Well, everyone, for today’s session of movie reviewing, we go back to the mid-1990s, 1995, a matter of fact. Not only that, but we shall discuss a NON-DISNEY animated film that was made by former Disney animator, Don Bluth, whom I’m sure some of us may remember for directing films like The Secret Of NIMH (1982), Anastasia (1997), a few others, and his last full length being the 2000 animated film, Titan A.E. Well, following his debut with 1989’s All Dogs Go To Heaven, Don Bluth released four animated films from 1992 through 1995 that were all flops, and, well, not that well received by the general public. This animated film of his, from 1995, was one of those films that was a flop at the theatrical box office. So, was the general public in the right, or were people rather harsh on this animated film? Let’s find out by going on the adventures of Hubie in this animated film that was produced by MGM Studios, and released back in 1995, the one, and only, The Pebble & The Penguin.
Plot: In Antarctica, there is a ritual in which Adelie penguins do their best to present a special stone to a female penguin that they want to attempt to mate with for life. It is on this occasion that a shy, and lovable Penguin named Hubie (Martin Short) tries yo do just this for a female Penguin named Marina (Annie Golden). But an evil Penguin named Drake (Tim Curry) also seeks her hand, and casts Hubie out to to try to get Hubie out of the way, and have her hand. Through a series of misadventures, Hubie teams up with a feisty rockhopper Penguin named Rocko (Jim Belushi) to try to get back to Antarctica. Now, can Rocko successfully teach Hubie how to fight Drake, and with his shiny green pebble to try to present to her, successfully attain Marina’s hand before the Penguin mating ceremony (or Full Moon Mating Ceremony, as they call it in the film) occurs?
Alright, so part of what made me want to rewatch both this film, and A Goofy Movie (which I will be reviewing after this one) this past weekend was that one, they both were released back in 1995, and that this year, their respective release dates of April 7th, 1995, and April 12th, 1995, landed on Friday, and Wednesday respectively just like they did back in 1995. Well, that leads to my other reason. That being the fact that the two films were released very close to each other, and faced some potential competition at the box office as a result. Rumor has it that A Goofy Movie was much more successful, while The Pebble & The Penguin was a flop.
So, again, you may be wondering, did The Pebble & The Penguin deserve to be a flop, or was that undeserved? Well, first of all, let me put it to you all this way. Rumor has it that Don Bluth, before going to a former animation studio by the name of Fox Animation Studios in Phoenix, Arizona to work on Anastasia (which was released two years after this film), made it abundantly clear that he DID NOT want to be credited as being the director of this film because of feeling unsatisfied with the final product of this film. So, as we will see in the credits of this film, Don Bluth was given credit in a different way. After rewatching this film years after being absent from this film, can I say that I blame him? Well, probably not! Oh, don’t get me wrong, there are quite a few good things in it. In fact, if I were to choose between watching, and rewatching 1994’s A Troll In Central Park (which, of course, was also directed by Don Bluth), I would definitely choose The Pebble & The Penguin. Yes, it does have quite a few flaws, but more on that momentarily. Still, of the four films that were released from 1992 through 1995, and consisted of Rock-A-Doodle, Thumbelina, A Troll In Central Park, and The Penguin, at least Penguin had more redeeming qualities to it then A Troll In Central, and maybe even the other two films that O just mentioned (though I need to rewatch those as well to know for sure).
