Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

ManiakJiggy This is How Movies Should Be Made

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Jesper Brun 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.

Jackson Booth-Millard I had seen a short trailer for this animated film a number of times, I found out much more about it before watching it, like it being directed by Don Bluth (An American Tail, The Land Before Time, Anastasia), and featuring songs by Barry Manilow, so despite a low rating I was still up for watching it. Basically in the frozen lands of Antarctica, there is an ancient ceremony where a penguin must find the perfect pebble to give to his future bride, shy, gullible but kindhearted penguin Hubie (Martin Short) is in love with beautiful Marina (Annie Golden), but is bullied by vain and cruel rival Drake (Tim Curry), and struggling to find a pebble to propose with. He wishes on a star to make his dream come true, and this magical star turns into a large emerald, the perfect pebble, he rushes to give it to Marina, but Drake demands he give it to him, and refusing Hubie is thrown into the water and drifted out to sea, to be picked up by humans on a ship transporting various penguins to a zoo. Grumpy, streetwise but good hearted rockhopper penguin Rocko (James Belushi) and Hubie break out their cages, they lie low for a little time on a beach, Rocko has a desire to fly and he only agrees to help Hubie get back to Antarctica because he has lied that he knows a flying penguin already, meanwhile Drake is trying to force Marina to accept his proposal, she would be breaking tradition if she refuses. Despite finding out he lief to him Rocko praises Hubie's determination to get back to Marina, she meanwhile is worried about him, he and his new companion meanwhile run into a hungry leopard but escape it, and then they are attacked by a killer whale, causing the pebble to get lost and Rocko seemingly perish. Hubie reaches home and confronts Drake, he is able to fight him with the techniques friend Rocko taught him, after a fight where the villain falls Rocko returns safe and sound, Hubie finally proposes to Marina and she accepts, returning Drake is finally defeated being crushed in a rock fall, Rocko achieves his dream to fly, the found emerald is loved by Marina, and time goes by and she and Hubie have had children. Narrated by Shani Wallis, also starring S. Scott Bullock as Chubby and Gentoo, Pat Musick as Pola and Chinstrap 1, Louise Vallance as Priscilla and Chinstrap 2, Angeline Ball as Gwynne and Chinstrap 3 and Kendall Cunningham as Timmy. The voice acting is not all that great, the story is full of rubbish sentimentality and silly action sequences, the colourful animation is good but patchy, and the songs by Barry Manilow are I agree dreadfully cheesy, this may be based on the real courtship ritual of the Adeli penguins, but as a children's film it is a dull and boring animated family musical comedy. Adequate!

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

penchantpoetry 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 ;).