The Pebble and the Penguin (Musical Hell Review #79)
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- This is how Bluth Studios ends: not with a bang but with an awful stuttering penguin and cloying narration.
Thank you to our top-level Patreon Supporters!
T and M Comics
/ tandmcomics
www.webtoons.co...
The Roommate From Hell
theroommatefromhellcomic.com
/ enchantedpencil
Be sure to check out my awesome title card artist, Miriam Gronli!
www.miriamrosen...
/ fwlwdraws
Visit Musical Hell at:
MusicalHell.com
Support me on Patreon!
www.patreon.com...
Follow me!
@MusicalHell
musicalhell.tumblr.com
divasmusicalhell
For more reviews, commentary, and general awesomeness of every kind, visit:
thebrokeninfitie.com
rtgomer.com
The leopard seal is clearly the hero of this story since it's trying so hard to rid the world of retractable-teeth penguins.
Thanks
Lady Brightcynder I don't know why, but now I'm picturing the penguins singing "N-E-S-T-L-E-S Nestle is the very best...CHOCOLATE *CHOMPS*"
Lady Brightcynder yes the Leopard Seal and the Orcas were my favorite characters in this whole movie just for that purpose
Tim Curry is the hero as well. Not the toothy monster he's voice acting, but the actor himself.
well this movie existed
Poor Marina, she either has to choose an abusive ass or a 'nice guy' who seems veery close to turn into a penguin Joe Goldberg. I don't envy her one bit.
Gregory House Joe Goldberg?
@@beethovensfidelio The main character from the Netflix show 'You'. He's a creepy psycho stalker killer.
"I thought girls wanted nice guys"
I pity her. Honestly though, if it were me, I'd pick the Tim Curry penguin. AT LEAST HE CAN SING!
@
Hehehe, Arctic Nuns.
I hate these character designs how do you get the penguin possibly the cutest animal in the world and turn it into.....that
ms chris yeah, Madagascar and Happy Feet did it way better, and they were in cgi. However, Scamper the Penguin and The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea did it better than this movie and the former came out earlier than this piece of crap!
Right? Those are some fucked up penguins.
Exactly, these penguins like rejected hell spawns (mostly Hubie)
Hubie doesn't look like an Adelie Penguin at all
you give it freaky human teeth and ridiculously soppy designs
These characters really, really, REALLY didn't need teeth.
I know. I just looks weird and wrong. Don't understand why either. And if they do, why doesn't Hubie just bite the humans while escaping. I know he's suppose to be useless but still.
Zazu had teeth
@@bromodragone8405 Yeah, but even at that, he actually had natural animation. While with The Pebble and the Penguin, the character designs in The Pebble and the Penguin are amazing examples of why there can be such thing as too much detail in character designs that by making them look humanoid and animalistic at the same time, they can actually be stereotypical, like their personalities.
Makes the film more uncomfortable to sit through...
@@kieranstark7213 fair enough
Forget the teeth, I wanna know why they have such muscular arms with hands and fingers
Mutation?
Stephen Hefferan that's what happens when you are lonely all the time
Iago the parrot from Aladdin had teeth.
Or an hourglass shaped body
And wearing some accessories such as caps, necklaces, hair bands and scarfs
You know what I'd like to see more of in animated movies? Characters that slowly come to realise they love someone. Enough with characters instantly falling into lust.
Aiber Lane There is Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” for starters.
And even though it still had a pairing because otherwise society would collapse, Frozen beat the snot out of that trope
Tangled did a good job too IMO
I get what you mean though, I haven't seen enough in recent years to know if it's becoming the norm, but I hope so
It would have been nice if it had been established that Marina and Hubie had known each other for a while, were both too shy to express their feelings, then one night finally spill their hearts, and THEN the romance begins (well kind of, anyway).
That line of thought unfortunately spawned the equally annoying trope “couples that start off hating each other.”
Because if you’re first thought is “This dude is my polar opposite and I hate everything about him,” it’s actually true love.
That is true. (looks at Han and Leia)
I call it the “Plot convenience rock.”
LOL!!IKR?
@@Tornado1994 I can't tell if it's a Green Lantern Rock or if that rock somehow has Spiral Power from Gurren Lagann.
Maybe a pig put her face in it
@@cybercrasherstv "What if it's not all folks, what if it's just the beginning folks?"
@@Reapermaskhybrid I don't get the reverence, but I'll pretend I do
An eternity spent with the narrator from Caillou? Ouch, that's got to be one of the harshest punishments to date.
Considering how the Caillou narrator is an actual character.
Spending an eternity with the narrator of Peppa Pig is technically worse, because, while the Caillou narrator is only occasionally stating the obvious, the Peppa Pig narrator's entire character is pretty much wasting the audience's time.
I think the narrator from Peppa Pig would be worse.
On the other hand, the Caillou narrator doesn't have to deal with Caillou himself. It could be so much worse...
@@reasyrandom fair enough
Timothy McLean Ive masterbaited to one episode of that
Even if Rocko somehow _could_ have developed the ability to fly... he's using both of his wings to hold up Hubie and Marina! What's he supposed to be using to move upwards???
Happy thoughts I guess, lol.
Since I don’t think that he is the Last Penguin of Krypton or some sort of Saiyan breed of penguin I get the feeling that he would need to flap his wings to fly.
He's like Woody Woodpecker from the live action movie.
Maybe the space pebble gave him flight powers. That’s the only explanation I can think of that would make sense.
@@brandonlyon730 Perhaps it's really a Green Lantern Power Ring.
Every time you called Marina "Marianna" I got war flashbacks to working retail. That's exactly how people misread my penguin ass name in real life. This really is hell.
Lmao everyone pronounces my name incorrectly as “Steph on” it’s Stephen dang it!!!😂😂😂
The movie can be absolute garbage and Tim Curry will never fail to put in 110% effort into his voice acting. He is a national treasure, I love and cherish him so much.
