Has anybody seen Fat Joe's Happy Feet paycheck?

When you think of a critically acclaimed box office hit by George Miller, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? The answer we’re looking for here is of course Happy Feet, which won an Oscar and made a ton of money. But not for Fat Joe. The rapper, who was a voice actor in the movie (alongside Robin Williams, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, and a whole murderer’s row of talent), doesn’t “know what happened with Happy Feet,” he admits to IndieWire in a new interview. “I never got a dollar from Happy Feet… I never caught a dollar, a penny. I mean, it’s a good look, people loved it, but I don’t know what happened with Happy Feet.”

Seems like this would be a question for Fat Joe’s accountant—and, wouldn’t you know, Joe did sue his accountant in 2022 over misappropriation of funds. Could something similar have happened with Happy Feet back in 2006? Or perhaps it was something shady on the studio side at Warner Bros. Pictures; after all, he was replaced in the role of Seymour by Common on Happy Feet 2. If only they could make it back up on Happy Feet 3, but Miller famously said “If you put a gun to my head and said, ‘You have to come up with a story for Happy Feet 3,’ I’d say shoot me.” (Less famously, he followed that up by saying if he did come up with an exciting idea for it, he’d do a third, so the dream isn’t entirely dead.)  

Anyway, this seems like a “you win some, you lose some” situation for Joe, and he has long since moved on to other ventures. Right now he’s promoting his new STARZ talk show Fat Joe Talks, which he told Collider is inspired in part by Anthony Bourdain. He also promised that the show would be getting the “biggest stars” possible. “You’re privy to conversations that nobody else is. And so it’s almost like you’re a fly in the wall, and you’re going to see these people, they really are talking about good times, bad times, trials, and tribulations,” he teased to the outlet. “And it’s always going to be inspirational and motivational.”