, who he thinks he is the one of doubts his power. But then, Mumble go ask him altrough Lovelace hates him. Mumble just trying to helping him. Like saving him from the Killer Whales. Lovelace seems have to proud with him after being saved. And will telling his story, Happy Feet.

In Happy Feet Two, Mumble and Lovelace it's little known about their relationships. It's seems Mumble meets The Adelies with Ramón, Lovelace, and Sven in there. Mumble also ever trying to saving him from falling with trapped Emperor Penguins.

Norma Jean

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Mumble's relationship with Norma Jean, is very good. Norma Jean feels sorry to see him suffer by being cast out of Emperor-Land. She also says she likes "different", reffering to Mumbles abillity to to dance when the family leaves Mrs. Astrakhan's singing class. She is known to be someone who Mumble trusts, and she believes he can find the fishes and come back to Emperor-Land.

Memphis

Mumble and his father are not to be closer after his father, Memphis, was embarrased by his son who being the only penguin who can't sing. Because of his "Happy Feet", he feels suffer and can't try to begin trust with him. Mumble was not feel suffer after hear what his father say. He just trying to make his Happy Feet will make Memphis be happy. "But it just ain't penguin," was Memphis's saying.

Noah the Elder

Mumble first time meet Noah, he feels hurt after expressed as a wasted. Noah trying to make Mumble being outcast from community beacuse he is the one that he think as a penguin without goodness. But after he heard Mumble is back again to help him dancing to humans, Noah forgetting his event that his do for Mumble and starting to dance. Then at Happy Feet Two, Noah say about dancing will being characteristic for the Emperors now, it's from Mumble too.

Erik

Mumble's relationship with Erik it's not a good one at the begining of the film. He tried to encourage his son to dance, but Erik's accident made him distrust of his father. After Erik met Sven in Adelie-Land, he distanced even more from Mumble, and after the argue that they had when Erik tried to fly and almost fall from the Doomberg, their bonds of father and son seemed broken and irreparable. But then, Sven confessed that he was not a penguin, but a puffin. When Mumble and the other penguins were able to break a piece of the Doomberg, Erik almost fall from it, but Mumble saved him again, injuring his foot in the process. From that on, Erik began to forgive his father, and when Bryan betrayed Mumble and told him to get out of his kingdom, he finally undertood the courage of his father. He then sang Erik's Opera and the elephants seals, touched by this so passionated song, accepted to help Mumble.

Sven

At the first time, Mumble finds Erik, Atticus and Boadicea in the Adelie-Land seeing "The Amazing Hero Puffin" called "The Mighty Sven". Mumble is jealous and even hate him at the first time. And when he knows Sven is his rival now, Sven is very assisted. He is with the Adelies sending fish to the trapped Emperors. But, Mumble is working alone to go fishing some fish. He jealous with Sven again. It makes Erik supporting him too much as a hero for the Emperors who like him too. Mumble will beating him with calling The elephant seal to help Emperors to getting out from the ice. But then, Mumble also ask Sven for helping.

Atticus and Boadicea

Atticus and Bo often refers at Mumble as "Uncle Mumble", showing that they have a kind of respect for him (Or It could be too that their parents are close friends of him), but they usually disobey his orders.

Seymour

Seymour and Mumble's relationshop in the first movie is peculiar. Although he and Mumble were rivals because both of them (like most of the male of their generation) wanted Gloria as mate, Seymour never actually said something negative to Mumble. He never said anything about his lack of Heartsong or his "Happy Feet". It seemed that they were friends, but not very close.

In Happy Feet Two, they are friends and their chicks (Atticus and Erik) are good friends too. Seymour often refers at Mumble as "Brother", showing that they had developed a close friendship. Seymour didn't seem to be jealous of Mumble being the one who won Gloria's heart, maybe because he found a mate too. However, his mate and mother of Atticus is never showed in the film.

Trivia

  • Mumble is the one and only penguin who can't sing. But he can do with "Happy Feet" to make a song from the feet.
  • When Mumble is dancing, look at closer, you can see three spots around his ankle. But sometimes that three spot is disappear.
  • As a baby, Mumble gets the "bow-tie" when he gets trampeled by Boss Skua (it is probably caused by the skua's sharp claw). But there is an error when he says "Can I appeal to be your better nature?", his bow-tie disappears. Then the bow appears again when he is grown up.
  • Happy Feet - Adult Mumble
    Originally, Mumble's appearance was going to be an adult with no fluff, but this was scrapped before the final cut of the film. But in the books Chillin' with Mumble, Happy Feet: The Movie Storybook and Happy Feet: The Essential Guide, he is seen as an adult with no down.
  • Mumble still like a baby penguin. It can be seen when he grown up, has his grey feathers which closing half of his body. And with the baby face (has the white-colored fathers around his face).
  • Mumble ever driving Gloria, his own girlfriend. With insulting her heartsong. It's unknown why he do not let her go with him. It's maybe because he worry about her who getting lost, or need to being alone after insulted by the Emperors. But then she likes Mumble again with join to dancing with her.
  • In Happy Feet Two, he looks being older but has the same voice, different with Seymour, who voiced by Common and Gloria, who voiced by Alecia Moore (Pink), has the older voice like the mostly parents.
  • Mumble is voiced by Daniel de Oliveria in the Brazillan dub of the movie, and Clovis Cornllac in the French dub.

Gallery

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