I loved his work in that 2-part episode of Criminal Minds!!!!
Hubie is an incel.
@@questworldiangreenknight7455 Even in a syndicated show like Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad Tim Curry was great as the villain Kilokahn.
@@Reapermaskhybrid ooooooh! I have not heard of this show! What’s it about?
@@questworldiangreenknight7455 See for yourself: ruclips.net/video/N34MmqmxqD0/видео.html
In all honesty, I think Rocko should have been the main character. Think about it. Maybe in this story Rocko is the one in love with Marina, but is afraid to reveal his feelings because not only is he a different species and is a self-admitted "tough guy" who's not good with words, but because he fears she'll laugh at him for his dream of learning to fly. Then his friend Hubie (who's much more accepting of his friend's dream in this ver.) tells him about the adelie penguin tradition of bringing pebbles to court potential mates, and Rocko becomes obsessed with finding one for Marina. Eventually he finds the green one that fell from the sky and the rest of story ensues. Maybe Marina loves Rocko because even though he's a bit of a loudmouth, he's still kind and respectful to her and is leagues above the creepy, sexist, Drake. Maybe it's revealed the green pebble is magical and grants Rocko the ability to fly.
Idk, that's just my idea of how I'd improve this film.
It’s amazing.
That makes so much more sense than what we got. Hubie even fits the sidekick role perfectly, like Olaf the snowman. But unfortunately a tall woman with a short man would probably not fit the studio's idea of a traditional romance.
That's a pretty neat idea! Rocko would make a much more compelling protagonist than Hubie.
I also never understood why they left Rocko's flying unexplained, when they had a MAGIC PEBBLE. Its powers were never explained. All it seemed to do was to give Hubie updates about Marina. I'm not saying it would have saved the story, but if you've got a flying penguin in your movie, and you've got a magic pebble in your movie, why not make one the result of the other?
Doesn't Kryptonite do that to non-Kryptonians? Sometimes?
3:40: Incredible how many romance stories shaft half of the theoretically-central pair. Almost as if they tend to be stories about how the guy wins the girl rather than a story about both of them overcoming some kind of obstacle...
11:00: I'd like to take back what I insinuated. Huie isn't inept at interacting with women due to the writers not knowing how to write romances where the girl is a character; it's due to Huie not understanding that other people might not want to do what he wants them to do. Shame that the story consistently sides with him...
18:20: Two weeks later, Rocco found a spaceship containing a holographic journal left by his father to tell him that he was from an exploded planet, and that Huie's pebble was Bizarro-Kryptonite.
5:00: Wouldn't it be neat if one of these stories had the girl reject the protagonist for being as shallow and self-centered as the antagonist, and then had the _antagonist_ realize the folly of their ways, reform, and have a happy ending?
I love that concept! Although I can imagine the studio would say "that's too complicated for children, derpity-doo"
It's also too thought-provoking and unexpected, and we can't have THAT.
MegaMind?
@@guinealover6674 I guess that qualifies. I mean, Megamind is undeniably the protagonist of the movie (even if he starts as a card-carrying villain), but hey.
@Ash Kitt I like stories where the main characters change more than stories where they get replaced by other characters.
Don Bluth did say he wanted to make an animated film version of Dragon’s Lair, he had a Indiegogo campaign for it back in 2016. It was fully funded, but I haven’t found anything about it since then. Looking at IMDb, it does list it as an upcoming project on his page, but it doesn’t have much information other than it’s in production. Regarding this movie though... oh, it hurt... the character designers were just awful, why did Hubie wear the hat and scarf, why did Drake wear a cape, why did Marina wear a choker that looked like it was actually choking her??
Yeah, the semi-clothed look of the penguins is just weird, especially on the minor characters (one of them seems to be sporting 80s-style sunglasses for some bizarre reason).
Lauren Frey Check Twitter
He's currently starting up a University, so that could be why we haven't heard about the DL movie in a while.
I wouldn't really call a Dragon's Lair movie an improvement. If I think "Good Movies Don Bluth has done" stuff like An All American Tail, Land Before TIme and Secret of Nimh come to min. Heartfelt stories with a dash of darkness and some level of maturity, not "Slapstick Comedy with an Idiot Hero and a Porn Princess"
I'd rather see his old concept for "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" finally come to fruition, though the chances for that are pretty much zero.
The Cinematic Mind Ah, I avoid Twitter like the plague, that explains it.
6:53 Well, I think it's perfect for Marina.
They're both presented only as tokens of beauty, and the protagonist has only just made contact with them after looking at them from afar, and the movie tries to pass that off as "fate".
Which is why The Pebble and the Penguin is liked for no reason... except for the fact that it was part of people's childhood.
@@kieranstark7213
And we all know that Childhood can be cruel.
Yeah, I'm sure there's a part of society that sees childhood as a curse.
how in the world is rocco even FLYING. He's using his wings to carry hubie and marina so he can't even be gliding
WIZARD!
@@lauradietrich9424 He's probably one of those Kryptonian penguins, kinda surprised he somehow escaped the confines of DC.
@@Reapermaskhybrid
The Fucking Green Pebble Gave him Superpowers! Goddammit!
Maybe he stole Dumbo's magic feather
A case of "THE PLOT CALLED FOR IT!"
What else is there beside Marina's beauty? Swan Princess reference.
Congratulations, you've managed to offend her in 11 syllables or less.
Brendyn Robertson You should write a book. "How to offend female penguins in 11 syllables or less."
What else IS there?
I don't find a penguin attractive. :/
COME ON DEREK... YOU KNOW THAT THERE'S MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE YOU COULD'VE SAID HERE 🤣
"Unfortunately Drake was a load-bearing villain" remains one of the best dry humour lines I've ever heard in my life.
