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Title: The Pebble and the Penguin
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, there is nothing objectional in this film. Recommended for all ages. |
Quality animation has gotten so these days that it’s hard to remember that the genre was so void of good movies at one point that the genre was seen as a big joke in Hollywood. In the late 70's Don Bluth was an animator at Disney and was feeling disgruntled about the lack of quality the studio was producing. Frustrated Bluth left the studio to make some really good films that forced Disney to get in shape with their own productions. I wish I could say this was a lasting thing, but the sad truth is Bluth would eventually make movies that were far more stupid then anything Disney would end up producing. This brings us to “The Pebble and the Penguin,” a movie that was universally hated upon release and has since fallen into obscurity.
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I recently found a new two-disk edition of the film in the bargain bin at a local thrift store for $2 and decided to revisit the film. After all, this had to be better then “A Troll In Central Park” right? Well...it is, but that’s faint praise to be given (if it can be considered praise at all). The story revolves around a chubby, stuttering penguin named Hubie (Martin Short) who is in love with a female penguin named Marina (Annie Golden). He hopes to impress her by giving her a sparking green pebble during mating season so they can...well, the movie just goes as far as a kiss so all you perverts can stop right now. But he’s got competition from the local bully Drake (Tim Curry) who simply throws Hubie off a cliff and Hubie simply floats away.
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Yeah, I don’t get it either. I know he gets chased to a floating ice cube but maybe he could, you know...swim back to the island? Never mind. The whole point of this plot contrivance is to give Hubie something to do until he gets back home and gets the girl. Watching the movie again it was painful not to notice why this was so universally hated by everyone. Hubie is an annoying character to be sure. Drake is simply the most stereotypical villain that is more annoying then evil. Marina doesn’t strike me as anything special. The story itself is pretty stupid. In fact, since when were kid movies about romance? Yeah I know that there are plenty of children’s films that feature romantic themes, but this is about a guy trying to mate with a girl.
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Call me crazy but do ten year olds really care about this? Probably not, but then the producers do take Hubie away from the island so he can have an adventure of sorts. Sadly, most of this adventure involves him trying to befriend an even more annoying character named Rocko (James Belushi), who takes so much you’d wish he’d get eaten by any one of the dozen killer whales that attack them. This may be the only character in an animated film I’ve seen where I was actually disappointed when he wasn’t killed in a crucial scene. Even the animation isn’t very impressive, as most of it is still shots of the characters from a distance (a clever money saving trick no doubt). Does the pebble itself even play a big enough role to warrant being in the title?
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This is a movie so bad that Don Bluth requested to have his name removed from the project. This seems pointless since it looks like a Bluth film and was distributed by his company, so his name is already on this piece of shame. More brave is Barry Manilow who leaves his name attached to the film despite writing some of the worst songs I’ve heard for an animated feature (save a better then expected opening number). These are the kind of songs that make you want to get Randy Newman on the phone. I learned that producer Gary Goldman went back to this film to correct some animation mistakes to make the film more complete. That seems about as effective to me as grooming a pile of doggie doo, but whatever.
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