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The Pebble and the Penguin is a 1995 animated musical comedy-drama fantasy adventure film, directed by Don Bluth, and distributed by MGM in the US, and Warner Bros. Family Entertainment overseas and is his eighth feature film overall. It centers around a timid, stuttering penguin named Hubie who tries to impress a beautiful penguin named Marina by giving her a pebble that fell from the sky. The film stars Martin Short, Annie Golden, Tim Curry, and James Belushi. Like many other Don Bluth films from the 90s (with the exception of his next film Anastasia), this film received generally negative reviews from critics, and was a box-office bomb. However, it recently has gotten a cult following, becoming one of the most popular animated films of all time.

Ultimately, Bluth wasn’t credited as producer and director in this film due to MGM forced him of changing the concept and plot from his original idea. The Irish studio’s name is credited here as Don Bluth Limited.

This was also Don Bluth's last original film to have a non-human protagonist.

Plot[]

Hubie (voiced by Martin Short), a shy, gullible but kindhearted penguin, is in love with the most beautiful penguin of the rookery, Marina (voiced by Annie Golden), but lacks self-confidence leading him to be bullied by the much more impressive, but vain and cruel Drake (voiced by Tim Curry) also wants Marina, but clearly out of lust. One night, Hubie and Marina share a song under the moonlight and their feelings are confirmed for each other. Hubie, however, is luckless in finding a perfect pebble to propose to Marina with and wishes on a star to make his dream come true. An emerald falls from the sky next to Hubie. Ecstatic, Hubie rushes to find Marina when Drake tries to steal it and knocks him off the ice, and Hubie has swept away and nearly killed by a Leopard Seal.

Hubie is picked up and caged by a ship, (after being asleep for three straight days) which is transporting penguins to a zoo. The unfortunate penguins on the ship sing of the misery awaiting them. Hubie meets a streetwise crested penguin named Rocko (voiced by James Belushi), whose only wishes are to live in sunny climates and learn to fly. After seeing Drake warning Marina of the full moon where she must choose to be his mate or be banished in a dream/vision, Hubie decides to escape. Together, Hubie and Rocko flee, and while lying low on a beach in Tahiti, Hubie convinces Rocko to help him return to Antarctica. They have a short fight (because Hubie had angered Rocko by lying to him) and later run into the hungry and persistent leopard seal (second time for Hubie). They escape the seal, as Rocko had commented Hubie as "amazing", and both sing to the beginning of their friendship (although Rocko feels hesitant towards it) and they set off to stop Drake for good.

When Rocko starts to teach Hubie how to fight, and defeating the Leopard Seal, they run into their worst aquatic enemy: the Killer Whale. While trying reaching the home ice, Rocko tries to lead the orcas away while Hubie tries to approach the nearest iceberg, having to lose his pebble and Rocko in the process. After the chase, he must face his worst enemy, who has captured his love. Hubie gets knocked out but gains confidence, and he stands and fights Drake once again. Hubie has the upper hand on the second go-round, and with a skillful kick, he sends Drake plummeting to his demise. In a surprise, Rocko reappears unharmed (and with a different-colored scarf) to Hubie and Marina, but not before Hubie proposes to Marina, who accepts. After that, Drake's entire tower begins to collapase, but Rocko saves the couple in danger and finally gains his ability to fly. Rocko, having found Hubie's pebble, gives it back to him and it is presented to Marina, who loves it, but then states that she loves Hubie more. In the end, Drake gets arrested for his crimes and Rocko teaches Marina and Hubie's children to fly.

Characters[]

  • Martin Short as Hubie, a shy, good-hearted Adelie penguin. He forms a bond with Marina after showing her who he really is and she sees the real him. After he is thrown over the cliff by Drake, he must find his way home and win Marina over before Drake does.
  • Jim Belushi as Rocko, a streetwise Northern rockhopper penguin who befriends Hubie and helps him win Marina on the way back to Antarctica.
  • Tim Curry as Drake, a hunky, dark-hearted Adelie penguin. He stops at nothing to win and tries to steal Marina from Hubie and continually bullies Hubie.
  • Annie Golden as Marina, an Adelie penguin who Hubie and Drake fall in love with and cares about Hubie.
  • Will Ryan as Tika the ant and Royal
  • Alissa King as Petra
  • Stevie Vallance as Priscilla and the member of Chinstrap
  • Neil Ross as Scrawny
  • Stan Jones as McCallister
  • S. Scott Bullock as Chubby and Gentoo
  • Philip L. Clarke as King
  • B.J. Ward and Hamilton Camp as the Magellanics
  • Angeline Ball as Gwynne and the member of Chinstrap
  • Kendall Cunningham as Timmy
  • Pat Musick as the member of Chinstrap
  • Michael Nunes as Beany
  • Shani Wallis as the Narrator