I love how Tim Curry is always in these shitty animated movies. It really makes it a little better
I remember that this was one of my favorite films as a (very) young child, but most of what I remember from it are the bits with Drake. So apparently I had a favorite character, and this was not necessarily a favorite in its entirety, lol
Who sees Jambareeqi and Viva Becker (damn cute woman, btw)‘s “The Church of Tim Curry” series? *raises hands up*
I can't take this seriously because anytime I see animated penguins, all I think about are the penguins from Madagascar.
EDIT: I completely forgot about Happy Feet. Whoops
*kowalski, analysis*
Smile and wave boys, smile and wave 👋 👋 👋 👋
Good, better characters to think about, honestly
@Carne Guisada I haven't seen it since I was 9 but I still remember the plot to THAT movie rather than the plot to the actual movie Diva is reviewing.
at least those penguins had coherent designs
What's with Tim Curry popping up in so many bad musicals? what has the man done to deserve it?
Honestly that's one of my favourite things about Tim. He doesn't just go for films he thinks are great or Oscar-worthy. He does whatever seems fun.
Weirdly enough he was originally going to be casted as the main villain in the live action Scooby Doo movie. But he refused the role when he read in the script that the twist with the villain being Scrappy doo the whole time. He apparently hated Scrappy so much he rejected the role.
@@brandonlyon730 In hindsight Tim Curry would have been a better fit for that script than Mr. Bean.
@@metademetra Ikr? Rowan Atkinson is a terrific actor, but he was completely miscast for the live-action Scooby Doo movie. :-/
Because he makes bank doing it. Obviously.
To call this movie a Big Lipped Alligator Moment would be an insult to Big Lipped Alligators...
LMAO 🤣
7:59 "Then we all get dull and miserable, and then we all throw up."
Such awe inspiring lyrics. Never heard anything more profound.
Aaah Don Bluth, his animation life is almost a shakespear tragedy.
If only we could see where the last act/addendum in the form of the Dragon's Lair movie could go to...
You think he’ll adapt Silverwing? That book series was made for him.
@@zooemperor3954 What's the plot about, do tell ?
The Den essentially it’s about a young Silver-haired bat named Shade who looks at the sun, breaking an ancient law and treaty, leading to his tree being burned down. While migrating to Stonehold and Hibernaculum, he is blown off course and must find his colony again with the help of an Eastern red bat named Marina while avoiding two Spectral bats named Goth and Throb and vicious owls
He actually left the production of this film half-way through. Which could explain why it's a bit of a mess. Don Bluth also had constant issues with film executives. I think the only time he was at his best was when he was under Spielberg. Morris Sullivan gave him too much control (which resulted in too sentimentality and sloppy story-telling) and Warner Bros & Fox just wanted him to copy Disney (ala Thumbelina). Saying that, I really like Anastasia though.
My guess of why the reprise of Sometimes I Wonder not being discussed is because of how no one is really going to be able to think of anything that would top the Nostalgia Critic's "She's sad! NEXT!" Although, funny how you say she's probably tone deaf to enjoy Hubbie's singing when Marina arguably has the best voice of the entire cast. The reprise was definitely better than the original because of her voice and at least showing her point of view on the situation but that doesn't make her a good character because she's just a love interest. The only characters I KIND OF enjoy are Rocko and Drake, if for nothing else but Rocko being the character that says what we're thinking about Hubbie (Aside from the parts when he's supposed to appear to like him) and Drake just for the voice actor!
TheWickedMerman Nostalgia Critic did a great review of this movie too.
No! No! The dimonds aren't here!
Same lmao 🤣
@@morganyoung3557 Why do you think it was a great review?
And the Don Bluth suck-train keeps on chuggin'!
1. 3:00... "Cuddle and coo"???! Barry Manilow, we've all come to expect a little bit of cheese from you, but the good stuff, not this lyrical Cheez-Whiz!
2. Hubie could have been genuinely lovable and worth rooting for, but instead he's just cloying and awful (like Stanley the Troll). I didn't even mind that he stutters, but the writers don't DO anything with that; instead, they fall into the trap of thinking giving a character a handicap or impediment automatically makes them sympathetic (for the record, no, it doesn't). Martin Short being the voice of Hubie reminded me of a previous, better-written character he'd played years earlier: Jack Putter in "Innerspace". In that film, Jack is a hapless, unlucky in love milquetoast nerd who's unexpectedly swept up in a crazy adventure that forces him to tap into strengths and depths of courage he never knew he had, and by the film's end he's a stronger, happier, more confident person ready to live the life he deserves. Why didn't "The Pebble and the Penguin" screenwriters use THAT as their template for Hubie's arc?
3. Oh, yay, a villain who just exists FOR THE EVULZ. 'Cause they're always interesting.
4. 5:28... I actually like Martin Short's singing, except he sounds like he got locked two rooms down from the recording studio, and has to be heard by yelling (oh, and the song sucks).
5. When the most relatable, palatable character in a movie is played by Jim Belushi, something is wroooooooong.
Barry Manilow, Dom Deluise, Martin Short, etc. These are all Don's peeps! Poppers for everyone!!!
Rocko was voiced by Bill Mumy, not Jim Belushi.
The lady penguins appear to be suffering from Disco Worm Syndrome.
Why oh why are the lady penguins given anthropomorphic lady curves? As if there isn't enough off putting imagery. There are plenty of indicators within the movie that they're female penguins, so are they also trying to make them attractive to us?
Trying to appeal to furries? 🤔
Also, their feathers are dress like.
@@TailsFan
I doubt that was the case, but fuck it, what do I know?
But I don't care, we've had some strange and overly feminine designs of female characters before.
They might as well slap birdie boobies onto them.
Anthropomorphism has been a staple of animation since the very beginning. You might as well be disturbed by them walking upright and talking. But it's perfectly okay to give them manly muscles because only women are sexualized and sex is bad. /s
It's over done but.. couldn't Rocko have been like.. a puffin who thought he was a penguin?
