This is a terrible movie. Nothing irked me more than the penguin character designs. These BIRDS have teeth as well as fingers on their wings that do not look at all like feathers. To add insult to injury, they also wear clothes..The animation is dull in color, but I suppose it might look okay if it wasn't (but the characters still wouldn't). All of the songs are forgettable and many are also nothing more than filler. Only the villain song, "Don't Make Me Laugh" is somewhat half-decent. The story is stupid. Hubie gets his pebble because it fell from... an asteroid. He gets swept away by the ocean current after Drake pushes him in even though as an animal that spends 80% of its life in the ocean he should know how to avoid this. There's no backstory on how Drake kidnapped Marina or on how Rocko (WTF) LEARNED HOW TO FLY!!! There's a reason penguins in real life can't do that!! Overall, this is just garbage and I don't understand why a decent amount of people on the internet seem to like it. Totally lives up to its 11% RT score.

I had heard a lot of bad things about Don Bluth's movies from the 90's and sure Thumbelina, Rock-a-Doodle and Troll in Central Park are bad, but I found Pebble and the Penguin okay. Not at all near his masterpieces from the 80's which I simply love, but okay. Tim Curry is the highlight of the movie, because it's Tim Curry, c'mon. He is the ultimate voice of a bad-guy and an amazing singer too! His song, "Don't Make Me Laugh", was bad-ass even though it sort of came out of nowhere. I like the other characters as well. Martin Short did a good job as the introverted and shy Hubie and Annie Golden voiced Marina very well and sincerely and gave us a beautiful song. My least favourite was actually Rocko, he was meant to be this grumpy penguin, but I found that he was a constant asshole being passive-aggressive towards Hubie. But he is not totally one-dimensional, because he changes as the movie progresses and teaches Hubie some lessons too. The animation had a lot to it. It changed a lot throughout the movie, but mostly it fit the scenes. The music was pretty good too and I don't get why many people say that there are too many songs. They were catchy and well sung. A certain improvement after Thumbelina and Troll.Tim Curry's character's design was a little stupid, because a penguin on steroids is a little far-fetched to be honest. That was what he looked like, but he was entertaining and that is enough. In general, an underrated film that will amuse the kids and maybe adults' eyes will get caught by certain aspects of it.

I had seen a short trailer for this animated film a number of times, I found out much more about it before watching it, like it being directed by Don Bluth (An American Tail, The Land Before Time, Anastasia), and featuring songs by Barry Manilow, so despite a low rating I was still up for watching it. Basically in the frozen lands of Antarctica, there is an ancient ceremony where a penguin must find the perfect pebble to give to his future bride, shy, gullible but kindhearted penguin Hubie (Martin Short) is in love with beautiful Marina (Annie Golden), but is bullied by vain and cruel rival Drake (Tim Curry), and struggling to find a pebble to propose with. He wishes on a star to make his dream come true, and this magical star turns into a large emerald, the perfect pebble, he rushes to give it to Marina, but Drake demands he give it to him, and refusing Hubie is thrown into the water and drifted out to sea, to be picked up by humans on a ship transporting various penguins to a zoo. Grumpy, streetwise but good hearted rockhopper penguin Rocko (James Belushi) and Hubie break out their cages, they lie low for a little time on a beach, Rocko has a desire to fly and he only agrees to help Hubie get back to Antarctica because he has lied that he knows a flying penguin already, meanwhile Drake is trying to force Marina to accept his proposal, she would be breaking tradition if she refuses. Despite finding out he lief to him Rocko praises Hubie's determination to get back to Marina, she meanwhile is worried about him, he and his new companion meanwhile run into a hungry leopard but escape it, and then they are attacked by a killer whale, causing the pebble to get lost and Rocko seemingly perish. Hubie reaches home and confronts Drake, he is able to fight him with the techniques friend Rocko taught him, after a fight where the villain falls Rocko returns safe and sound, Hubie finally proposes to Marina and she accepts, returning Drake is finally defeated being crushed in a rock fall, Rocko achieves his dream to fly, the found emerald is loved by Marina, and time goes by and she and Hubie have had children. Narrated by Shani Wallis, also starring S. Scott Bullock as Chubby and Gentoo, Pat Musick as Pola and Chinstrap 1, Louise Vallance as Priscilla and Chinstrap 2, Angeline Ball as Gwynne and Chinstrap 3 and Kendall Cunningham as Timmy. The voice acting is not all that great, the story is full of rubbish sentimentality and silly action sequences, the colourful animation is good but patchy, and the songs by Barry Manilow are I agree dreadfully cheesy, this may be based on the real courtship ritual of the Adeli penguins, but as a children's film it is a dull and boring animated family musical comedy. Adequate!

Looking back at Bluth's previous entries from the 90s, I was beginning to think about what I think about this one. Well, just say that when I was a little kid, I seemed to enjoy it, but as a young adult, I'm gonna call this movie decent. So, some of you are wondering why a 80%? Here's the reason why.Here are some letdowns.Letdown #1: The story was just... weird for a movie about penguins despite it's credit for a romance between two main characters. There were some things that were unexplained like "Why do penguins have clothing and hands to begin with?" and "Where did the three non-penguin birds came from?".and Letdown #2: The songs made by Barry Manilow (despite it's decent music score from Mark Watters) weren't that bad. "Now and Forever" (pop song included), "Sometimes I Wonder" and reprise, which was hear-rendering, and "Don't Make Me Laugh" were enjoyable, but "Good Ship Misery" was badly sung, although "Looks Like I Got Me A Friend" has a decent melody.That's it for the letdowns. Now for the highlights. The animation is very good, the character designs aren't that bad, and the voice acting is entertaining with the likes of Martin Short, Annie Golden, James Belushi, and Tim Curry. The characters are likable too. Hubie is great and his romance with the beautiful Marina was so sweet and cute altogether. Rocko never fails to amuse me with his comedic moments and his comic-relief voice and the villain named Drake is great and I think that he totally frightened me the first time I saw him as a kid.So, is this movie weird? Well, kind of, but once you compare it to A Troll In Central Park, it's not a bad movie. It's just a decent and very cute penguin movie and it's worth watching for kids who like decent entertainment.8/10