That all being said, what made The Pebble & The Penguin not be one of Don Bluth’s best works during his time in the animation industry? Well, first of all, there’s the whole deal with this film trying a little too hard to be a Disney knock-off, especially in the 1990s. Allow me to explain! As we know, many of the Disney animated films that got released from 1989 through 1999 were musicals. Well, meanwhile other studios tried to make animated films that they tried to make on par with those. As a result, The Pebble & The Penguin was one of those many animated films that tried to act like a musical, and a good one at that. Here was the problem with that in this case! Animated movies like The Pebble & The Penguin didn’t seem to fully realize what made the majority of the songs in those films so catchy, and memorable. That is not until good non-Disney animated films like Anastasia, or The Prince Of Egypt, for instance, came into play near the end of that decade. Yes, there were a few decent songs like “Now And Forever,” “Looks Like I’ve Got Me A Friend,” or even the villain song, “Don’t Make Me Laugh.” Decent being the keyword, though. Still, there were others like “Sometimes I Wonder,” or “The Good Ship Misery,” where I found myself thinking, “Can we just get on with the rest of the film? I almost wanted to skip through songs like those because of them not being memorable. What’s more is that in the song, “Good Ship Misery,” the some of the characters that sang that song sometimes acted over the top annoying, and overly dramatic about their situation on the ship. Meanwhile, I’m thinking, “Guys, I get it. Now, please, shut up. I get that you don’t like being imprisoned on the ship. Yet, with the obvious exception of Hubie, and the streetwise Rockhopper penguin, Rocko, they don’t like being on the Misery ship, but are okay being at a zoo? What sense does that make? In addition to that plot hole, there were some other plot holes as well, like how Hubie’s green pebble somehow had this ability to show a vision of something Hubie needed to know about at some point, and weird things like that. In addition to that, a lot of the writing was lacking, including incidents such as Drake having these two different sets of sidekicks. First, he has this trio of penguins who are like his henchmen, but serve very little to no purpose except to act like comic relief. I mean the only thing they do is just go along with everything Drake says, and does, and just laugh whenever he decides to maniacally laugh about something? Really!?! Honestly, I would say that the one scene where Drake is having a meal with a pair of birds that were most likely skuas, that scene was mostly likely more interesting than any scene that involved Drake’s three penguin henchmen. I would say that the two skuas should have been the henchmen for the whole film, and not those three penguin characters. Like, come on, pick which henchmen the villain should have, and stick with that. In addition to that whole deal, the rest of the characters generally seemed to lack in memorabilia as well. As a result, and other factors, the story, as a whole, felt rather between mediocre, and above average. As far as the animation goes, while most of it was good, be it the backgrounds, or character movements, there were also some moments where the animation on the characters felt a little inconsistent at points. Finally, there were some moments especially around the middle to end of the film that made the movie feel a little strange as well.
That all being said, what pros did The Pebble & The Penguin have? Well, there’s the majority of the animation. Yes, again, it did feel a little inconsistent at times. Still, when that was not the case, it is amazing, much like other animated films that were directed by Don Bluth. Three of the songs were decent, with “Now And Forever,” “Don’t Make Me Laugh,” and “Looks Like I’ve Got Me A Friend.” Oh, and did I forget about some of this film, instead of having a storybook, decide to go a unique route by having a song book instead? That was rather creative. Not to mention that you have some of the characters, especially during the beginning song, dancing on the pages of the song at times. How cool is that, you know!?! What’s more is that even during the songs that weren’t all that good, there is some surprisingly good choreography to go along with some of the numbers as well. Oh, and to have your cast include Jim Belushi as Rocko, Annie Golden as Marina, Martin Short as Hubie, and especially Tim Curry as the villain, Drake, was all really cool. Still, even if Drake is the villain, it sure seems like he seems to steal the show in any scene that he’s in. Even so, it was also great to see Hubie being willing to do whatever it took to be humble, and get outside of his comfort zone whenever necessary. Oh, and to have this film have more realism in it like with not having a leopard seal, or even a killer whale be friends with the main penguin characters, or things like that, was a very good approach this time around as well. Mark Watters also provided a very good musical score as well. Finally, some messages like how people, or creatures, in this case, are more important than any gift, or object that they might give you.
And that’s my review for The Pebble & The Penguin. Even if it was not the best, it’s still a fun film with good animation, an excellent voice cast, and more. Yes, another penguin film by the name of Happy Feet (which came out over ten years later, in 2006) was a total upgrade from this movie. Still, The Pebble & The Penguin does still succeed in maintaining things like charm, and heart to it. It could have been better, yes, most definitely! Still, for what it is, it’s definitely something to check it out if you can watch it for free on sites like Tubi, watch it for free on Amazon Prime, or even if you have a hard DVD, or even VHS copy of this film. If you want to see it, feel free to!
Final Grade: B-
Matthew’s Animated & Live-Action Movie Reviews 