I loved watching this movie as a kid. Which is WEIRD to me because the love story is basically everything I hate about romance stories.
Love triangle where the third party is an irredeemable douche? Check. (But hey, at least it’s Tim Curry.)
Nice guy-isms? Check.
Main love interest having no urgency? Check.
Literally the only cliche that is missing is the misunderstanding. If this movie had that, it could be officially be classed as “Not a better love story than Twilight.”
The other thing that weirded me out as a kid was the animation hiccups. All caused by the outsourced studio of course. It was all a bit confusing for toddler me. Why did the penguins on the ship suddenly freeze when singing? Why are there moments where characters are speaking, but their mouths aren’t moving? Why does Rocco’s scarf change colors? And wait didn’t he lose it? Is he wearing two scarves at all times? Whyyy?
And ON the subject of animation, why do the penguins have teeth? It can be fine when birds look cartoony (see King Dedede for example...The fact that I’m using a character from a franchise where everyone is made of simple geometric shapes should tell you something). But these birds aren’t cartoony...or are they??? I don’t know, they move like birds, but then sometimes they move like people, and then they have flippers...and then they have hands??? I don’t know, Don Bluth was on something when he made this.
metademetra
I thought I was the only one
to have noticed the ”animation
hiccups”. On the music number
of misery and at the end where
Rocko and two other penguins
freeze.
I agree with you on the teeth thing. It worked with King Dedede because he's a very cartoony looking penguin, so him gritting his teeth sometimes looks comical but not creepy. More realistic-looking penguin characters should not have teeth, like the penguins in Madagascar do not have teeth and look great. The penguins in this movie having teeth just look creepy.
@@darrelsam419 It's all the more frustrating when other Bluth movies know when to give a bird teeth and when not to. Jeremy didn't have teeth, and that was meant to look like a real crow. Chanteclair had them, and though not cartoony, it was clear he was meant to be a PERSON and not a real animal. Hell, even the little Skua Bird sidekicks in this movie are a good example of when using teeth was okay. But I don't understand WHAT style the penguins were supposed to be, so teeth just look uncanny.
It's not really a love triangle, because Marina isn't in love with Drake.
Jeremy had teeth in The Secret of Nimh.
Plot twist: The strange and magical glowing space rock was actually a highly radioactive chunk of radium and they all die horribly from radiation poisoning the very next day.
That would've been for the best. But Nooo, it had to give them Superman Powers, fuck! Just imagining a hoard of Superpowered penguins taking over the goddamn Earth is terrifying!
And manalow (might've misspelled that) was so sick of being called a hack he shouted "You show them my music! Notes and everything! Then they'll see that I really wrote this SHIT!!!!!"
😂😂😂😂😆😆😆🤣🤣🤣
I also watch Nostalgia Critic.
A part of me still lowkey considers this film a guilty pleasure so you can't imagine how long I've waited for this video.
I have the same thoughts on Rock A Doodle. Sure it's not perfect, but it's bizzare and fun enough for me to like.
Maybe Rocko can fly because...you're sure to do impossible things, when you follow your HEAAAAAAAAAART!
You just gotta believe in yourself! YOU JUST GOTTA BELIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIEVE!~Princess Mindy, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004)
@@ty-seansenior6660 I believe alright. I believe this movie should be thrown in the trash!
WE HAVE NO TIME FOR SELF DISCOVERY!!!!
-Jafar 2014
All it takes is faith & trust... and just a little bit of "pixie dust".
*(Thumbelina reference)
the "oh, shut up" from John Cleese had me roaring with laughter
The lying, horrible-tempered Sonic fandom: No other Sonic character could be as gorgeous and strong as Amy Rose, Princess Elise III, Marine the Raccoon, Sara or Sally Acorn. Not especially Blaze the Cat. Just like how Princess Peach is one of the kindest and prettiest Mario characters unlike Rosalina, Goombella and Toadette.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE PEBBLE AND THE PENGUIN SOUNDED LIKE TO LIE THAT MARINA IS THE MOST ATTRACTIVE PENGUIN OF ALL TIME!!! Good thing Diva brought up "Oh, shut up.". It totally shows she knows what justice is.
I'm gonna say it.....Twilight, 50 Shades of Grey trilogy, Game of Thrones and all the Nicholas Sparks movies have more romantic chemistry than these penguins. How dare this movie make me say that. lol
I HATE this character Hubie. He's supposed to come off as charming and romantic in his relationship with Marina, but Martin Short stuttering through and literally choking on his lines, the RIDICULOUSLY cheesy dialogue (especially between him and Marina.....that SONG. Ugh.) and the forced romance just make it painfully awkward to witness. I really tried to find something in the romance between him and Marina, but other than "she's hot and they both want her for some reason" I saw nothing that convinced me they were in love. And it looks like that necklace is choking her.
Speaking of......why ARE the penguins wearing clothes? Is it just because the creators thought the kiddies wouldn't be able to tell which character was which if they were just penguins?
Why didn't Hubie just jump off the damn iceberg when the seal attacked him and swim back to the island? He just gives up and forces me to sit through this movie with him trying to get back to this girl.
Tim Curry as the villain, Drake, might be this movie's sole saving grace. It is a shit movie, but at least he sounded like he was having fun chewing the icy scenery and making kissy faces at himself.
To be fair to the creators, when you have two or three body shapes for all non-Tim-Curry penguins, it's really hard to find ways to distinguish between them.
More romantic chemistry? Not sure I agree. I thought there was PLENTY of romantic chemistry between Hubie and Rocko.
Same. The fact Hubie even admits he’s NEVER even talked/interacted with Marina before made the relationship or his crush on her so much worse. Its one thing if they grew up together as childhood friends and maybe he thought she never saw him anymore than a friend, and got really nervous she’d rather be with a “hunk” like Drake (I’m sorry but Drake is ugly and looks like a 💡) and his song about wondering about life’s mysteries is so generic to make him less vain and he sees something in Marina aside her looks. Like come on, all she wants is a dude that actually loves and cares about her as a person instead of a mate. All Hubie sees is exactly what Drake sees, a hot chick (literally) and at least Drake is honest about it. Hubie is just a bumbling idiot who relies on luck and outer forces and fate to win Marina’s love.
