The Pebble and the Penguin is a major letdown for Bluth. Apparently he was not a fan of the final product and demanded his name be removed from the credits. You can't blame him.
Basic plot. Hubie the penguin longs to tell a penguin of female persuasion that he loves her. Hubies is shy and reluctant to tell her but eventually sees that she feels the same way. Hubie goes to search for the perfect pebble to present to Marina, but he soon finds out that he will have competition from an evil penguin, The Drake. The Drake confronts Hubie and tosses him into the ocean. The Drake tells the other penguins that Hubie is lunch for the Sea Lion.
Hubie doesn't end up dead. He ends up on a ship that holds other penguins. These penguins are being picked up and shipped off to zoos. One penguin that ends up on the ship, Rocko, doesn't like being held captive and tries to rally everyone to escape. Hubie is the only one that wants to escape with him, naturally because he wants to get back and present Marina with the pebble and marry her. He and Rocko end up escaping and Rocko agrees to help Hubie take him back to Antarctica.
This is not Bluth's worst film by any means. I think that title goes to Thumbelina. Though I did like the bird in that movie. There are some good parts in TPATP. In some scenes you can see where Bluth's work is still rather present. In others, and most of the film, it seems to be nonexistent. I really enjoyed the scenes of Hubie and Rocko in the ocean trying to escape the Sea Lions and the Killer Whales. Both of those scenes were done well in my opinion. The thing that really hurts this film is the constant pop up of songs that shouldn't have been thrown in the movie to begin with. You knew every time one of them was coming and they were not good songs. The narrator only comes up a total of 3 times. Why? Now to the characters. Most of the characters in the film are blah. Hubie is downright annoying. I actually enjoyed the fact that they gave him a stutter. I wish they had kept it throughout the movie. Marina was so-so as the love interest. The Drake was nasty but not nasty enough. The only character I really felt that had any personality was Rocko. He could be irritating at times, but he had the most heart in my opinion. I thought Rocko and Hubie seemed to have more in common than Hubie did with Marina. They both acted like a gay couple.
In all this movie could have been better. It's sad that several of Bluth's films had internal affairs go bad. It happened on All Dogs, Land Before Time and this.
P.S. The penguins did not need teeth. Yuck!
Basic plot. Hubie the penguin longs to tell a penguin of female persuasion that he loves her. Hubies is shy and reluctant to tell her but eventually sees that she feels the same way. Hubie goes to search for the perfect pebble to present to Marina, but he soon finds out that he will have competition from an evil penguin, The Drake. The Drake confronts Hubie and tosses him into the ocean. The Drake tells the other penguins that Hubie is lunch for the Sea Lion.
Hubie doesn't end up dead. He ends up on a ship that holds other penguins. These penguins are being picked up and shipped off to zoos. One penguin that ends up on the ship, Rocko, doesn't like being held captive and tries to rally everyone to escape. Hubie is the only one that wants to escape with him, naturally because he wants to get back and present Marina with the pebble and marry her. He and Rocko end up escaping and Rocko agrees to help Hubie take him back to Antarctica.
This is not Bluth's worst film by any means. I think that title goes to Thumbelina. Though I did like the bird in that movie. There are some good parts in TPATP. In some scenes you can see where Bluth's work is still rather present. In others, and most of the film, it seems to be nonexistent. I really enjoyed the scenes of Hubie and Rocko in the ocean trying to escape the Sea Lions and the Killer Whales. Both of those scenes were done well in my opinion. The thing that really hurts this film is the constant pop up of songs that shouldn't have been thrown in the movie to begin with. You knew every time one of them was coming and they were not good songs. The narrator only comes up a total of 3 times. Why? Now to the characters. Most of the characters in the film are blah. Hubie is downright annoying. I actually enjoyed the fact that they gave him a stutter. I wish they had kept it throughout the movie. Marina was so-so as the love interest. The Drake was nasty but not nasty enough. The only character I really felt that had any personality was Rocko. He could be irritating at times, but he had the most heart in my opinion. I thought Rocko and Hubie seemed to have more in common than Hubie did with Marina. They both acted like a gay couple.
In all this movie could have been better. It's sad that several of Bluth's films had internal affairs go bad. It happened on All Dogs, Land Before Time and this.
P.S. The penguins did not need teeth. Yuck!