This heartwarming animated tale--reportedly inspired by a National Geographic documentary--follows the exploits of a shy penguin, Hubie, who is hopelessly enamored with Marina, but must compete with the ultra macho, puffed up Drake, who wants her to be his life mate. In order to win her, one of them must present her with a suitable pebble. Hubie finds a doozy of an emerald-like stone to give her, but before he can deliver it, the wicked Drake pushes him into the roiling sea and Hubi is swept away. Eventually Hubie is captured by traders. He must make it home within 10 days or Drake will claim his beloved Mariana. Songs are sung, action ensues, and ultimately, happiness prevails. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Review
One of animator Don Bluth's lesser efforts, The Pebble and the Penguin is cute but little more. The primary culprit is the script; aside from the unusual setting and small parcels of information about Emperor penguins, is hackneyed and uninvolving. The decision to focus on the relationship between Hubie and Rocko (while relegating the leading female character to nothing more than a trite damsel-in-distress role) is unfortunate, as the writers bring nothing new to the "buddy" concept and their attempts at humorous dialogue for the pair are often painful. With the exception of a song that pays homage to Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, the Barry Manilow-Bruce Sussman songs are even worse. Bluth is incapable of creating bad animation, and there are several sequences (especially those taking place underwater) that have moments of beauty; overall, however, the animation doesn't have enough sparkle to breathe life into the movie. The cast is certainly not at fault, with Martin Short doing everything short of bursting through the screen to hold the viewer's attention, Tim Drake turning in a reliably sinister performance, and Annie Golden lending her powerful and unique belt to the little she is given to sing. Penguin is not totally without charm -- but the amount it has could almost be fit into a pebble. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Angeline Ball - Gwynne/Chinstrap; Hamilton Camp - Megellenic; Pat Musick - Pola/Chinstrup; Will Ryan - Royal/Tika; Louise Vallance - Priscilla/Chinstrap; Shani Wallis - Narrator; B.J. Ward - Megellenic; James Belushi - Rocko; Neil Ross - Scrawny; Kendall Cunningham - Timmy; Stan Jones - McCallister
Credit
Don Bluth - Director, Gary Goldman - Director, Thomas V. Moss - Editor, James Butterworth - Executive Producer, Barry Manilow - Composer (Music Score), Bruce Sussman - Composer (Music Score), Mark Watters - Composer (Music Score), Barry Manilow - Musical Direction/Supervision, David Goetz - Production Designer, Thomas V. Moss - Cinematographer, Don Bluth - Producer, Gary Goldman - Producer, Russell Boland - Producer, Steve Maslow - Sound/Sound Designer, Rachel Koretsky - Screenwriter, Steve Whitestone - Screenwriter
