Numerootno
A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
FirstWitch
A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
ravsten428
The Pebble and the Penguin is a major letdown for Bluth. Apparently he was not a fan of the final product and demanded his name be removed from the credits. You can't blame him.Basic plot. Hubie the penguin longs to tell a penguin of female persuasion that he loves her. Hubies is shy and reluctant to tell her but eventually sees that she feels the same way. Hubie goes to search for the perfect pebble to present to Marina, but he soon finds out that he will have competition from an evil penguin, The Drake. The Drake confronts Hubie and tosses him into the ocean. The Drake tells the other penguins that Hubie is lunch for the Sea Lion.Hubie doesn't end up dead. He ends up on a ship that holds other penguins. These penguins are being picked up and shipped off to zoos. One penguin that ends up on the ship, Rocko, doesn't like being held captive and tries to rally everyone to escape. Hubie is the only one that wants to escape with him, naturally because he wants to get back and present Marina with the pebble and marry her. He and Rocko end up escaping and Rocko agrees to help Hubie take him back to Antarctica.This is not Bluth's worst film by any means. I think that title goes to Thumbelina. Though I did like the bird in that movie. There are some good parts in TPATP. In some scenes you can see where Bluth's work is still rather present. In others, and most of the film, it seems to be nonexistent. I really enjoyed the scenes of Hubie and Rocko in the ocean trying to escape the Sea Lions and the Killer Whales. Both of those scenes were done well in my opinion. The thing that really hurts this film is the constant pop up of songs that shouldn't have been thrown in the movie to begin with. You knew every time one of them was coming and they were not good songs. The narrator only comes up a total of 3 times. Why? Now to the characters. Most of the characters in the film are blah. Hubie is downright annoying. I actually enjoyed the fact that they gave him a stutter. I wish they had kept it throughout the movie. Marina was so-so as the love interest. The Drake was nasty but not nasty enough. The only character I really felt that had any personality was Rocko. He could be irritating at times, but he had the most heart in my opinion. I thought Rocko and Hubie seemed to have more in common than Hubie did with Marina. They both acted like a gay couple.In all this movie could have been better. It's sad that several of Bluth's films had internal affairs go bad. It happened on All Dogs, Land Before Time and this.P.S. The penguins did not need teeth. Yuck!
tapio_hietamaki
Don Bluth is responsible for some real gems of traditional animation. 'The Secret of NIMH' is a dark fantasy tale, 'Anastasia' an adventure reminiscent of 90's Disney, 'The Land Before Time' a beloved classic. His lesser known movies have their charm as well: 'Rock-a-Doodle' was endlessly creative and although a bit too much at places, and 'Thumbelina' had some beautiful animation and a heartwarming story.Not so much 'The Pebble and the Penguin'. It starts promisingly, with a zany and surreal musical number involving musical notation and dancing penguins. But it soon stumbles into a boring mess of dull characters, stupid plot lines, irritating songs and pointless meandering. The backgrounds are nothing amazing, the animation doesn't really stand out and the voice actors, while doing a decent job, get lost in the execution.The movie has its moments: the whimsical magic of the falling green meteorite exactly at the right time or the storm that washes over the ship bound for a zoo. But it's not enough to carry a film. It is so dreadful that Don Bluth pulled his name from the credits so he wouldn't be associated with this mess.
Gavin Cresswell (gavin-thelordofthefu-48-460297)
Looking back at Bluth's previous entries from the 90s, I was beginning to think about what I think about this one. Well, just say that when I was a little kid, I seemed to enjoy it, but as a young adult, I'm gonna call this movie decent. So, some of you are wondering why a 80%? Here's the reason why.Here are some letdowns.Letdown #1: The story was just... weird for a movie about penguins despite it's credit for a romance between two main characters. There were some things that were unexplained like "Why do penguins have clothing and hands to begin with?" and "Where did the three non-penguin birds came from?".and Letdown #2: The songs made by Barry Manilow (despite it's decent music score from Mark Watters) weren't that bad. "Now and Forever" (pop song included), "Sometimes I Wonder" and reprise, which was hear-rendering, and "Don't Make Me Laugh" were enjoyable, but "Good Ship Misery" was badly sung, although "Looks Like I Got Me A Friend" has a decent melody.That's it for the letdowns. Now for the highlights. The animation is very good, the character designs aren't that bad, and the voice acting is entertaining with the likes of Martin Short, Annie Golden, James Belushi, and Tim Curry. The characters are likable too. Hubie is great and his romance with the beautiful Marina was so sweet and cute altogether. Rocko never fails to amuse me with his comedic moments and his comic-relief voice and the villain named Drake is great and I think that he totally frightened me the first time I saw him as a kid.So, is this movie weird? Well, kind of, but once you compare it to A Troll In Central Park, it's not a bad movie. It's just a decent and very cute penguin movie and it's worth watching for kids who like decent entertainment.8/10
TheLittleSongbird
I don't know why the rating is so low. This is a beautiful movie, that only has a couple of flaws. It is not as good as An American tail and Land Before time, but way better than Rock A Doodle Doo and Troll in Central Park . I really don't understand the criticism that it is unimaginative, with Rocko flying. Hello? Elephants can't fly, and look what Disney did with Dumbo! The songs and musical score are lovely, especially Now and Forever and Sometimes I wonder. The only song I didn't like was Good Ship Misery, because it was badly sung. The animation generally was good too, the highlight being the killer whales scene. True there were a lot of colour changes and some animation errors(Good Ship Misery), especially in Drake's song. And unlike some people I thought Marina and Hubie's romance is very sweet. The worst character animation was that of Drake. Nobody would draw a penguin like that. The voice overs were what made the movie, and they WEREN'T racist. Shani Wallis is lovely as the narrator, accompanying the beautifully-animated Antarctica-landscape beginning, certainly an improvement on the narration in Rock a Doodle Doo. Martin Short portrays Hubie's nervousness with such conviction, and James Belushi steals the show with a hilarious characterisation of Rocko. Annie Golden made me cry with her beautiful singing voice, her rendition of Sometimes I Wonder is heart-rending and Marina is such a cute and beautiful penguin, and Tim Curry voiced Drake beautifully, even if he got a tad annoying. In fact, Don't Make Me Laugh is special to me because that is the best I have ever heard Tim Curry sing since Blue Money.And by the way, Curry is the most experienced singer on the soundtrack, so I was shocked by the comment that compared the singing to howling monkeys. Barry Manilow and Sheena Easten's duet at the end was sublime too. All in all a beautiful and imaginative movie, if a little on the short side. 8/10 Bethany Cox