Maybe the pebble had magical powers? It turned Rocko's scarf green and gave him the power of flight.
It isn't explained, though.
Isobel Miller
Correct! I wish they, the story writers,
would have expanded upon the
significance of that green
gemstone besides it being a mere
item for engagement proposals.
Plot twist: The SCARF is what's making Rocko fly. The magic of the pebble endowed into the scarf basically turned it into a superhero cape.
How to fix some of the plot holes in this movie:
Mostly expand on the pebble. Show it pointing the way home, providing light, in order to get rocko to come along rather than lie tell him about the pebble having magic powers and that Hubie can take rocko to where the pebble fell and help him that way. When Hubie gets butter fingers have the pebble drop and them swim to get it back. Rocko gets it but then gets eaten by a whale. We can leave Hubie for a bit and do a sort of rocko desperately trying to get the pebble to work for him so he can break free. Hubie moves on to fight Drake even without the power of the pebble, fully confident in himself and still gets beaten. Rocko meanwhile breaks free of the whale, punching through the teeth with the pebble and swoops in, flying like he always wanted. He tosses the pebble to Hubie who uses it's power to beat up Drake and save Marina. Hubie, finding his own strength and Marina confessing that she was hoping he'd come and worried about him. Hubie, noticing how much he's grown as a person goes back to rocko who's got a bitter sweet feeling as his friend is home but the pebble ritual is still tradition. Hubie gives a heartfelt mini speech about how grateful he is and that he couldn't have done it without him. They shake hands and rocko opens his flipper to find the pebble. "But the ceremony! Don't you..." "I don't need a magic pebble. I've got all the magic I could ever want right here." Hubie holds out the original pebble he found and presents it to Marina. She of course jumps into his arms. Rocko can fly thanks to the magic pebble, Hubie and Marina are happy, and Drake lost. Now we have something that makes sense.
At least troll in central park has a story to tell and bluth wanted to tell that story. This was barely a story.
_Troll_ had a story? Did they cram one in between the boat fantasy sequences and the dancing flowers?
_Penguin_ absolutely has a story, and does a pretty good job staying on-track. It's a threadbare story told poorly, but it has some more threads than _Troll_ (mostly because Rocko has more than one personality trait and some semblance of an arc).
They both suck, of course.
By story I mean something that is, well.... Bluthy. The only part of this that has any bluth magic to it, and I've seen every single bluth film and troll in central park wasn't nearly as bad as this, the one part that feels like bluth was the penguins bitching about being on the ship. The rest feels like a bad studio cash grab.
Now why is a troll in central park better? Why do I say that has more story than this? What's the plot? PatP: nerdy penguin wants to get the girl and get home.
ATiCP: a boy on the cusp of the age of not believing learns to believe in magic again.
While parts of a troll in central park are very annoying like the flowers making plot device Rosey happy by dancing for way too long for her, the majority of pebble and the penguin is annoying, Hubie has that horrible stutter that drags the movie out, he's a jerk of a character, the best part is Drake by far. I spend most of the movie just feeling horrible for Rocko. Now how is that better than a troll in central park?
I'm listening to this with headphones, and I noticed the sound design does something I have never heard before, the music, sound effects, and voice reverb are on the right and the voices are on the left for the ENTIRE MOVIE.
I like the fact that Rocko doesn't even flap his wings while flying. He just T-poses while Bethseda-style glitching through the air.
I'd compare him more to a feathery airplane than a T-posing model. (T-posing models generally don't have the head pointing directly away from the feet.)
This shows that not everything from the 90's is pure unfiltered gold.
Also, so this is where the Asshole Woody prototype went.
If only people including ADoseofBuckley remembered to point out 1990s Don Bluth films (only excluding Anastasia, which wasn't as much of a masterpiece as The Secret of NIMH and The Land Before Time, but turned out to be a classic despite its historical bastardization of the time of Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov and Grigori Rasputin by antagonizing him) as an example of why the 1990s (while mostly favourable) is far from perfect.
Don't worry, I will show these films if anyone says every single thing about the 1990s in general is good.
5:07 "At least Drake is honest about it." While Hubie is crossing his feathers. I see what you did there.
I loved this movie when I was a kid and I want to go back in time and ask my younger self: "Why did you like this movie?" I know that as children we often times like watching or reading media that is absolutely awful, but still. Also I want to ask: Why is Drake so muscular, why is Marina's design so human like, and why do all the penguins have teeth? It was okay when Chicken Run gave all of the chickens teeth for art style reasons or when it comes to media that has cartoony birds (like King Dedede in the Kirby series), but in this movie it is creepy. In fact all of the penguins in this movie have horrible designs. Diva I am amazed that you were able to actually make it though watching this movie. Congratulations on being able to do that!
Moving on to the characters Hubie and Drake are so gross especially when it comes to women that I can't stand either of them. If the movie actually wanted us to root for Hubie it sure did a crappy job at it. Hubie is a "nice guy" who has no boundaries and has a horrible personality, while Drake is an abusive asshole who like Hubie has no boundaries.The only characters that I feel bad for in this movie are Marina and Rocko. Rocko is an asshole, but if I was forced to be around someone as horrible as Hubie I would be an asshole too and Marina is someone who has no agency and is seen as a trophy for Hubie and Drake more than an actual person. Along with that it's really gross that Drake keeps making all of these advances on Marina throughout the movie. All around this is a gross and awful movie that includes most of the romance tropes that I hate.
Hubie: I would beat up Rocko and Marina (if she didn't love me) like Modern Archie Sonic and Buck (I mean both the Home on the Range horse and Buck Cluck).
