The Pebble and the Penguin (1995) User Reviews

So lovely!

[Mightyzebra · 7/10 · 26 August 2007]

Genre: Penguins, animation.

Main characters: Hubie, Marina, Rocko and Drake the penguins. I feel for most of these characters and I like them very much indeed. I also like Drake, the baddie – but I do not feel for him.

Actors: Martin Short (Hubie), Shani Wallis (Narrator), Annie Golden (Marina), James Belushi (Rocko) and Tim Curry (Drake).

What happens: All of the Adelie penguins on a big iceberg are ready to mate, finding their pebbles to give to the penguin they love so they can mate. There is one rather clumsy and dreamy penguin called Hubie, who is in love with one particular penguin – but someone else loves her as well…

Message: It's not the gifts that you give your love that matter, but the giver.

My thoughts: I like this film rather a lot. I like the actors, the animation, the characters, the songs and the adventure of the story. The jokes are also amusing and I wouldn't be surprised if at least one person who didn't like this film liked at least one joke from it. The actors are well-picked and many people may like this film JUST because of them – as there are many famous ones (including James Belushi and Tim Curry). The animation is good, I especially like the backgrounds – sometimes it seems like you are going across the sea with the penguins! The characters are very lovable and have distinct personalities, not subtle though, which is one slight problem with this film. I especially like the characters of Hubie and Rocko, some may think otherwise. I also really like the songs, there is an amusing one, there are two romance ones and there is one "bad guy song" that we all have to have in a children's film! Well, we don't have to, but "Don't Make Me Laugh" is fun anyway, good singing from Tim Curry. The adventure of the film is very engaging and it keeps you focused on the film.

One thing I am not so keen about this film is that it's pretty average. Average acting – and the plot is quite average. Otherwise – I think this is a very good animated family film!

Recommended to: Families who would like to sit down to a cartoon film (maybe over some Haribo or a box of Popcorn), children who like penguins and cartoon and grown-ups who like penguins and cartoon films. Enjoy! :-)

An improvement over Thumbelina and Troll In Central Park!

[Animany94 · 6/10 · 2 February 2018]

I had heard a lot of bad things about Don Bluth's movies from the 90's and sure Thumbelina, Rock-a-Doodle and Troll in Central Park are bad, but I found Pebble and the Penguin okay. Not at all near his masterpieces from the 80's which I simply love, but okay.

Tim Curry is the highlight of the movie, because it's Tim Curry, c'mon. He is the ultimate voice of a bad-guy and an amazing singer too! His song, "Don't Make Me Laugh", was bad-ass even though it sort of came out of nowhere.

I like the other characters as well. Martin Short did a good job as the introverted and shy Hubie and Annie Golden voiced Marina very well and sincerely and gave us a beautiful song. My least favourite was actually Rocko, he was meant to be this grumpy penguin, but I found that he was a constant asshole being passive-aggressive towards Hubie. But he is not totally one-dimensional, because he changes as the movie progresses and teaches Hubie some lessons too.

The animation had a lot to it. It changed a lot throughout the movie, but mostly it fit the scenes. The music was pretty good too and I don't get why many people say that there are too many songs. They were catchy and well sung. A certain improvement after Thumbelina and Troll.

Tim Curry's character's design was a little stupid, because a penguin on steroids is a little far-fetched to be honest. That was what he looked like, but he was entertaining and that is enough.

In general, an underrated film that will amuse the kids and maybe adults' eyes will get caught by certain aspects of it.

Take some things off, tweak it, and it would've been okay...

[Jijjin2004 · 7/10 · 12 November 2005]

Yeah I was a kid when this movie was out...at that time I thought it was good. Obviously now I'm older, but I decided to re-watch this movie due to complete boredom. This movie is obviously a kid's movie, and of course the adult interest is 0.1%. Was the plot good? Not really. it's about a penguin named Hubie who wants to marry another penguin named Marina, and it's explained before the movie about the pebble thing. Hubie finally makes contact with Marina, and Marina actually likes Hubie. Later Hubie wants a pebble to marry Marina, so he wishes for the best pebble, and he got what he wanted. This could've ended here, but then Drake, the stupid antagonist, decided he should separate Marina and Hubie to make the most pointless journey ever. But that's all I could tell you for the story. The animation is okay, the only problem is that overdid it with the gender thing. The singing has got to go, this literally made my ears bleed. But what can I say? this is a kid's movie! This is a good movie for kid's, not the whole family... especially not at this time period where pop culture evolved.

Nice Job, Bluth!!

[blizshadow1 · 9 November 2004]

Now I'm a huge Don Bluth fan, so it's no wonder I love all of his films to death, with the exception of Rock-A-Doodle-Doo, which had potential but dived like a nailed duck than sang like a rooster.

Back on topic, I felt that "Penguin" is a vastly underrated film. The basic story is that Hubie, our shy, lovestruck hero, must make his way back to his love Marina after being left for dead by the jealous Drake, whose also got his eye on Marina. Accompanied by the strong and hyper-active Rocko, Hubie braves the waters to make the 3000 mile journey and give her his unique "engagement pebble" before his love is banished forever.

