La piedra y el pingüino

From what I read, Don Bluth was kicked off this movie before it was completed, and it was shipped out and finished by animators in Hungary. (This explains why on the movie itself, there is no director listed.)

This is probably true, because the animation keeps making subtle changes in style, color, and quality - sometimes in the SAME SCENE! Also, the pacing is very choppy, with frequently the characters all of a sudden shown in a new situation with no explanation as to how they got where they were all of a sudden.

Truly awful songs by Barry Manilow, and strident characters who have no depth to them. Not much of a story, either. It's no wonder this movie bombed big time, though I am shocked that Amazon indicates that the movie is out of print!

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

Symbol of the creative -and financial- problems of Don Bluth's team between "All Dogs Go To Heaven" until "Anastasia", this animated movie benefits impeccable score and songs and good animation, for a very weak plot.

Genre: Penguins, animation.

Main characters: Hubie, Marina, Rocko and Drake the penguins. I feel for most of these characters and I like them very much indeed. I also like Drake, the baddie – but I do not feel for him.

Actors: Martin Short (Hubie), Shani Wallis (Narrator), Annie Golden (Marina), James Belushi (Rocko) and Tim Curry (Drake).

What happens: All of the Adelie penguins on a big iceberg are ready to mate, finding their pebbles to give to the penguin they love so they can mate. There is one rather clumsy and dreamy penguin called Hubie, who is in love with one particular penguin – but someone else loves her as well…

Message: It's not the gifts that you give your love that matter, but the giver.

My thoughts: I like this film rather a lot. I like the actors, the animation, the characters, the songs and the adventure of the story. The jokes are also amusing and I wouldn't be surprised if at least one person who didn't like this film liked at least one joke from it. The actors are well-picked and many people may like this film JUST because of them – as there are many famous ones (including James Belushi and Tim Curry). The animation is good, I especially like the backgrounds – sometimes it seems like you are going across the sea with the penguins! The characters are very lovable and have distinct personalities, not subtle though, which is one slight problem with this film. I especially like the characters of Hubie and Rocko, some may think otherwise. I also really like the songs, there is an amusing one, there are two romance ones and there is one "bad guy song" that we all have to have in a children's film! Well, we don't have to, but "Don't Make Me Laugh" is fun anyway, good singing from Tim Curry. The adventure of the film is very engaging and it keeps you focused on the film.

One thing I am not so keen about this film is that it's pretty average. Average acting – and the plot is quite average. Otherwise – I think this is a very good animated family film!

Recommended to: Families who would like to sit down to a cartoon film (maybe over some Haribo or a box of Popcorn), children who like penguins and cartoon and grown-ups who like penguins and cartoon films. Enjoy! :-)

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.