*** outta *****

3 outta 5

Penguins is the latest effort from the Disneynature documentary arm that has been plugging away consistently for about 10 years. Like their previous films, this is a charming family friendly, funny take on the nature documentary genre. There’s even a message at the start that by watching the movie opening week it contributes to nature charities to which ensures the audience feels better about themselves and moviegoing choices. Not to be confused with the March of the Penguins documentary from years ago, this Penguins takes anthropomorphizing animals to pretty much extreme limits where the documentary is edited and narrated to basically be a romantic comedy about a plucky penguin who wants to provide for his family. And while the movie can be a bit hokey it does look pretty spectacular on the big screen. Also seeing a sole penguin waddling across the frozen tundra while Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again” blares on the soundtrack is inherently funny.

Instead of being a traditional documentary with a dispassionate voiceover, the style of the film makes it more like a family friendly adventure story about a single penguin. Basically, the film is imposing human characteristics to make it more relatable which mostly works although sometimes it pushes it really far. Narrated by Ed Helms, Penguins follows a spirited Adélie penguin named Steve who is running late to the spring migration. There he builds his nest and meets a mate, Adeline, and they hatch eggs that grow to young chicks. Steve has to gather up his penguin family and escape before the cold winter settles in again but unforgiving conditions and natural predators may stop them.

While this is a documentary, the narration and voiceover turns it into a narrative. It’s fairly cheesy at times but the style clicks mostly due to Helms. Helms is at the forefront of interviews for the movie and viral marketing but is it sort of odd as he isn’t even credited on the poster. Helms ping-pongs between the sympathetic narrator and voicing the character for Steven the penguin, portraying the penguin as sort of a befuddled new dad. There are some good quips like when Steve the penguin gets smacked around by a baby Emperor penguin and Helms has him say bewildered “I just got beat up… by a baby.”

The narration and editing is transparently manipulative although it does craft a decent narrative story out wildlife film footage. The start of the movie is basically about the penguins building a nest for the incoming flock of females and there’s a bit where one penguin starts nabbing rocks from Steve’s nest that he’s building. With Helms’ voiceover it becomes a comedy scene about the oblivious penguin not noticing the lazy penguin stealing rocks. The end of the movie has the family of penguins going across a melting ice flow and being pursued by seals which basically becomes an action chase scene for the third act climax.

Probably the best bit is when Steve meets his partner and the soundtrack starts to play the 80s REO Speedwagon hit “Can’t Fight This Feeling” while penguins are nuzzling. Basically, it’s a G-rated penguin love scene since in the next scene Adeline is laying eggs. The music uses a few ‘80s pop hits which is amusingly incongruous to the penguin action and Harry Gregson-Williams orchestral score compliments scenes to give the penguins journey emotional heft.  There’re perky, jaunty musical cues as the penguins are making their way across Antarctica and some menacing musical bits whenever the penguins are being stalked by predators.

The image quality is spectacular featuring overhead sweeping visuals of thousands of penguins marching and it looks magnificent. Also the shots of wind sweeping over Antarctica and the poor penguins caught in the middle of it is freaky and eventually some penguins end up completely buried up to their beaks. Sometimes the image may be a bit too high quality as there’s one very extreme close-up of a penguin regurgitating its meal which may be one of the grosses images in a 2019 film. Amusingly, Helms as the voice of Steve confusingly wonders why his kid “barfed up my barf” since parent penguins feed their young by regurgitating into their mouths.

The credits roll with footage of Steve the penguin and Helms doing funny voice over about him blowing takes like a prima-dona movie star. Then it shows the human crew capturing the footage and the hardships the crew endured looks crazy. One of the funniest details revealed in the behind the scenes montage is a small camera getting knocked over and pecked by a herd of penguins. There’s no doubt there was quite a lot of skill on set to get what happens in Penguins which shows on screen. While the need to push human emotions on animals does seem saccharine, it’s hard to hate since Penguins is so darn lovable. Even though March of the Penguins did sort of the same thing years ago, there’s enough room in the world, and our hearts, for two adorable penguin documentaries.