Knuckles the Echidna: FUCK YOU, YA FUCKING BASTARD!!!!! YOU ARE JUST LIKE THAT SELF-PROCLAIMED NICE GUY SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG!!!!! *sobs very furiously*
Did anyone notice that the cruise ship and lifeboat were named Homeward Bound and Homeward Bound II? As in the Disney movies?
The reason that Hubie’s “shallow” attraction for Marina gets a pass (but Drake’s “shallow” attraction for Marina does not) is due to *”Protagonist-Centered Morality”* (tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ProtagonistCenteredMorality ).
In other words, because Hubie is the *protagonist,* it’s ok for him to desire Marina solely for her looks; whereas Drake who is the villain, is (for lack of better word!) vilified for being superficial.
Then again, Hubie at least didn’t kidnap Marina or try to force himself on her, so “yay”! 🤷♀️
(PRO-TIP, guys: Just because you won’t rape or kidnap a woman doesn’t automatically make you a nice guy. You shouldn’t get a cookie for doing the right thing 😂)
You ever occasionally get a snidbit of an unknown song stuck in your head? You can't place exactly what the song is or where you heard it, but you know it's from a long ago time and still lies somewhere in the recesses of your mind? Then you actually hear it out of no-where and it smacks you in the face like a mallet of "really? that's it?" That's me and all the songs in this movie.
I'm surprised that you had compared this movie with "Toy Story" and not "Happy Feet". Both films are musicals about impaired(?) penguins trying to get the girl of their dreams but are unable to do so as the mating rituals (that were taken from real life) are difficult for them, the penguins also have to go on adventures, along with ending up their true love in the end and having kids too. There is even the use of having the weird eyebrowed penguins as the grouchy comic-relief. All while demonizing humanity. Still, the one good thing "The Pebble and the Penguin" has over "Happy Feet" is that it's not that long of a flick. Seriously, did "Happy Feet" have to be two hours long?
When I was little I thought the movement of the female penguins was so pretty and loved how there legs would puff together and out of each other and i would wrap a blanket around my legs and get so angry it wouldn't work
I was just wondering if I could file papers with the Court against MUPPETS FROM SPACE on the following charges:
1. No original songs. With the deaths of resident Muppet Composers Joe Raposo and Jeff Moss, the company struggled finding a good replacement, until Brett Mackenzie turned up in 2011. For this movie, they just used covers of songs that had no real context, and they were cliche disco songs to boot.
2. No explanation as to why they're all in an apartment building. If you follow the chronology of MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN, the gang should be living well off the residuals of the hit musical they launched on Broadway, and Kermit and Piggy would be living in a nice place. Nope. They are residing in a building, and nobody knows why.
3. Lousy cameos. The producers couldn't be bothered with finding real talent, so we got stuck with Kathy Griffin, Hulk Hogan, and guaranteed movie killer, Rob Schneider...snore
4. Destroying the Gonzo mystique. This is the most SERIOUS charge. Jim Henson was perfectly happy to have Gonzo be a Whatever, and Gonzo embraced the weird that makes him fun and loveable. But, the writers desecrated that mystique by having Gonzo be an alien being, thanks for nothing, guys. And when his fellow beings land, of COURSE they have to do a cover of "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang.
With that, I hereby charge MUPPETS FROM SPACE with first degree disrespecting their creator, first degree plot holing, and first degree song covering. Filed this date, February 18, 2019. The Court may also find egregious crimes not covered in these charges.
Muppets from Space is my guilty pleasure, but you forgot one sin:
Sure, it was only a few seconds brief, but there was a catfight between Miss Piggy and Shelley and the movie wants us to support Miss Piggy when she stole the latter's belongings while speaking of her, Shelley Snipes was painted as a bad guy. Let's just face it. Sometimes the filmmakers decided to make Miss Piggy pretty damn cruel-spirited. Which is funny, because normally, she had and still has her heart in the right place.
Sin Number 2 is a bit tricky since most Muppet movies aren't direct sequels. Take Great Muppet Caper where Kermit and Piggy don't know each other. Or how Bunsen and Beaker join the main Muppets in different circumstances
A year ago I read Martin Short's memoir and wondered why he never mentioned voicing Hubie. I have a pretty good idea why now. I loved this movie as a child but I think I was attracted to animated movies with singing with thin romance plots.
Why did Rocko even need to save the pebble on top of everything else? I feel like the ending would've been stronger if it was truly lost but Marina and Hubie still didn't mind because he had successfully proved his love without it.
I never knew penguins were airplanes. Unlike other birds they don't need to flap their wings 🤷♂️
Eagles and vultures don't flap their wings much.
In the words of T.S. Eliot, “This is how the world (Don Bluth’s Movie Career) ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper”
Barry Manilow in the 70s: I have a great idea for an amazing song that focuses on a dark and tragic story of a beautiful woman who frequents a club in Havana, the two men who like her and how it all goes down hill for all of them.
Barry Manilow in 1995 while working on this movie: Eh, screw it. I’ve gotten my pay check. Who cares if my songs here suck or cause one’s brain cells to die at vast speed?
“I am going to require him to get a decent screenwriter if he decides to get back into feature animation.”
... He already has! You didn’t hear about his crowdfunding campaign? He’s gonna make a Dragon’s Lair movie!
Zachary Matthew James Samhain? You’re still alive! We miss your reviews.
Fun fact: José Luis Orozco, Rocko's VA in the Latin Spanish dub, also voiced Buzz Lightyear in all of the Toy Story movies and shorts, except the Toy Story Treats, so it kinda makes sense why you say it has a few similarities
Either I missed something or Hubie and Rocko are the actual pairing. In the beginning they said penguins give their mate a pebble as a mating ritual and Rocko gives Hubie the pebble. And in the end it is also Rocko that saves Hubie by flying. My guess is he got his flying powers because Hubie was the only one that believed in him or something. Marina and Hubie have almost no scenes together and therefore a relationship never forms between them. It would’ve made 100% more sense to make Marina the Rocko character and as annoying as Hubie make him Marina’s protector from the bad guy and then make Rocko the funny sidekick just like in Shrek. Clearly no one making this movie gave a fuck.