The adventure itself is everything I want in this type of movie: Action. Hubie and Rocko's flights from the numerous seals and whales who see our fair duo as an appetizer are always enough to hold my attention, because it was fast. And the faster and livelier the animation, the better for me.

But of course, the slower moments made me like this movie also. In these scenes, we see the birds' true personality emerge. Hubie is this shy and timid thing in the beginning...Quite lame actually (Who calls anyone a "big bully" anymore?) And in the end, he's brave and not afraid to speak his mind. In fact, he learns to fight and defend himself, taught by the tough-guy Rocko, who begins showing compassion and friendship for Hubie as the movie goes on. He also shares his dream with the penguin: To be the first penguin to fly, a cute little personality quirk to this diamond in the rough.

It has your typical Bluth animation: Fluid, bright, lively, and Disney-like, and that's the main thing I've come to love from animation produced during the bygone era. Just plain beautiful in all aspects.

The songs are pretty charming... once they wear on you. After all, this is a movie intended more so for 7,8,9,10 year olds, so these songs aren't "Lion King" material. But I've come to find something I like about each. For instance, Hubie's jokes in "Looks Like I Got Me a Friend" are lame... but I've come to love that about the cute lil' penguin!! All songs are acceptable, excluding "Misery." Waaaay too childish. But the score was absolutely breathtaking.

To me, this movie only had one setback: Drake, the aforementioned villain. He's not the most likable villain at all and only held my attention with one or two threats, and a few lines from his song "Don't Make Me Laugh." He's more annoying than anything else, and made me all the more happier Hubie kicked his white-and-black behind.

In conclusion, "Penguin" has been adored by me since the first time I laid eyes on these quirky birds. Given this is a children's movie really makes me appreciate it even more. The music, main characters, action scenes and character development of Rocko and Hubie were perfect. The villain and a few songs were the only drawback to a wonderful movie. Don Bluth is one of the best, independent animators of the 80s-90s and he has kept his rep very well.

a cheap, poorly-drawn cartoon expanded into a seventy-minute feature -- but if you have young children, it might be a worthy rental

[TheUnknown837-1 · 4/10 · 21 June 2009]

By the mid 1990s, the career of animator-director Don Bluth had seemed to drop to its all-time low. Before, Bluth had made a series of popular animated films, many which remain beloved today such as "The Land Before Time" (1988), "The Secret of NIMH" (1982), and "An American Tail" (1986). But beginning with "Thumbelina" in 1994, his films seemed to decrease more and more in quality and popularity and one of the many unfortunate entries is 1995's box office bomb "The Pebble and the Penguin", a film that didn't attract audience members beyond parents and children under the age of seven. Frankly, the latter are the only audience members I can comprehend taking enjoyment out of this rather bland animated feature.

The story is absurd. The film stars a poorly-drawn, stammering, and chubby penguin named Hubie (voiced by Martin Short) who falls in love with a female penguin with a surprisingly healthy flower on her head (voice by Annie Golden). SORT OF like in real life, penguins present their bride-to-bes with a pebble as a substitute for a ring. But when Hubie is swept away by the current, he teams up with a lone rockhopper (James Belushi) with a dream of flying and they race against time to return to Antarctica before it's too late. The reasons why they could be too late is one of many underdeveloped elements of this weak story that would still be weak even if they were there.

It becomes very clear very early on why this animated children's musical does not and will not work for anybody older than say six or seven years of age. It just does not have any of the qualities that are required for a good animated feature. Number one, the film looks bad on account of a very poor drawing style. The animation in this film is very cartoony (even as far as animated films go); it's dark, gloomy, there is no vibrancy in the colors, and on top of that, the design of the film and the elements in it are universally droll and laughable. Take for instance, the penguins who star in the film. With only a few background exceptions, every single penguin looks absolutely nothing at all like a bird. Hubie, for example, looks absurdly ridiculous with wide cheeks, a stubby beak, big eyes, and that preposterous hat that he wears wherever he goes. Combined with his hand-like "flippers" he looks like Chris Farley in a penguin suit. Result: he's an ugly, poorly-drawn cartoon character. But the most absurd-looking and absurdly-designed character is the evil penguin, Drake, who frankly looks nothing at all like a penguin. He's a muscle-man wearing a penguin mask. He's got a chest broader than that of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and teeth larger than the teeth of the leopard seals and killer whales that serve as the film's predators. Basically, he's a two-dimensional, recycled villain. He lives in a cave shaped like a skull, he wears a cape, laughs a lot, and gets mad when people laugh with him. Result: who cares? And what's also bad, and maybe worse, is that this is an animated musical and there's not a single noteworthy or memorable song to found anywhere within its running time. The opening hymn was harmless—not memorable, but harmless. But after that, the songs became duller and duller and there was one in particular that had me grimacing all the way through. It's the moment that viewers press the fast-forward button for whenever it comes up.

