Penguins

DisneyNature's latest documentary focusing on the lives of penguins in the Arctic is cute if not a little too simplistic. DisneyNature has been around for several years now bringing out film after film focusing on the wildlife of our little blue planet with the simple goal of informing, entertaining and donating to important causes to protect the creatures that roam this earth.

Penguins is their latest documentary and is fun and charming, detailing the life of a single penguin in great detail. The film is obviously aimed for younger audiences and simply a way of showing penguins doing cute things. The narration from Ed Helms hammers this point home for sure with much of his delivery being extremely whimsical and at times childish.

The film does a good job of documenting little Steve's journey in the harsh landscape showing off all the trials and tribulations he has to face without going over a G rating of course. It's fun watching him scuttle around the icy landscape and it's rather cute. However, this can only entertain for so long before it becomes monotonous and the constant narration from Ed Helms gets tiresome and it's charm wares off fast.

Sometimes I wondered while watching, what sort of direction Ed Helms was given in the recording booth, because sometimes he feels completely lost and it often feels like just rambling. But perhaps this is a minor complaint overall. There's nothing wrong with this and the point of the film is still the same. It's a simple story and simple subject with beautiful shots of the icy landscape, but it doesn't tell me really anything new and perhaps that's the films biggest problem.

The film shows you the life of this penguin and his group, but doesn't give out any new information that we haven't already seen or perhaps heard of in other similar penguin related documentaries. Which this is fine, but I would have liked something a little more deeper.

Penguins in a perfectly fine documentary with some interesting tidbits and wonderful cinematography that should entertain younger viewers, but doesn't add anything new. It is however a film with an important message and cause, by showing us the importance of these little creatures down south and I can't fault the film or judge too harshly for doing something that I think is worthwhile in the end.

Now this is how you make documentaries for kids: cute critters, an engaging story, and charming narration/character commentary from the quirky Ed Helms. With that said, it's great for kids and even adults, but my interest didn't stay sustained for a very long time. It could've been because I was tired but I felt like it went in circles after awhile. Still, a good one.

B-

Have you ever wanted to watch penguins dancing romantically to REO Speedwagon? If so, this is for you.

This was (mostly) a fun little documentary from Disneynature. At 76 minutes in length, it moved pretty fast. It often made me smile or laugh, and featured really good use of music. I'll forever think of an awkward penguin called Steve when I hear Whitesnake in future.

The whole documentary is centered around our mate Steve. He always seemed to be late to wherever he was going - including the birth of his kids. In some ways, I could relate to Steve a bit too much.

Whether it be 100 mile round trips for food, or annoying neighbours stealing precious rocks - Penguins shows the life of a penguin is really damn hard. I couldn't help but feel bigger picture stuff going on - with life itself feeling like a tumultuous ice flow filled with problematic leopard seals at every turn. No, just me?

Ed Helms was annoying as narrator at times - it took a little adjusting to once he began voicing the penguins themselves. And if I had kids? I probably wouldn't show them this until a certain age. There was some scary, anxiety-inducing events in parts. Such is life.

2019's 'Penguins' had real potential of being great and had all the ingredients to be. Reasons for wanting to see it were quite a few. One being my undying lifelong love for Disney. Another being my every bit as strong love for penguins, probably along with seals my favourite animal. The DisneyNature documentaries are interesting, even if the quality has varied. With wonderful ones such as 'Earth' and 'Oceans', and also a couple that underwhelmed like 'Elephant' and 'Born in China'.

'Penguins' is not up there among the best DisneyNature documentaries. It is also not one of the worst. Personally put it somewhere in the middle along with 'Monkey Kingdom'. Actually saw this not long after seeing 'Snow Chick: A Penguin's Tale' and when comparing briefly the two, there is no question as to which is the better one of the two. That sounds like 'Penguins' is bad. It isn't. There is actually a lot to like here, but one big thing in particular jarred the brought things down.

Lets start mentioning the good things. 'Penguins' looks gorgeous for one thing and it is mainly the quality of the visuals that make it worth seeing. The scenery is absolutely spectacular, while being a lot more than cute penguins in beautiful environments. The environments are indeed breathtakingly beautiful but they are also suitably cruel and unforgiving, there are times without being too dark where 'Penguins' does show that penguins do have difficulties in their habitats. This is all enhanced by the cinematic-worthy photography. Some of the music has a nice atmosphere and is appealing in instrumentation.

Steve is a very entertaining and likeable penguin that is always worth rooting for every step of the way in all the stages of his journey, not coming over as too humanised. In fact all the penguins are immensely engaging and it is hard to not feel anything for them, cheer for them, cry for them and admire any accomplishments. 'Penguins' is full of charm and entertainment value, plus very cute without being sickly, and while it didn't emotionally connect with me quite as much as 'Snow Chick: A Penguin's Tale' for example there are affecting parts. Some of the narration intrigues and informs.

Most of the time however, the narration didn't do an awful lot for me. Like other DisneyNature documentaries, its writing did try too hard to appeal to younger audiences and ended up being too childish and over-simplified. It also tried to inject some humour intended to lighten the mood, but this came over as clumsy and over-silly. Ed Helms' delivery added to the problem, too much of it is too over-eager and can talk down to the audience.

While not near as much of a problem, for my tastes some of 'Penguins' was a little too over-scored in mood and placement.

In conclusion, mostly enjoyed it but would have loved it if the narration didn't jar as much. 7/10

Had a lot of fun seeing this in IMAX on Earth Day. Really funny and entertaining, even for adults. Especially recommended for family viewing, though. Finally, if you're an 80's music lover like me, you'll get a lot of joy from this film. Enjoy!