The Killer whales or Orcas are hunters who are after Rocko and Hubie in the movie The Pebble and the Penguin.
Background[]
Physical Appearance[]
These killer whales are black on top and white underneath with tall dorsal fins like real killer whales. Their only feature that gives away the fact that they are animated is their eyes, which are yellow, unlike real orcas, whose eyes are red. The yellow eyes may be to make them appear more menacing and threatening to Hubie and Rocko.
Personality[]
While real orcas are extremely intelligent and able to formulate plans to hunt and kill just about any prey, these killer whales are downright vicious towards their prey, specifically Hubie and Rocko, and as such, are willing to do anything to get their prey. The only penguin who seems unafraid of them is Rocko, who says he seriously hates them. He mentions their name, "Killer whale(s)" periodically throughout the film.
Role in the Film[]
The Pebble and the Penguin[]
These aquatic meat-eating predators are shown to be inhabitants of the ocean surrounding Antarctica.
Hubie sees one of the orcas for the first time while he and Rocko are considering separating from one another on their way back to Antarctica. Rocko points the orca out to him and describes it as the "meanest killing machine in these waters." This made Hubie realize that Rocko likes him enough to save his life, though Rocko initially denies it. He later admits it, however.
Much later, as Hubie and Rocko are closer than ever to home, something hits their iceberg with tremendous force and shakes it violently. Rocko realizes their attacker must be at least one killer whale and tells the dreaded fact to Hubie that orcas are always seen traveling together in pods. Just then, another orca rams their iceberg and starts breaking it up. Hubie and Rocko hop from one iceberg to another, avoiding more orca attacks, until they see an iceberg that looks like a sinister face and decide to swim for it to escape. Suddenly, however, another orca leaps out of the water and hits their iceberg, smashing it in two with its weight. Hubie loses his pebble in the water, and, despite Rocko's protests, dives after it. A third orca leaps out and attacks the berg, but Rocko leaps on it to try and fend it off. Hubie dives down to the wreck of a whaling ship on the bottom and retrieves his pebble, but two orcas suddenly appear out of nowhere to attack him. Hubie swims to the bow of the ship and tries to fire the harpoon at his attackers, but the first orca slams into the harpoon, smashing it to bits.
Alarmed, Hubie grabs the pebble in his beak and swims as fast as he can back toward the surface with the two orcas pursuing him. Again, he loses his pebble as it sinks toward the bottom. Narrowly avoiding the bite of one of the orcas, Hubie makes it to the surface, where the orca tries unsuccessfully to crush Hubie under its weight as it crashes down on the water. Rocko takes Hubie's hand and tells him to swim for the sinister looking iceberg while he lures the orca pod away. Hubie protests against it, but Rocko persists. They both turn and see an orca swimming fast towards them, prompting Rocko to yell for him and Hubie to flee. They dodge the orca's attack as it bites at them while Rocko also escapes being hit by the whale's massive tail fluke. Rocko and Hubie keep swimming as fast as possible with the orcas in hot pursuit, the former yelling at the latter to keep up his speed. As Hubie keeps swimming for the berg, Rocko turns around and swims back the other way, fearlessly facing the largest (and presumably the leader) of the orcas in the pod, which opens its mouth and vocalizes menacingly. Rocko hits the whale and rolls down its body. As the whale lifts its tail fluke above the water, Rocko stands up on its tail and gives one of his loud war cries. Hubie stops swimming as he hears a loud splash behind him, which prompts him to turn around and yell for Rocko, but he doesn't receive a response. He is horrified to see another orca turning around to swim directly at him and resumes his fast swimming to escape.
After barely managing to stay one swim stroke ahead of the killer whales, Hubie finally reaches the sinister looking iceberg, but struggles to reach the top out of the water. The first wave doesn't lift him high enough, but the second wave is just enough to push him up onto the berg. As Hubie is struggling onto the berg, an orca makes a massive leap from the water and tries one last time to grab Hubie in its mouth, but it narrowly misses. Hubie gets out of its way and watches the whale fall helplessly back into the water without its prey. As the orcas disappear back below the waves, Hubie calls out for Rocko, and is shocked and saddened when a third wave washes a scarf onto the berg; this makes Hubie assume the orcas must have eaten his best friend. Fortunately, he was later proven wrong when Rocko not only reappeared alive and well, but also gave Hubie back his pebble, which he single-handedly recovered.
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Trivia[]
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