I felt "The Pebble and the Penguin" was lame all around save for the very few moments when Hubie and the rockhopper penguin Rocko are placed in peril at the jaws of leopard seals and killer whales, who were thankfully, given no dialogue and treated as animals instead of cartoon characters. But in a way, for this reason, I cannot wholeheartedly recommend this movie to children. This is the reason. The film displays killer whales are the natural predator of the penguins. My concern is that children familiar with "Free Willy" (1993) may be offended or downhearted by seeing their favorite denizen of the sea portrayed as a bloodthirsty carnivore. The leopard seal was a better antagonist and was more funny seeing as how his jaws opened wider than a rattlesnake's and how he appeared to smile while growling. But the point really is, these moments with the predators—and there are only a few—are the only interesting moments. And they're not enormously interesting, mind you.

Bottom line, I cannot recommend this to anybody below the age of seven. My advice: if you have children around that page, rent it for them. They might enjoy it.

It ain't no Disney, but it's pure nostalgia

[david_nys · 7/10 · 19 November 2010]

I might only be 19, which isn't considered an age when one knows a lot of things about life. But young as I am, I already know what nostalgia is. And that might just be the word to describe this movie.

I saw this movie more than 10 years ago, in my original language (which is dutch). After years of forgetting this movie, I saw it again, in English this time, but all memories of it came back nonetheless.

First I should explain this story in short. It's about Hubie, a penguin who is in love with Marina, a beautiful female penguin. Problem is, he's very shy and he thinks the only way he even has a chance is to find her a nice pebble. Luckely for him, divine intervention delivers him one. But he has another problem in the form of the gigantic (buffed up with steroids probably) penguin named Drake, voiced by Tim Curry(!!). He wants Marina as well and he gets rid of Hubie. Now it's up to Hubie to get back home and rescue his girl. On the way, he gets to know Rocko, a rock hopper who is tough as nails but a real nice guy when you get to know him (just don't mention anything about flying).

The movie is well animated, the backgrounds are nice and the colors are pretty. Alright, you can't compare it to the Disney classics, but then, what can be compared with those? The story is simple but it is interesting enough and the pacing is just right. Some songs are catchy, some are just OK, only Drake's song is awesome! The voice acting is great as well. Rocko sounds exactly as he should, marina's voice is lovely and Drake... well you can't go wrong with Tim Curry doing the voice acting can you? God I love that guy. Only problem is, Hubie sounds terrible. His voice in dutch was annoying but bearable. The English one is just terrible. Hubie is a adorable character though, even if so many don't like him. So is Rocko, just cause he is bad ass. And I wish we had seen more of Drake cause we just get to see him as he is bugging Marina, either through threats or singing. There are some awesome scenes, like on a ship called the "misery". Some call it disgusting, I call it brilliant. Or the scene in which Rocko discovers he has been lied to. Violent but very enjoyable to watch.

There wasn't much that bothered me about this film that I haven't covered already, except for the ending. It is kind of sweet, but there are some things that are illogical and just annoying. You'll have to see for yourself.

Overall, a great movie for little kids and adults alike, with solid animation and some great voice acting and songs but unfortunately some major setbacks. Still this is an hugely underestimated movie by an underestimated director, Don Bluth.

Overall....

[ann-chess · 4/10 · 25 July 2010]

Don Bluth made some wonderful films (Secret of NIMH, Land Before Time, An American Tail, just to name a few.) But as he went on with success, he suddenly tossed out some really STRANGE films. And I'm talking strange. These films are Rock-A-Doodle, Thumbelina, A Troll in Central Park, and Pebble and the Penguin.

So, Pebble and the Penguin is what we're looking over today. If it's apart of the "Strange" family, then we're gonna be in some trouble.

PatP is about a penguin named Hubie, who is in love with the penguin Marina. He wants to propose to her, but the evil penguin Drake wants Marina for his own. Hubie finds a beautiful stone that he can use to propose to Marina. But Drake almost kills him and Hubie sails away on an iceberg where he meets Rocko, a tough penguin who constantly tries to escape the S.S Misery. The two penguins manage to escape, form a friendship, endure some enemies here and there, and finally get back to Antartica to save Marina from marrying Drake. That's the plot, ladies and gentlemen.

What do I think of it? I was watching it the other day, and every twenty minutes or so, I would just stop the movie and change it to something else. I couldn't take it. I don't know what it really was at first, was it the voice acting? The annoying characters? The plot? I couldn't put my finger on it, but as I turned it on again, and after about fifteen minutes, I turned it off...I figured it out.

The MUSIC.

The first song is practically NEVER-ENDING, and you just keep asking yourself "Are they still SINGING?" The second song is boring, can't capture the rhythm of anything, and is even a bit obnoxious. The third song, sung by the penguins on the S.S Misery, is just disgusting...and I'm being nice when I call it disgusting. Really. Listen to the song and see how you react. It's badly sung to the point of wanting to rip your ears out. I think the only song I could tolerate was "Don't Make Me Laugh", sung by Drake...and well, I think I know why: because it's Tim Curry. And Tim Curry seems to steal the show often with song. It's because he's an AMAZING singer. I have to ask how he agreed to do this film, though...maybe to show us that he can take a bad movie and make it better with that song.