6:09 not as disturbing as how penguins teeth look in real life *shudder*
Technically not teeth, but still weird.
Do you want to know how Don Bluth's career ended?
Titan A.E.
To say that it's a much better send-off would be an UNDERSTATEMENT.
I know the Nostalgia Critic already pointed out, but I can't get over how much "Now And Forever" sounds like "The First Time It Happens" from The Great Muppet Caper
Oh no, not another 90s Bluth... I'm scared.
Oh dear lord, I'd forgotten about that ending. Whose idea was that?
And whose kids are those anyway???
@@98953812 Hubie's and Marina's kids
@@tylerwestbrook2392 O_o........Why can they fly then??? Did something happen behind closed doors???
Rocco taught them how.
And people complain that Stephen King's endings are terrible
20:35 Oooh, I’m betting it’s gonna be either Quest for Camelot, the Thief and the Cobbler(not the recobbled cut), or Rover Dangerfield. Or the first swan princess.
Oh yeah they did stick a bunch of dumb songs into the thief and the cobbler didn’t they. So glad we now have the recobbled versjon.
@@MissCaraMint I saw the recobbled cut. Great animation, great character design, mediocre plot and central characters.
Timothy McLean True, but arguably the visual do compensate for the weak characters. Also personally I love Scheherazade by Rimsky Korsakov, so It was kinda like watching an extended Fantasia segment. So basically I thought the combination of music and visuals overcompensated for it’s shortcomings. After all there are many films, operas, and musicals not really watched for the plot.
Is Hubey really that romantic or sweet when he's simply in love with the hottest penguin? His feelings for her are based on good looks, and she likes him for his... despite, his personality. Still a better love story than Twilight?
I don't know man. This Love story isn't all that fleshed out.
Just be thankful he’s not as creepy as actual male adelie penguins or this movie would’ve been given a hard R rating.
"Load bearing villain" omg I love that term
Credit due to TVTropes (well, it's Load-Bearing Boss there, but same principle).
Having seen every Bluth animated feature from *The Secret Of NIMH* to *Titan A.E.* ,I'm not the least surprised this happened. Bluth and his people,they've produced great animation,but they seem completely incapable of coming up with memorable characters or telling a good story. That they actually lasted so long on such mediocre movies is amazing.
snarkus63 What about the Secret of NIMH, Land Before Time, and Anastasia? Those were great movies!
@Thomas Huffman Don’t forget An American Tail. That’s also a really great film.
@@retrofan4963 I saw it. It was just as forgettable as the others.
@@snarkus63 I highly disagree. An American Tail is in my top favorite films of all time. But hey, to each their own.
@@retrofan4963 That's all that matters.
The Virgin Hubie vs The Chad Drake
holy shit, i'm so happy. i used to watch this movie over and over again with my sisters when we were kids. it's amazing how you don't notice the low quality until you look back as an adult. great video, love your stuff!
This movie has Tim Curry and Annie Golden. Dr. Frank N. Furter has kidnapped Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme and is trying to make her his bride. The hell?
My favorite part of these is every time Diva points at anything other than the protagonists and says "they would make a good protagonist".
All of us would pretty much to the same fucking thing.
The last time I heard from Don Bluth, he was trying to work on an animated adaption for "Dragon's Lair". Hopefully he was able to get it funded with Doug Walker's help.
If this story had involved non-aquatic animals, that leopard seal would have been a cat.
Maybe Manilow _did_ name it "Birds of a Feather" at first, but then Bluth was like, "what the fuck? These are penguins."
*see previous video on Rock-a-Doodle
"Marina. The most beautiful penguin in the rookery."
"Oh, shut up!”
Right?! The reaction we all share for hearing from a narrator (that isn't much better than Patou in another Don Bluth film ruined by far more characters than just him except for the Duke of the Owls), nor the narrators of supremely dreadful baby shows like Caillou, Peppa Pig and more like Teletubbies) that no other penguin (in this painfully minor step-up from A Troll in Central Park) is as great-looking as Marina who could've called out Hubie for objectifying her nearly up to Drake (the penguin, not the rapper. Regardless of what people say about the rapper Drake, he's nowhere near as much of a self-proclaimed nice guy as Modern Archie Sonic, Humphrey in the Alpha & Omega franchise, Troy Bolton, Daniel Horatio Miller in Every Witch Way or Oscar the Wrasse before the third act of Shark Tale)'s level because apparently, the movie decided that it needed a self-proclaimed instead of genuinely nice guy as a protagonist. Seriously, it would be unsurprising if there were a moment when he'd choke his friends including Rocko the Rockhopper Penguin like he did to him!! The penguins in The Pebble and the Penguin are just unappealing from the outside and inside!
“...basically Gaston’s fursona.”
Gaston confirmed furry.
He did brag about being covered in hair.
You should make a chat group for your musical hell jury
I always say that Hubie is so pathetic, the inanimate pebble got top billing.
Well, he's not the worst Don Bluth protagonist since Stanley the Troll.
They are pretty much as horrible as each other.
6:54 I swear, that shot really reminded me of "The Princess and the Pea", which makes sense as plenty of the coloring and effects were done, like "The Princess and the Pea", in Hungary (though by different studios, Pannonia Film Studio for "Pea", and Reflex Animation for this movie.
Oh, and one more thing! When I hear some of the plotpoints and premises of this movie and hear how it's moved to warmer tropical climates, it makes me think of 'Once on this Island' (although yes that's the Carribean-French territory, not Polynesian-French) and I think going by that might make for a more interesting story. Put Hubey in the role of showing his endless devotion to his love interest and how he would go to the ends of the earth to prove himself to her, but when he discovered that he couldn't have her, he's confronted with the conflict of whether he choses the path of letting himself die or not!
