I don't know why the rating is so low. This is a beautiful movie, that only has a couple of flaws. It is not as good as An American tail and Land Before time, but way better than Rock A Doodle Doo and Troll in Central Park . I really don't understand the criticism that it is unimaginative, with Rocko flying. Hello? Elephants can't fly, and look what Disney did with Dumbo! The songs and musical score are lovely, especially Now and Forever and Sometimes I wonder. The only song I didn't like was Good Ship Misery, because it was badly sung. The animation generally was good too, the highlight being the killer whales scene. True there were a lot of colour changes and some animation errors(Good Ship Misery), especially in Drake's song. And unlike some people I thought Marina and Hubie's romance is very sweet. The worst character animation was that of Drake. Nobody would draw a penguin like that. The voice overs were what made the movie, and they WEREN'T racist. Shani Wallis is lovely as the narrator, accompanying the beautifully-animated Antarctica-landscape beginning, certainly an improvement on the narration in Rock a Doodle Doo. Martin Short portrays Hubie's nervousness with such conviction, and James Belushi steals the show with a hilarious characterisation of Rocko. Annie Golden made me cry with her beautiful singing voice, her rendition of Sometimes I Wonder is heart-rending and Marina is such a cute and beautiful penguin, and Tim Curry voiced Drake beautifully, even if he got a tad annoying. In fact, Don't Make Me Laugh is special to me because that is the best I have ever heard Tim Curry sing since Blue Money.And by the way, Curry is the most experienced singer on the soundtrack, so I was shocked by the comment that compared the singing to howling monkeys. Barry Manilow and Sheena Easten's duet at the end was sublime too. All in all a beautiful and imaginative movie, if a little on the short side. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Hubie -- like Stanely the troll from Bluth's A Troll in Central Park -- lacks the spark of personality to be the main character that carries an entire movie. We're supposed to like him because he's nice, but that's about all he is.His character design is unappealing. The top of his head is a sort of dome that is narrower than the pudgy bottom half of his head.And penguins should not have teeth. I know that Iago the parrot in Aladdin had teeth, but maybe that worked because it made him look more like his voice actor, Gilbert Gottfried. Hubie, with his weenie little voice (provided by Martin Short), looks funny with that big set of chompers in his beak.Tim Curry, who is usually delightful at being evil, does some sort of dippy surfer dude accent as the villain (might have been a good voice for a comic relief accomplice, not the supposedly menacing main villain).The entire plot revolves around the hero and villain's love for female penguin Marina, who is just as dull as both of her suitors.Worst of all is the pacing. We keep cutting back to the villain to watch him threaten Marina some more - this time in dialogue, this time in song...Barry Manilow may be a great songwriter, but in animated films like this and Thumbelina, his songs feel limp and listless - especially the ballads. The only song I liked was the 1930's-ish "Good Ship Misery" song.I read that the distributor made some cuts in this film against the filmmaker's wishes, and that could have caused some of the problems - though I suspect the real problem is that they didn't cut the rest of it ;).

to all of you out their who have to pick apart every little itty bitty thing that isn't logical about this movie cut it out i mean 4 GODS SAKES ITS A KIDS MOVIE and for what it is its quite good !!! of course penguins don't wear hats but it builds up their characters i remember watchin this movie when i was 7 years old and I loved it its a simple story the little girls will love the romance and the little boys and probably the parents will love rocko its a cute film !! and for those people trying to act all high and mighty get a life Don Bluth always does a good job at making good wholesome family entertainment! so if you ever need something to entertain ur kids for 1 and 1/2 hours put the pebble and the penguin on !!! :D

This Don Bluth film concerns a penguin named Hubie who is in love with Marina and at first the movie starts off with a bright musical song Now and forever that follows their giving of pebbles to their loves for being mates with one another. But an evil penguin named drake is jealous over Hubie for taking the most beautiful girl penguin in the colony of penguins. So he manages to get rid of hubie by throwing him in the sea with a blood thirsty Leopard Seal. Hubie jumps out of the water onto an iceberg and is swept far away from Antarctica and is captured by humans on a boat to take them to zoos. But then he meets up with a tough penguin named Rocko who he escapes with when he realizes that there only ten days left to get back home before the full moon mating ceremony. He and rocko on the way to Antarctica don't exactly get along at first but before the end he convinces him to like him as a friend. Rocko accepts Hubie for who he is and he teaches hubie how to fight to defeat Drake before it's too late. Then Hubie fights drake and he falls into the pit of his lair and he manages to get back up and the gets smashed by the rocks that crumble on him and Hubie and Marina nearly fall to their death when Rocko saves them and he sees that he can fly like his dreams that said to him.To me that sort of reminds me of Dumbo in some ways. Then at the end Hubie and Marina get married and have a few kids and live happily ever after.This has got to be one of my favorite Don Bluth films even thought it didn't do well at the box office it still remains to me and a lot of people a Don Bluth Classic.