The Pebble and the Penguin

Title: The Pebble and the Penguin
VHS, 1995
Starring Martin Short and Tim Curry

My roommate found a collection of VHS tapes at his mom's house and suggested this film by the same Director as 'All Dog's go to Heaven'. The voice actors (listed above) were reason enough to check it out.

Description:

This movie tells the story of Hubie, a penguin whose species is known for giving a pebble to a female of their kind and mating with that one female for life. The only problem is that Hubie is too shy to give his pebble to the girl that he really likes named Marina. Also, the evil and muscular penguin Drake (voiced by Tim Curry in his typical villain role) has his eyes on Marina and will do just about anything to get her. Hubie is then caught by a fishing boat and finally escapes with the help of another penguin named Rocko. Rocko and Hubie initially butt heads, but over the course of their trip back to Hubie's home, the become friends and vow to get the pebble to Marina before Drake can.

Review:

Probably more geared towards elementary school kids (and thus the younger end of our 'tween' spectrum) the movie is a fairly formulaic animated kids movie. Their are some song and dance numbers, but the music isn't all that catchy and the same song is repeated more than once. The voice acting by Martin Short and Tim Curry is really well done, as one might expect from those two, and the story is, for the most part, endearing. I would not go out of my way to recommend this movie, being a rather rudimentary movie, but its not all that bad.