HAPPY FEET [2006]

 Everybody Dance Now


There is a wisdom, brothers and sisters, that stands above all others.

Never, ever, no matter what, drop your egg.

~Lovelace

Memphis: What you doing there, boy?

Mumble: I'm happy, Pa.
Memphis: What you doing with your feet?
Mumble: They're happy, too.
Memphis: I wouldn't do that around folks, son.
Mumble: Why not?
Memphis: It just ain't penguin, okay?

Memphis: So, when you see your mama...
Mumble: I stand perfectly still.
Memphis: You got it.
Mumble: But how will I know which one's my mama?
Memphis: Oh, you'll know.
She's got a wiggle in her walk, and a giggle in her talk.
And when she sings, it darn near breaks your heart.

Miss Viola: Today we begin with the most important lesson you will ever learn at Penguin Elementary.
Does anyone know what that is?
Anyone? Anyone? Someone? Seymour?
Seymour: Fishing?
Miss Viola: No. 
Mumble?
Mumble: Don't eat yellow snow? 
Miss Viola: No, that's not it, no. 
Gloria: It's our Heartsong, Miss.
Miss Viola: Thank you, Gloria. Excellent, yes. 
Without our Heartsong, we can't be truly penguin, can we?
 Class: No...
Miss Viola: But, my dears, it's not something that I can actually teach you. 
Does anybody know why?
Anyone? Anyone? 
Gloria: You can't teach it to us, ma'am, because we have to find our Heartsongs all by ourselves.
It's the voice you hear inside who you truly are.
Miss Viola: Yes, thank you, Gloria. 

 A penguin without a Heartsong is hardly a penguin at all.
~Miss Viola

 Mumble: I can leave school. I can go to work. The 3 of us.
 Memphis: Whoa, little fella, you ain't going nowhere till you got yourself an education.
 You get them singing muscles big and strong, you got that?
Mumble: I'll try, Pa.
Memphis: You bet you will.
The word 'triumph' starts with 'try', and it ends with...?
 Mumble: 'Umph'.
Memphis: That's right. A great big 'umph'. 

 You bring this stranger before me.
He doubts my powers.
He compares me to a skua. 
The voices are shrieking in my head.
They say, "Lovelace, who is this fool? Tel him, tell him to go forth and multiply!"
~Lovelace

 Gloria: I don't need an egg to be happy. Mumble: You say that now, but what about later when all your freinds have eggs?
 Gloria: Then I'll have you.

 Hello, hello from Emperor Land. Good afternoon.
Why are you taking our fish? 
I'm sure you don't mean to, but you're causing an awful lot of grief.
~Mumble, to human

 Noah: So, you dare come back?
 Seymour: He says he's found aliens and they're taking our fish.
 He says that they're coming and we all have to do this.
[start dancing]
Noah: There be no such thing as aliens!
Gloria: Mumble, turn around.
[Mumble turn around, everyone gasping at the device stuck on his back]
Is that from them?
Mumble: Yeah.
But don't be afraid. I think it's a way to find me, that's all.
 Noah: You lead them here?
You turned them on your own kind?
 Gloria: Wait a second, you just said there's no such thing as aliens.
 Noah: Well, there's not.
But if there were, only a traitorous fool would bring them here.
  Mumble: But they have to come.
They're the ones taking our fish.
They can do something about it. 
Noah: None but the Great Guin has the power to give and take away.
 Mumble: The Great Guin didn't put things out of whack, the aliens did.
Noah: A fool returns this day to mock our suffering.
We are starving and he wants us to hippity-hop.
So, do we hold fast to our ways, or do we bend to the fetid fantasies of a dancing fool?



***** 

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MINE [2004]

 I Already Forget How I Used To Feel About You

Random thoughts for Valentine's Day, 2004.

Today is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap.

~Joel Barish

The first thing we need you to do, Mr. Barish, 

is to go home and collect everything you own that has some association with Clementine.

Anything.