I also highly dislike the main character. I understand they're taking a clumsy guy and turning him strong, but seriously, this GUY is annoying! And he also lies, too. Every kid wants to look up to a liar, right? There are also a bazillion things never explained. For example, how on EARTH can Hubie suddenly see what Marina is doing with his pebble? Is it suddenly a crystal ball? It's never explained! If they said something like "Oh, this is a magic pebble that acts like a crystal ball." then I would leave this alone, but it just sort of...happens! There were FEW parts I enjoyed...like the part where Rocko is strangling Hubie.

Overall....a movie that is slightly below average, with terrible music (except Tim Curry's song!!), and many things NEVER EXPLAINED. I think kids will like it, but that's it. Kids. This film was made for kids, so they don't have to point out the big mistakes in this movie. If you're older than about seven, you won't like this film.

a good family fun movie

[lilmermaid_bella22 · 7/10 · 7 July 2007]

to all of you out their who have to pick apart every little itty bitty thing that isn't logical about this movie cut it out i mean 4 GODS SAKES ITS A KIDS MOVIE and for what it is its quite good !!! of course penguins don't wear hats but it builds up their characters i remember watchin this movie when i was 7 years old and I loved it its a simple story the little girls will love the romance and the little boys and probably the parents will love rocko its a cute film !! and for those people trying to act all high and mighty get a life Don Bluth always does a good job at making good wholesome family entertainment! so if you ever need something to entertain ur kids for 1 and 1/2 hours put the pebble and the penguin on !!! :D

Dreadful

[penchantpoetry · 2/10 · 7 September 2008]

Hubie -- like Stanely the troll from Bluth's A Troll in Central Park -- lacks the spark of personality to be the main character that carries an entire movie. We're supposed to like him because he's nice, but that's about all he is.

His character design is unappealing. The top of his head is a sort of dome that is narrower than the pudgy bottom half of his head.

And penguins should not have teeth. I know that Iago the parrot in Aladdin had teeth, but maybe that worked because it made him look more like his voice actor, Gilbert Gottfried. Hubie, with his weenie little voice (provided by Martin Short), looks funny with that big set of chompers in his beak.

Tim Curry, who is usually delightful at being evil, does some sort of dippy surfer dude accent as the villain (might have been a good voice for a comic relief accomplice, not the supposedly menacing main villain).

The entire plot revolves around the hero and villain's love for female penguin Marina, who is just as dull as both of her suitors.

Worst of all is the pacing. We keep cutting back to the villain to watch him threaten Marina some more - this time in dialogue, this time in song...

Barry Manilow may be a great songwriter, but in animated films like this and Thumbelina, his songs feel limp and listless - especially the ballads. The only song I liked was the 1930's-ish "Good Ship Misery" song.

I read that the distributor made some cuts in this film against the filmmaker's wishes, and that could have caused some of the problems - though I suspect the real problem is that they didn't cut the rest of it ;).

charming penguin movie!

[cnnrvieira · 7/10 · 3 November 2023]

The Pebble and the Penguin was a pretty easy movie to watch, it has a cute story and a light narrative. I can't say I enjoyed myself that much while watching it, but there were things I managed to find rather sweet.

I liked the music, the beginning sequence was adorable and the visuals had charm, the songs helped with following the story very well, there were silent sequences with great animation that the music supported greatly. Amazing backgrounds, too.

The animation, by the way, was solid and even though it had some moments where it looked wanky, it still didn't take too much of my attention out of the story, there were parts better animated than others, but still, I didn't mind it. (Just did not like the boat song, bad song)

The character design was a bit silly, but not fundamentally bad! Marina looked weird to me, but sure, she's a cute squishy-looking character, as well as the rest of the cast. But regardless of character design, I still liked the character's personalities and dynamics, Marina was a good love interest to Hubie, found it cute.

Rocko was lowkey the best character, he wasn't all that funny of a co-protagonist, but he managed to be entertaining! And needless to say, I was not expecting the twist of him actually flying at the end, but I loved it, it was funny in its own silly way!

Hubie was cute! I liked that at the end, he got to beat up the bad guy but still ended up as a soft, kind guy, he had some character development that wasn't too hard to follow, and yeah I feel like that's okay for a kids movie, and that's really all i have to say.

Hubie works best in his dynamic with Rocko more than alone. Honestly, their interactions were funny to me and I did like the friendship they developed. So, here's my unpopular opinion, Hubie should've ended up with Rocko instead of Marina, and no, I will not elaborate on it (queer penguins, dude!)

The villain Drake was meh, he wasn't interesting, it felt like he didn't even have that much of importance to the movie, not too solid of a character. His song was the weakest of the movie.

Another thing I didn't like was how the movie lost me at the end, I barely remember what exactly happened in the fight sequence because of that, it was a little boring, the movie is short but it still felt like it was dragging on for too long with that ending. The pacing was weird at times.

But alas, I don't think that this movie takes itself too seriously, and that's actually a good thing, it's a cheesy movie with easy characters, I think I would've really enjoyed watching this as a kid, too bad I've never heard of it before this year! Honestly I do feel a bit sad that it isn't too popular.

