Review of The Pebble and the Penguin (1995) by Lewis H — 22 Mar 2009

[size=1][font=Arial Black]If were to you ask someone who the best animating company in the world was, they would mostly likely respond with ether Disney, waner brothers or Don Bluth himself. Now don bluth is brilliant animator and has made some incredible films in the 1980?s such as the land before time and the secret of NiMH, but in the 1990?s don bluth?s career went rapidly downhill which all began with Thumbelina and was closely followed by [i]Rock-a-Doodle and many people thought that don bluth?s career was all but finished. But good old donney was aloud once last shot at making a comeback and so created the pebble and the penguin. Dose this move put don bluth back on form or will his efforts be put on ice! [/i][/font][/size].

[u][size=1][font=Arial Black]Story[/font][/size][/u].

[font=Calibri][font=Arial Black][size=1]The pebble and penguin is primarily based on the penguin mating season but the only difference is that the male penguins must present the female with a pebble (which is suppose to resemble a wedding ring) in order to mate with them. The main protagonist in this movie is Hubie (voiced by martin short) who is a goofy but kindhearted penguin how wears a yellow scarf and red hat with ear muffs (yeah the penguin have clothes in this movie). Hubie is in love with the beautiful and kind penguin called Marina (voice by Annie golden) who wears a pearl necklace and has a flower in her hair. Hubie however is insecure about himself, leading him to bullied by the main villains in this movie Drake (voice by Tim curry). [/size][/font][/font].

[font=Calibri][font=Arial Black][size=1]Drake is an absolutely HUGE penguin with enormous muscles, a thick tuff of blue fur covering his face and he wears a red cape which makes him look like such a fucking bad ass. Drake wants to mate with marina simply because he believes that their children will be the strongest, smartest, bravest and the best looking penguins ever. While Drake is one of my favorite villains ever, I will admit he is one hell of a vain, pretentious cock, which is show to full affect when he throws Hubie in water where a leopard seal is waiting to eat him (what a dick). Hubie manages to escape from the seal but is later caught by humans where he is to be transported to a zoo, but soon after he is captured, another called rocko (voice by Jim belushi) who is a streetwise and rather insecure penguin helps Hubie escape and they both make it safely to land. [/size][/font][/font].

[font=Calibri][font=Arial Black][size=1]Hubie and rocko then start arguing and bitching about what to do because Hubie wants to get back to Antarctica but rocko wants to say put a learn how fly, eventually rocko makes a deal with Hubie in which he will help him make it back to Antarctica so that Hubie will introduce him to a penguin that knows how to fly (which turns out to be a lie). ?The pebble and the penguin? has a very nice story but is rather predictable about what going to happen in the end.[/size][/font] [/font].

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[font=Calibri][font=Arial Black][size=1][u]Good points[/u][/size][/font].

[font=Arial Black][size=1]I think this movie?s strongest point is the voice acting, all the characters are brought to life in full motion and their voices are projected brilliant particular Tim curry and Jim bulshei who do excellently as rocko and Drake and the lip syncing is very well done. The musical score in this movie is absolutely fantastic, all the soundtrack are great to listen and they will be forever stuck in your head, my personal favourite?s being ?looks like I got me a friend? and ?don?t make me laugh?. The animation is pretty good too, the backgrounds are colourful, well detailed and the character movement is very fluent. Some scene in the movie however seem ether better or worse than others, for example the scene were Hubie and rocko make to the beach just looks rushed and poorly put together, but other scene like when Hubie and rocko are swimming desperately away from kill whales looks very well animated and water effects are nicely done. One more it must add is that the action scenes are very well put together, none of it feels rushed or the least bit lazy and they will keep you on the edge of your seats, especially the final fight between Hubie and Drake.[/size][/font].

[font=Arial Black][size=1][u]Bad points[/u][/size][/font].

[font=Arial Black][size=1]While there are many good points to this movie and they easily out weight the minuses there are still quite a few flaws, the first being that is far too much emphasis on Hubie and rocko. Anyone who has seen this movie will know that Hubie and rocko take up about two thirds of the movie and the rest are just small scenes with ether Drake or Marina. I think that Hubie and rocko scenes should only take up about half of the movie the other should be focused on Drake and Marina because they?re great characters (especially drake) but there clearly isn?t enough back-story to them and they deserve a lot more depth. The second flaw is that the story is a bit too kind hearted, and while it?s still a good story with some dark element and I know that it?s aimed at kid I do believe that it is way to lovey-dovey for teenagers and such a like. [/size][/font].

[font=Arial Black][size=1][u]Final score[/u][/size][/font].

[font=Arial Black][size=1]After all I?ve said my final verdict on the pebble and the penguin is a grade B, It?s a very entertain film with great voice, great songs, nice animation and the action scenes are pretty good. If this movie was a bit darker and there was less emphasis on the heroes but more on the villains and the love interest then this movie would have easily gotten an A of A+. While Don Bluth has a really hard time in the 90?s this film proved that he still had that special touch.[/size][/font].

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