And we'll use these items to create a map of Clementine in your brain, okay?

So, we'll need photos, clothing, gifts, books she may have bought you,

CDs you may have bought together, journal entries.

We want to empty your home, we want to empty your life of Clementine.

And after the mapping is done, our technicians will do the erasing in your home tonight.

That way, when you awake in the morning, 

you'll find yourself in your own bed as if nothing had happened,

a new life awaiting you.

~Dr. Mierzwiak

Look at it out here, it's all falling apart!

I'm erasing you, and I'm happy.

You did it to me first!

I can't believe you did this to me.

Clem, can you hear me?

By morning you'll be gone.

The perfect ending to this piece-of-shit story!

~Joel Barish

You don't tell me things, Joel.

I'm an open book, I tell you everything.

You don't trust me.

~Clementine Kruczynski

Am I ugly?

When I was a kid, I thought I was.

Sometimes I think people don't understand how lonely it is to be a kid.

Like you don't matter.

So, I'm 8, and I have these toys, these dolls.

My favorite is this ugly girl doll who I call Clementine.

And I keep yelling at her, "You can't be ugly! Be pretty!"

It's weird.

Like if I can transform her, I would magically change too.

~Clementine Kruczynski

 Hide me somewhere deeper, somewhere really buried.

Hide me in your humiliation.

~Clementine Kruczynski

Clementine: Didn't figure you'd show your face around me again.

I guess I thought you were humiliated.

You did run away, after all.

Joel: I just needed to see you.

I'd like to take you out or something.

Clementine: You're married.

Joel: Not yet. Not married. No, I'm not married.

Clementine: Look man, I'm telling you right off the bat I'm high maintenance,

so I'm not gonna tiptoe around your marriage, or whatever it is you've got going there.

If you wanna be with me, you're with me.

Joel: Okay.

Clementine: Too many guys think I'm a concept, or I complete them,

or I'm gonna make them alive.

But I'm just a fucked-up girl who's looking for my own peace of mind.

Don't assign me yours.

Joel: I remember that speech really well.

Clementine: I had you pegged, didn't I?

Joel: You had the whole human race pegged.

I still thought you were gonna save my life, even after that.

It would be different if we could just give it another go around.

Remember me. Try your best.

Clementine: Maybe we can.

Clementine: This is it, Joel, it's gonna be gone soon.

Joel: I know.

Clementine: What do we do?

Joel: Enjoy it.

Joel: I've gotta catch my ride.

Clementine: So go.

Joel: I did.

I thought maybe you were a nut, but you were exciting.

Clementine: I wish you'd stayed.

Joel: I wish I'd stayed too. Now I wish I'd stayed.

I wish I'd done a lot of things.

Oh, God, I wish I had... I wish I'd stayed. I do.

Clementine: Well, I came back downstairs and you were gone.

Joel: I walked out, I walked out the door.

Clementine: Why?

Joel: I don't know. I felt like a scared little kid. I was like...

It was above my head, I don't know.

Clementine: You were scared?

Joel: Yeah. Thought you knew that about me.

I ran back to the bonfire trying to outrun my humiliation, I think.

Clementine: Was it something I said?

Joel: Yeah. You said, "So go"... with such disdain, you know.

Clementine: Oh, I'm sorry.

Joel: It's okay.

Clementine: Joely, what if you stayed this time?

Joel: I walked out the door. There's no memory left.

Clementine: Come back and make up a good-bye, at least.

Let's pretend we have one.

Bye, Joel.

Joel: I love you.

Clementine, whispering: Meet me in Mantouk.

Clementine: I'm not a concept, Joel.

I'm just a fucked-up girl who's looking for my own peace of mind.

I'm not perfect.

Joel: I can't see anything that I don't like about you.

Clementine: But you will.

Joel: Right now I can't.

Clementine: But you will. You will think of things,

and I'll get bored with you and feel trapped because that's what happens with me.

Joel: Okay.
Clementine: Okay.

*****