Solid movie, had fun, don't think I'll ever be watching it again but not bad.

This pebble did not shine.

[ravsten428 · 3/10 · 16 May 2017]

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!

Pretty darn good!

[poninegavy24601 · 10/10 · 23 December 2005]

As others have said before, this a movie you watch when your seven, and then you don't remember a thing about it until 10 years later. That's true for me. This was possibly my favorite movie at the age of 6. Then I didn't even think about it for 10 years until March of the Penguins came out. I was watching a commercial for it and thought 'Wasn't there a cartoon about penguins?' and then I remembered. I sent my brother to Hollywood Video to get it immediately.

When I first put the DVD in I was scared that what used to be my favorite movie would suck. But I enjoyed it, possibly, more than I did when I was little. I was able to appreciate some things I used to be too young to see. When I was young I found the romance scenes quite "icky". But they were actually pretty gosh darn sweet. And the humor still amused me greatly.

The plot is simple enough for any child to an adu.lt to get into: The story's about Hubie (brilliantly voiced by Martin Short), the lovable, stuttering hero. He's shy when it comes to the ladies and has little confidence in himself. He's in love with the beautiful Marina (vocalized by Annie Golding) who he's never even spoken to before. But that all changes one day when he stumbles down a hill into her. Their relationship blossoms and he takes her to a place where he opens his heart in a very sweet song but doesn't get far enough to tell her he loves her. Hubie then decides to find the perfect pebble for Marina and ask her to be his. The penguins have a special ritual in which the male presents the female with a pebble expressing his love for her. If she accepts, they mate. Hubie is heartbroken when no good pebbles are left, when suddenly a green pebble falls from the sky (corny yes, just play along). He immediately starts looking for Marina. But there's another penguin in love with her. Drake (another awesome performance by Tim Curry), wishes to make Marina his. He's everything Hubie's not: big, strong, and handsome. He sees Hubie as an obstacle, so he disposes of him by throwing Hubie off the ice structure. At sea, Hubie gets lost and is picked up by humans who are taking him to a zoo. While trying to figure out how to escape, the humans bring down another penguin, Rocko (done by Jim Belushi), who is feisty and determined to escape. Hubie realizes he only has 10 days left to get home and convinces Rocko to help him. Together, they escape and end up on a beach. Rocko then decides it's best if they go their separate ways. Quickly thinking up a lie, Hubie tells Rocko about a penguin named Waldo who can fly. (Rocko earlier expressed his dream of wanting to fly) Rocko wants to meet the nonexistent Waldo, so he agrees to help Hubie find his way home. Hubie and Rocko face many adventures on their way back, from sea lions to killer whales. Rocko and Hubie build a great friendship, and Rocko even helps Hubie learn to fight and build self esteem. When close to home Hubie believes that Rocko has been eaten by a whale. Revengeful, Hubie sets out after Drake. After a fight scene with Drake, Hubie recovers Marina and is relieved to see Rocko alive. Drake's lair begins to crumble, leading to Hubie and Marina falling to their doom. Rocko leaps to save them and begins to fly! His dream has been fulfilled. Rocko takes them back home and Marina and Hubie get together.

The vocals are great in this movie. They choose such a great cast of actors! Martin Short, Jim Belushi, Annie Golding, and Tim Curry. You can't beat that, can you? They're all so great at what they do, and they're all great singers too.

The score is absolutely breath taking. Short and Belushi make a very comical duo in Looks Like I Got Me a Friend. You grow to love Hubie's lame jokes. Now and Forever is fantastic; I found myself swaying along with the penguins. But the songs that really blow me away are the two Sometimes I Wonder songs. The Sometimes I Wonder Reprise actually managed to make me cry. Marina's heartfelt cry for her lost love is so moving. Hubie's Sometimes I Wonder is so cute I couldn't stop squealing. Martin Short makes the cartoon come to life in this one scene. I love how Hubie's so shy and unsure of himself at the beginning, but in the middle he just opens up and doesn't even realize what he's saying. My only wish is that he actually told her that he wanted to be with someone like her instead of stuttering off. Otherwise, the rest of the score makes up for Good Ship Misery and will make you want to get the soundtrack.

Now, my review has been good the whole time. Sadly, here must come the bad. The animation, unfortunately, was a bit choppy. I've heard rumors of why, and don't really know what to believe. The song Good Ship Misery isn't good. I wanted to fast forward through it, but I refused to. The other thing that made me angry was Drake. Not Drake in general, he was the perfect example of a true villain. But his dea.th, I mean he can fall down nearly a 100 foot drop and still live, yet he dies immediately when the hideout caves in? I just found that sort of wimpy...

Otherwise, I love it. As corny as people may say it is, I think it's sweet and a great family film. Children 5-9 are sure to get a kick out of it and adu.lts shouldn't have too much trouble sitting through it. It's great, and I recommend it to everyone.

if you're under 8,you'll love it!!!

