this post made me and my gf go back and watch the oscar-winning movie happy feet. i looked up the director, george miller, and found out happy feet is only his SECOND most profitable franchise. he is best known as the director of all the mad max films.

to present some information for those who have not seen happy feet: the penguins are animated, but the few humans in the film are live-action. the film has two main messages: accept those who are different than you, and a pro-environmentalism message about stopping ocean pollution and overfishing. spoilers for this 13-year-old movie, but it ends with the main character managing to get the humans to stop polluting and overfishing through the power of dance. meanwhile, mad max is a postapocalyptic series.

so… i propose a theory. happy feet and mad max take place in the same universe, but in different timelines. in the good timeline (the happy feet canon), mumble convinces the humans to stop destroying the earth using the power of dance. this leads into happy feet 2. in the bad timeline (the mad max canon), mumble fails to convince the humans. the penguin colony dies out, humans destroy the earth, and the mad max movies happen a few thousand years after happy feet 1.