Do you have a theory about the popularity of penguins in movies? Did you do a voice in Farce of the Penguins?
“I’m in that. Yeah, I’m in that I play… who do I play? I’m Stanley, some gay penguin. Bob Saget called me up. I was like, ‘I can’t get out of bed to play a gay penguin.’ He was like, ‘Come on1 I’ll give you 50 bucks.’ I was like, ‘All right, I’m there.’ So I did it. My partner, Jerry, who I’ve been with 16 years, he watched it. I haven’t watched it yet. He said it’s really, really funny. I said, ‘I can’t watch Farce of the Penguins; I could barely get through Happy Feet.’ Just give me a break.’”
You didn’t like Happy Feet?
“I liked Happy Feet but let me tell you something about Happy Feet, Happy Feet is a very good movie and the guy is brilliant. I loved Babe. Those are great films. My problem with Happy Feet is it slid all over the place. It’s like, ‘What is this?’ I think if they could have done it like Babe with real penguins, they would have because they looked real but they couldn’t, so they had to animate them.
Before the humans showed up I thought they’re going to use real people because that’s what they did in Babe. That’s the style they kind of went for, and the backgrounds were realistic. It looked like the Arctic. That wasn’t my problem because I like that they have that style. That’s unique. My problem with it is that if you’re going to make a musical, get a songwriting team and make a f**king musical. Make a musical! I don’t want to hear Boogie Wonderland and Kiss by Prince in a show because if each one of them had their songs, which is all about their songs—if each one of them had their song that was a really good musical comedy score, then you’ve got a picture. Then you’ve got a hell of a movie and that’s my problem with that movie. Write a score. Don’t cheat and get an Earth, Wind and Fire song. Let Philip Bailey sing that, okay? And I love Earth, Wind and Fire. They’re my favorite group. I love that music. I love Prince, that’s my thing. I love R&B, but I wanted to hear. Get Steve Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, get Steven Tyler. Get some people who are writing musical theater and write a score.”
When you were a little kid what kind of animated characters did you respond to?
“I loved Jiminy Cricket and I still do. Jiminy Cricket is my favorite character in the world. I think he’s awesome. He was just cool and funny and snappy and yeah, he was pretty great. And I loved Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty because she was like the Joan Crawford of animated films. Yeah, I liked her. She was beautiful. She was pretty great.
I remember sitting down with [producer] Chris Jenkins when he offered me this movie and I just went off on animation. He couldn’t believe I knew so much and I was like, ‘Please, I’ve read Disney Animation by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas. That book is that thick and I’ve read it cover to cover. I know about animation. I know what it is. I could never sit down and write one, but I know when it’s good. I’m too lazy. That’s why I couldn’t do your job. I can’t sit down and write my own stand-up, never mind write an article for a newspaper or write a novel. I have a couple of friends that are novelists and I just go, ‘That, to me, is the most amazing thing.’ When someone can actually sit down and write an intricate novel and structure it in a way that’s surprising and brilliant and new and thrilling and moving, it’s a mystery to me. I don’t know how people do that.”