[wildpeace10 · 4/10 · 11 September 2007]

i rented this when it came out on video cassette in 1995. After rewatching it again,my idea about it hasn't changed much.

i was an adult then and i'm still an adult now!lol

The illogical elements mentioned by other reviewers didn't bother me. This isn't a documentary,it's a fantasy story where animals can talk!

While i didn't care for much of the songs,i liked the one at the end of the picture where it's sang by barry manilow and another person.

Some people seem to make an excuse for it's primitive animation by saying that CGI wasn't used often in animated features but let's not forget that THE LION KING was released about a year earlier and that packed possibly more excellence than any animated feature that came before it!!

But i think it's pretty fair to say that THE PEBBLE AND THE PINGOIN was made on the cheap while THE LION KING wasn't....

The high points for me in 1995 as well as today is the suspense generated by the few dangerous(mostly) underwater chase scenes.

i also liked the opening scene which takes place on a music notes page and a little bit of the love story. But most of the time,the story dragged on and was boring.

Worth a look if you like animation but if you're an adult and not a risk taker,go get another Walt Disney production instead of this!

I've seen worse

[xxlittlekittenxx · 6 March 2003]

Let's face it, a lot of the reviews that 'The Pebble and the Penguin' has gotten here at IMDB are right that this movie's pretty bad, but trust me, there's worse ones than this. 'Rock-A-Doodle' without question is the worst of Don Bluth's movies (though I haven't seen it in years, I remember it being hideous), and although I haven't seen 'Thumbelina' all the way through, I know that it's worse than 'Pebble and the Penguin' too (the few minutes I saw of 'Thumbelina' were just too painful).

Anyhow, 'The Pebble and the Penguin' is a bit of a mess. As you may know, a shy penguin named Hubie is hell-bent on getting this strange green pebble to his lovebird, Marina. This could have been pretty good, but you can tell that they really rushed it. Then there's Drake, the most annoying villain... ever. In order to have a really good villain, he/she has to be somewhat likeable as well as sinister. But Drake's not likeable by a longshot. Tim Curry did voice him beautifully, though, so I've got to give that fact some credit.

The only great character is Rocko. Now HE has some personality going on. Hubie and Marina are okay, but Rocko's the one who steals the show.

One of the most glaring things about this movie is the animation. But I wouldn't entirely blame Don Bluth for this. I think he left this movie before it was finished, and who could blame him? There's a lot of odd coloring here, and the animation can vary from good to unbearable. And somehow the penguins in this movie just didn't look 'penguiny'. They just looked... wrong. Chilly Willy is more accurate to looking like a real penguin than any penguins here.

Don't expect much for great songs either. The only nice one is "Now and Forever" at the very beginning. The rest will give you a chance to go to the bathroom.

And I'm fed up with writers thinking the only way to defeat the antagonist is to beat the tar out of him. What kind of message is that?

I think if they spent some more time on this movie it wouldn't have been too bad. In fact, it could have been good. Still, it's better than some other late movies of Don Bluth's.

weak

[on_the_can · 4/10 · 27 August 2009]

I'm an animator myself and an all around buff of the medium so when I saw this movie in a $5 bin I figured it was worth a shot to add to my collection. While I never regret having a new addition to my animation library this film was definitely disappointing.

The premise has enough potential. A penguin named Hubie finds the perfect pebble to give to the girl he loves as the penguin equivalent to an engagement ring but before he can give it to her, he's cast out by an evil rival and lost at sea. He then befriends another penguin who helps him find his way home. That set up isn't great but it's enough to set up what could be a fun adventure. Unfortunately the duo's exploits never really amount to much and it all gets pretty repetitive. Most of the situations they find themselves in are really uninspired and lacking in creativity...and the bonding the two of them under go is cheesy and forced.

Animation is good but not up to Don Bluth's usual standards. This is the guy that gave us The Secret of Nimh, Land Before Time and An American Tale, all of which had an attention to detail that often surpassed Disney, the granddaddy of feature animation. This one doesn't amount to much beyond high end TV fair.

The music is alright but pretty forgettable and the voice actors are all wasted talent...Martin Short is particularly wasted here as the lead character who in spite of being spoken of as a bumbler is practically a straight man through the whole film.

In short the movie will probably appeal to very small kids but a good family film should appeal to all ages and unfortunately it doesn't got what it takes.

(2nd part from my review of "A Troll In Central Park")

[santielkapodeflores · 5/10 · 31 March 2014]

Sorry I had problems and I just couldn't have time to write a review for "The Pebble And The Penguin" until now.

Like I was saying in my review of "A Troll In Central Park", Don Bluth achieved being the first true competition Disney had in decades, forcing them to regroup and releasing "The Little Mermaid" which put Disney again on the road. But now Disney was back with all their might, and Don Bluth struggled facing them. Every single of his films would be compared to their Disney counterparts ("Aladdin" to "Rock-a-Doodle", "The Lion King" to "A Troll In Central Park"...) This dangerous habit of comparing his output also severely damaged his integrity when trying to make his films: executives forced him out of his distinctive, trademark style to one the public would be more easily to stomach, with fictional devices and conventions common in Disney films that would be more sure to make money. But when it was the time to release the film on the big screen, distribuitors wouldn't have faith on it, the only animated films that could prove that were capable of make money are Disney's, so why bothering distributing a Don Bluth film when you could as well distribute a proper Disney's?

