Happy feet

Today is Savion Glover’s 50th birthday. Thinking of that great dancer/choreographer always reminds me of one of my odder cinematic experiences.

In 2006 I went out to the movies with some friends to see Happy Feet, an animated film about dancing penguins (although not the first — Mary Poppins got there first). I enjoyed the movie ok, but the thing I really loved about the movie was the tap dancing.

Now here is the weird part. Every time the lead penguin danced, it was obvious to me that I was watching the tap dancing of Savion Glover. It was as though I was watching the man himself — visualized as a penguin, but still inimitably himself.

Sure enough, his name was listed in small print buried somewhere in the end credits. He had not only choreographed the dances, but they had motion-captured the man himself.

I enjoyed it, but there was something odd about it. The one thing that delighted me about that movie — the dancing — was only credited in a kind of “blink and you’ve missed it” way.

And don’t even get me started on Being John Malkovich and Phil Huber…