Movie Review: Mr. Popper's Penguins 1-16-26
This movie is about a wealthy businessman named Thomas Popper Jr, who actually forgot about the value of family. One day, he receives a live Gentoo penguin in the mail! Unfortunately for Tom, the penguin’s a troublemaker who floods the bathroom. If that isn’t bad enough, another box arrives with five more penguins! Billy (Tom’s son), however, loves the penguins, so Tom decides to keep them as pets.
Before I actually begin reviewing this movie, I want to point out the book is very different from the movie: In the book, Mr. Popper is a house painter for only half the year, and because it was the Great Depression when the book was published, they don’t make that much money. Luckily, the Poppers make back the money by putting the penguins in a circus act. Also, most zoos and aquariums during this time didn’t have penguins yet, making the book feel rather dated.
On one hand, Mr. Popper’s Penguins (the movie) has great production design, a good score from Rolfe Brent, CGI that aged surprisingly well, and outstanding animal action. On the other hand, you have a cliched story, one-dimensional characters, dated jokes, and some unnecessary potty humor.
And then there’s the acting: Jim Carrey is Tom Hopper, but is family-friendly comedy routine is just no match for how he would be in the Sonic the Hedgehog movies. There’s also Carla Gugino as Tom’s wife Amanda, Madeline Carrol and Maxwell Perry-Cotton as their kids Janie and Billy, and the late Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Selma van Gundy. Given Lansbury’s legendary status, she probably gives the best performance in the whole movie, even if it is not that prominent.
Aside from that, Mr. Popper’s Penguins is your typical inoffensive kids movie. As Rotten Tomatoes put it, it could’ve been a lot worse, but it also could’ve been better.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Tomorrow, I will upload a rewrite of a classic SpongeBob episode that I’m actually not that fond of.
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