So, in this lose-lose scenario, having been caught between fire from the executives that wanted a Disney-style film that would be more likely to make money, and the fire from the distribuitors that wouldn't trust any animated film not made by Disney, was where "The Pebble And The Penguin" was made. And how bad it affected it? Certainly, Don Bluth abandoned in the middle of the production and demanded that he wouldn't be credited in this film. An Hungarian studio had to finish it, and so you see why the legendary high-style quality of the animation of Don Bluth, one of the things he never compromised no matter if his films were bad, here hits his lowest quality and seems at times as unpolished and mediocre.

But luckily, Don Bluth had a couple of tricks in his sleeve to redeem the animation, like the opening sequence in 3D musical sheets, the scene of the shooting star, and Drake's musical number. Which brings the next topic, the score was certainly better than "Troll" but nowhere near his best. "Don't make me laugh" (Drake's number) and "Forever and ever" (the opening sequence) are great but others songs aren't particularly memorable. Maybe is the quality of the voice acting that makes what they are, which brings the next topic. I didn't liked Hubie's performance, nor that of many support characters, but Rocko, Marina and specially Drake were fine (see? I'm starting to note that Drake was the best thing of the film)

And the story/plot... well it's OK I've seen plenty of films like this in Cartoon Network, it's perfectly acceptable to have a film like this, with this mood and atmosphere, if I could catch a film like this in a Saturday afternoon on TV I wouldn't see what's different with many other films like "A Nine Dog Christmas" or "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" so why the film failed and was another flop of Don Bluth? Disney. Like I said, all animation had to be only and just only from Disney. This cruel and sadistic practice of the industry (and to some extent, the public too) would come later to bite back Disney and destroy their traditional animation divisions with the arrival of the CGI, but that's another story...

5/10, it's a perfectly OK, average film, absolutely better than "Troll" and "Rock-a-doodle" but nowhere on par of Don Bluth's best.

A boring cartoon about a stupid penguin

[tapio_hietamaki · 2/10 · 3 February 2017]

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.

Makes "Happy Feet Two" look like "Surf's Up". Warning: This is a long rant.

[janevicsimonp · 2/10 · 30 April 2018]

This is a terrible movie. Nothing irked me more than the penguin character designs. These BIRDS have teeth as well as fingers on their wings that do not look at all like feathers. To add insult to injury, they also wear clothes..The animation is dull in color, but I suppose it might look okay if it wasn't (but the characters still wouldn't). All of the songs are forgettable and many are also nothing more than filler. Only the villain song, "Don't Make Me Laugh" is somewhat half-decent. The story is stupid. Hubie gets his pebble because it fell from... an asteroid. He gets swept away by the ocean current after Drake pushes him in even though as an animal that spends 80% of its life in the ocean he should know how to avoid this. There's no backstory on how Drake kidnapped Marina or on how Rocko (WTF) LEARNED HOW TO FLY!!! There's a reason penguins in real life can't do that!! Overall, this is just garbage and I don't understand why a decent amount of people on the internet seem to like it. Totally lives up to its 11% RT score.

One of the better Don Bluth movies

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 30 January 2009]

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

Stop, Bluth! Please, stop!

[pmcollectorboy · 2/10 · 30 September 2000]

Would it surprise you that my ears and eyes almost bled from watching and listening to this awful movie? My eyes almost bled from watching the awful animation and insipid, plotless, empty story. My ears almost bled from listening to the songs that sounded like they were sung by a chorus of howler monkeys. Then my brain almost melted because of this film's complete lack of intelligence. It's formulaic every step of the way. Talking animals are one thing, but a penguin who can fly just to keep with the "dreams can come true" schtick? Show some more faith in the children's intelligence please. Next to Rock-A-Doodle, this is one of Bluth's worst.

Good music, disappointing movie

[Olivier-3 · 28 March 1999]

Symbol of the creative -and financial- problems of Don Bluth's team between "All Dogs Go To Heaven" until "Anastasia", this animated movie benefits impeccable score and songs and good animation, for a very weak plot.

Huh.

[BuffaloWilder · 4/10 · 14 April 2007]

Whoa. I mean, whoa. I mean, whoa whoa.

I saw this movie, waaay back when I was eight, in 1996. Back then, CGI films were a rarity; and good ones even more so. Also, back then we listened to things called CD players. But I digress. I used to like this movie a lot, way back then, and up till viewing it again, I've held reaally fond memories of it. Hey, it's Don Bluth! Anyone who hates "All Dogs Go to Heaven" is clearly a robot. But, again, I digress.

Then, I saw it again. This really isn't one of his best, I can say now, eleven years later. I've seen a lot more films, and I've garnered a little bit more knowledge. Now, sure, the voice acting is good, I'll give 'em that. Story's...okay. I mean, we see it all the time. A LOT. But, it works. The musical numbers are what irk me. This would've been more at home in the eighties, with these kind of musical numbers. In '96, most kids movies had epic numbers, like the Lion King (which came out a year or so previous, but whatever)or stuff like that. You get showtunes here, vaudeville style.