OH BOY! I can't wait to see what the next special episode is going to be!
As for this movie, here's a list of what goes through my head of as the movie/this review goes on:
-Hubey gets banished from the arctic and into the hands of man...The movie's taking the turn for the Happy Feet! (Never mind being captured by man, a penguin who is banished from the arctic is already doomed to suffer from warmer climate, as a polar bear would!)
-There are definitely several instances of cartoon birds having teeth when the instance calls for it, and namely is has to do with facial expressions. Daffy Duck is one example where you can see him grit his teeth when he's in rage, and the rest of the time he has none, which is part of the reason he has his classic lisp. But this movie isn't good at figuring out when and where to distinguish it.
-You know how a common complaint for modern animated films is that they pretty much follow the Toy Story "buddy-comedy/road trip" formula, and that it's becoming sterile? Well, at least *most of them tell the story well, and not as haphazard as this movie that came out only a year AFTER Toy Story!
- That whole "magically able to fly" ending was actually done well in one instance before this film: it was in a half-hour Christmas Special called 'A Wish for Wings that Work', based on the comic strip 'Bloom County'. In it, Opus the Penguin's main dilemma was longing for wings that could fly, but when the time in the plot came for him to put to use the skills he DID have as a penguin, the short ended with other birds giving him a lift as a reward. It's a standard "save Santa, save Christmas" plot you see for the holidays (and it likely isn't going to top Charlie Brown Christmas on anyone's list), but it's a hell of a lot better than what we got in this movie!
- I don't think the cloying narrator lady should be stuck with the narrator from Caillou. I think she should BE the new narrator for Caillou, so that it'd be HER job to put with that little brat's annoying voice! (Actually, scratch that, NO ONE deserves to suffer through that!)
to think I'd used to liked this movie back then when I was a kid But now a day's it's mediocre and chessey as Hell literally plus I'd think Happy Feet did it better
My earliest memory (And one of my few intact childhood memories) is being taken to see this and being so bored that I cried and my family and I went home partway through
Completely agree about the teeth - Not only is it inaccurate but, more importantly, it looks hideously creepy.
From The Land Before Time to... this.
So far to fall from grace.
How is this movie both over and under-animated?
I’d watch this movie non stop when I was little. No matter how bad it was. This still makes me nostalgic
Same
Funny how Bluthe didn't want to be mentioned in this but i think this is maybe a bit better than a Troll in Central Park.
I mean, it's not a good film (abit of a guilty pleasure for me, but still) but ok.
Edit: maybe "ok" is too good. Maybe "eh"~?
I think "better than _A Troll in Central Park"_ is fair. This movie's story is a mess, like the mediocre film drastically recut to make it less mediocre (at the cost of being less cohesive) that I suspect it is, but at least it _has_ a story and _tries_ to give some of its characters personalities and an arc. Also, it doesn't burn time on weird dancing flowers.
I actually really love the song "Looks Like I got Me a Friend" .... out of context lol
I think it's really goofy and fun but-
Hearing you go over this movie, I can totally see how knowing these characters makes it so bad hahaha
I DIED at "Oh rocko sweetie, he's not worth it"
Thank you for acknowledging that Tim Curry at least did a good job voicing his character. He always tries his best.
I've been waiting for this, Thank You! I was a blind Bluth fan from childhood to my teens, and I love Martin Short. Can't wait to hear how you feel about this. *Clicks Play!*
PS, how in all the nine circles does Drake know what a hyena is?
you know after thinking about there is one other thing that connects the evil Drake to the over the top Gaston even though this would be going into the musical version of Beauty and the beast and not the movie, they both have a song during their proposal Drake has "don't make me laugh" while Gaston has "me" both songs are similar do to the fact that both happen when the villain proposes the main girl and when they start to sway into the no area they brake out into a big musical number trying to convince them that marrying him would be the best option
Anddd I’m early. Unfortunately I Loved this movie growing up.
Same 😅
No shame in that. I like Rock A Doodle.
@@jeremyusreevu237 same. I never loved the movies like I loved thumbelina but I liked them.
I can’t believe it! I was literally just thinking you should review this, and it pops up! This is the best day of my life!!!
Yet another film that Don bluth would really like to forget.
Welp, if Don Bluth would like to forget the movies he made between All Dogs Go to Heaven and Anastasia, why the hell did he make them as "diet Disney Renaissance" as they were (especially A Troll in Central Park)?!
Thank you so much for the answer, marianne mccrank. That's exactly pretty much how it happened with the Don Bluth films made between All Dogs Go to Heaven and the Anastasia duology (yes, Anastasia has a sequel: it is Bartok the Magnificent. While it is average and sugarcoated, it's nowhere near up to the levels of the Don Bluth films throughout 1992-1995, especially A Troll in Central Park!!!!).
It could have been good if it weren't for usual culprit of interference from studio executives.
@marianne mccrank and better...damn executives. It's because of them that films like Batman vs Superman, the Hellboy Reboot, The Dark Tower and numerous others weren't as great or good as they should have been. They have absolutely no respect for the artist's vision. I'm actually glad Ralph Bakshi socked them in the jaw for tampering with Cool World.
I would like to see an essay done on Don Bluth's collective works and the tropes he relies on, as well as the recurring themes
I had a vague memory of that evil penguin falling to his death, and my entire life I thought I had just imagined that. Until now.
A yelling Martin Short penguin with teeth
*_oh god_*
That muppets reference!!! You’re the cutest demon, Diva.
You had me at John Cleese saying "Oh! Shut up!!!"and the Gallyoh Whoop Whoop😂😂😂
Notice how many kids they have - penguins normally only have one because they have egg pouches to keep the eggs away from the ice - so can only hold onto one egg at a time