April 14, 1995 | Very small children may be entertained, or at least temporarily distracted, by The Pebble and the Penguin, but their parents will be counting each minute that ticks by. This is a thoroughly routine and largely charmless animated adventure, the kind of bland concoction that usually makes only a fleeting appearance in theaters before hitting the video rental shelves.
It comes to us from Don Bluth, a former Walt Disney employee whose output as an independent animator has been, at best, spotty. To give him fair credit, Bluth has entertained audiences of all ages with such fine family fare as An American Tail and The Land Before Time. Recently, however, Bluth and his Dublin-based production company have hit a creative dry spell with such minor efforts as A Troll in Central Park (which received only spotty theatrical exposure before its home video debut) and Thumbelina.
The Pebble and the Penguin, alas, is not likely to end Bluth’s losing streak with critics and ticketbuyers.
Loosely based on the real-life mating rituals of the Adeli penguins, the movie focuses on Hubie, a plump little fellow who looks a bit like Dom DeLuise, and sounds even more like Lou Costello. Actually, Martin Short is the human actor who provides Hubie’s voice, but you would never know that if you didn’t see the closing credits.
Hubie is hopelessly smitten with a pretty penguin named Marina (voiced by Annie Golden), and the feeling is mutual. Local custom calls for a male penguin to present his intended mate with a suitably special pebble. So Hubie locates a chip from a newly fallen meteorite, and plans to present this prize to Marina.
But Hubie and Marina are separated by fate — and a villainous penguin named Drake (Tim Curry) — just a few days before they can pledge their troth. To get back to his beloved, Hubie needs the help of a heartier penguin: Rocko, a smart-mouthed cynic with the voice of James Belushi.
As Hubie and Rocko make their way back to Hubie’s Antarctic home, little of what they do is terribly exciting, and a great deal of it is very familiar. (An encounter with killer whales is suspiciously similar to a sequence in Pinocchio.)
The songs composed for the film by Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman aren’t very impressive, either.