The animation kind of hurts, too. At times choppy, and at others completely changing style and format with the change of a shot, it's really hard not to notice.

I still like "All Dogs Go to Heaven, but this could've been waaay better.

4/10

not up to top animation standard

[nero-5 · 5/10 · 23 August 1999]

I saw this animation as I collect penguins and there were some cute pictures with a _little_ factual information in the story, but the dialog and songs did not live up to the high standard of classic Disney films. The little plot seemed too simplistic and obviously going to end happily-ever-after. There was none of the suspense caused by a good score and life-or-death situations with last minute saves which characterize good fairytales.

Overall: 5/10 - passes the time, just

this movie sucked

[greeny24 · 1/10 · 19 January 2002]

This movie totally sucked!!! Don't even rent it! You'll hate it! The plot didn't make sense, the characters sucked, and why was that penguin trying to get the pebble anyway? If that girl penguin would only like him because he has a pretty pebble than the relationship would not be based on love only on money! I very much disliked this movie(Hate is such a strong word!). And penguins cant fly! Even if they believe than they can do it, they cant. p.s. I am not who you think I am!

Don Bluth's Studio ends with a mess

[IonicBreezeMachine · 4/10 · 18 April 2021]

Hubie (Martin Short) a good hearted but clumsy Adélie penguin with a stutter has a crush on Marina (Annie Golden), a kind soft spoken Penguin. While Hubie does find a perfect pebble to propose with, the cruel alpha male, Drake (Tim Curry), also has his eyes on Marina throws Hubie off a cliff and Hubie becomes lost at sea. When Hubie is captured by humans he teams up with a brash abrasive Northern rockhopper penguin named Rocko (Jim Belushi) who dreams of flying in an effort to return home before Marina is forced to marry Drake.

The final film of Don Bluth Irish based studios that had been the creator's home from 1985 until 1995. The final film in a three picture financing deal with Hong Kong based Media Assets, the movie had a tumultuous development cycle with Warner Bros. Delaying production to focus on Thumbelina and distribution changing hands to MGM who demanded late in production changes to the film. Director's Don Bluth and Gary Goldman jumped ship from the floundering studio in favor of a lucrative deal with 20th Century Fox to set up an Animation Studio, disowning the film which has no credited director, though MGM claimed this was totally Bluth and Goldman's film. With a troubled production history it's no wonder why the movie feels like a disjointed mess, albeit one with fleeting moments of beauty.

The impetus of The Pebble and the Penguin was spurred very much by the success of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, in Bluth's words something for children and "the date movie crowd", that really doesn't come through all that well. While the movie is technically a love story, Hubie and Marina are basically a done deal within the first 10 minutes. Not only are they together, but there's really no defining character to Marina other than she isn't a superficial airhead like her friends are. We know she's nice....and that's it. Marina spends the rest of the movie doing two things: Rejecting Drake and pining for Hubie. Drake is clearly modeled after Gaston with his bodybuilder physique and the ability to make women swoon and faint by entering a room and he's perfectly serviceable as a villain, only elevated by the fact that Tim Curry voices the character and brings energy to what's essentially a very underwritten role. Rocko was probably my favorite character, if only because I found Jim Belushi's abrasive way in which he portrays the character to be a nice break from the alternating bounciness and blandness of the other characters, but even Rocko seems inconsistently written with him changing moods or motivations on a dime for no other reason than the plot needs him to. There's a major revelation wherein Rocko finds out he was lied to by Hubie and his anger lasts all of maybe 30 seconds at most and then it continues the same way with no further mention. And then there's Hubie, on the surface he seems like a decent enough underdog lead, but Martin Short's portrayal of him I found more grating than anything else. Martin Short has a recurring problem in films be it Clifford, Pure Luck and this one in that his delivery just doesn't translate all that well to the movies he's in despite him being a proven funny comedian. Hubie comes off throughout the movie as whiny, obsessive, or emotionally needy and I just didn't find him all that charming.

The animation is at least nice, in parts anyway. The characters are expressive and there's energy to the animation, but there's also some sloppiness that's rather noticeable no doubt due to the production troubles. There are many sequences with odd color coding, static characters in either the foreground or background that give blank stares into space, and even cases of recycling of animation. The movie feels like a hatchet job with a lack of flow and connective tissue between scenes as we jump and skip between sections like a needle hitting record skips. It has the feeling of something where parts were removed while others were being inserted. There's a framework for a serviceable story in place, but the parts used to build it are so haphazardly assembled it lacks emotional impact.

The Pebble and the Penguin is the kind of movie that was made for "too many cooks". It has the feeling of something that was hampered by executive mandate and was put together with the mentality of "just finish it already". Maybe if Warner Bros. Had allowed it to be finished first instead of prioritizing Thumbelina maybe it would've been a better product, but as is: It's a mess of a movie that doesn't know how to assemble all the elements it has into a cohesive whole.