Songs[]

International distribution rights owner history[]

  • Warner Bros. (1995-2002, 2020-present; physical media only)
  • 20th Century Fox (individually) (2002-2020; physical media only)
  • Disney (2019-2020; physical media only)
  • Amazon (2022-present)

Reception[]

The Pebble and the Penguin was panned by critics, audiences, and even Don Bluth himself. Rotten Tomatoes reported only 10% of critics gave positive reviews based on ten reviews with an average score of 3/10. The film was given a two thumbs down on "Siskel & Ebert". Gene Siskel noted that the film's animation looks "cheap and unfinished" and "that none of the songs are memorable" while Roger Ebert added his dislike of the film's color code of its heroes and villains.

The film grossed $3.983 million worldwide against a $28 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing film to become a box office bomb. It is Don Bluth's second lowest grossing film, only behind A Troll in Central Park.

In Nostalgia Critic's (Doug Walker's) review of the film, he said that out of all the bad Don Bluth movies, The Pebble and the Penguin is the least bad. Despite panning the animation and songs, he praised the voice talents.

Surprisingly, the film eventually became popular and managed to get a cult following since it's release.

Cultural References[]

Gallery[]

Home video[]

The Pebble and the Penguin was released on VHS and LaserDisc by MGM/UA Home Video on August 15, 1995. Warner Home Video released the film on VHS internationally in countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan. It had a rather successful run on home video, becoming a fast seller alongside other animated films released that month, and thus achieved a cult status at the time. This VHS release also includes a teaser trailer for All Dogs Go to Heaven 2, a theatrical sequel to All Dogs Go to Heaven.

Throughout 1997, songs from the film were released alongside others from the MGM vaults in four MGM Sing-Along cassettes released by MGM. The loosely themed tapes had titles such as "Searching for Your Dreams", "Having Fun", and "Being Happy". The Pebble and the Penguin was first released on DVD in 1999. MGM's original DVD was released in an open-matte format rather than being pan and scanned like the VHS, thus exposing many of the animation errors resulted from the time constraints during productions.

A "Family Fun Edition" of the film was released only in the United States and Canada on March 27, 2007, by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Though they were initially unsatisfied with how the movie turned out, Don Bluth and Gary Goldman returned to supervise the restoration for the "Family Fun Edition", which features color corrections, refielded scenes to hide missing effects and correct other errors from the theatrical and LaserDisc releases and the VHS and un-restored 1999 print of the DVD releases. The Family Fun Edition was nominated for the Satellite Award for Best Youth DVD.

The 2007 DVD release of The Pebble and the Penguin was according to The Hindu News a part of a wave of penguin-related media consisting of March of the Penguins, Happy Feet, the R-rated Farce of the Penguins, and Surf's Up. This trend was also picked up on by The Paramas Post and The Age. In 2010, the film was re-released along with Rock-a-Doodle as a double sided DVD, but it carries the un-restored 1999 print.

The film was released on Blu-ray for the first time on October 11, 2011.

Unlike Thumbelina and A Troll in Central Park, the film never had a DVD release in the UK until sometime in the early-2010's when 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment held the worldwide home entertainment rights (like that of the post-April 1986 MGM library), as such, the international DVD releases of the movie restored the MGM references. From late 2006 to June 30, 2020, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment handled home video distribution of the MGM library (including The Pebble and the Penguin), as such, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment also held those rights under the Fox label from March 20, 2019 to June 30, 2020 following Disney's completed acquisition of 21st Century Fox. However, as of July 1, 2020, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (the home video division of Warner Bros., which had originally owned the international rights to this film until 2002) now owns worldwide home media rights for The Pebble and the Penguin (still under the MGM label) along with the rest of MGM's post-April 1986 library, while Amazon owns digital rights for that library (including The Pebble and the Penguin) as of March 17, 2022.

Trivia[]

  • The movie was dedicated to animators
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