Pingu (2024 film)

Pingu is a 2024 American-British live-action/animated comedy adventure film directed by Erika Brueggemann. Based on the original property by Otmar Gutmann, it was written by Matthew Fogel, the same writer that wrote the two previous installments from the studio. The film was produced by Illumination Entertainment, in association with StudioCanal, Walden Media and Mattel, and distributed by Universal Pictures. Michael Cera and Adam Brody plays their animation and live action roles as Pingu and Connor McJones respectively.

The film is dedicated to the memory of Carlo Bonomi, who did the vast majority of the voice acting for the characters dated all the way to the Otmar Gutmann era.

Synopsis
Pingu gets lost into depths within the seas after a pack of walruses knock him out and casted him away from the icy island that they call the Arctic the moment he tried to square up with them to protect his community, only for him to then find himself in a block of ice to a trip to Las Vegas, whereas he teams up with Connor McJones, who is live-action, to help him go back to where he was and to fight off the pack of walruses from jeopardizing his family.

Voice cast actors

 * Michael Cera as Pingu, a kind hearted and courageous penguin at heart and a well respected penguin in all of the Arctic. And when things go hayware, he will do everything is his will to protect his friends and his community from any threat that could be approaching to his land.
 * Jessica DiCicco as Pinga, Pingu's sister
 * Maya Rudolph as Pingu's mother
 * J.K. Simmons as Pingu's father
 * Tina Fey as Emma
 * Bill Hader as Pingo
 * Zach Hadel as Pingg
 * Ben Schwartz as Pongi
 * Eric Bauza as Pen-Pen, the rockhopper penguin.
 * Kristen Schaal as Pendra
 * Jordan Peele as Robby
 * Danny DeVito as the Football/Soccer Manager
 * Jim Belushi as Chef Fred
 * Simon Pegg as "The Inventor"
 * Jemaine Clement as the Giant Walrus, the central antagonist of the movie who's willing to terrorize everything in his way. Not to mention that he has a massive discriminating hatred for penguins.

Live-action cast

 * Adam Brody as Connor McJones, who was a full-time worker at the Las Vegas Zoo and wants to do everything in his will to impress his boss until he got slacked off when his boss has deemed him "too lazy". And now he wants to prove that he can get his job back.
 * Charlie Day as Connor's friend, Sammy Miller.
 * Jonah Hill as one of Connor's co-workers, Anthony Willis
 * Vanessa Williams as Connor's love interest, Elisa Sullivan.
 * Jon Taffer as the CEO of the Las Vegas Zoo, Clifton Merrit, whom he is Connor's unimpressed and unethusiastic boss. He views his employee as an individual that doesn't care about his job when really it's not the true.
 * Ed Sheeran as the guy that sells Donuts at a local donut shop.
 * Jimmy Kimmel as the local newsreporter at Las Vegas.

Voice cast actors

 * Both Ryota Iwasaki and Fumiya Tanaka reprise their roles as the OG penguins from Pingu in the City in a brand new cartoon on TV made specifically for a 7 second clip with new animation produced by Polygon Pictures, albeit being uncredited.

Taglines

 * "He's willing to blend in..." - Teaser poster, Main poster
 * "Don't get your flippers in the twist!" - Character poster

Soundtrack
The score for the movie is being composed by Steve Jablonsky. The majority of the soundtrack will have subtle references to the series, more specifically the Otmar Gutmann era instrumentals.

Trailer songs

 * Steve Rosenberg - Pingu "in the style of Russian classics" [1st trailer, first half of the song will stay the same but the second half will be orchestrated]
 * CG5 - Noot Noot [2nd trailer]

Songs heard in the film

 * Woodpeckers from Space - VideoKids
 * Hand in Hand - Koreana
 * Masaya Matsuura - Pingu Rap (Without voiceclips from the show)
 * Mozart - Lacrimosa
 * David Hasselhoff - Pingu Dance (Remixed by Ali Dee) [Lyrics altered to specifically aim for a target audience that the movie intends to have]

Trivia

 * The character designs will stay faithful to the designs that were displayed in the Otmar Gutmann era, plus the character animation which will be used as an advantage to blend in with the real world will be done by the people behind Illumination with help from Moving Pictures Company (MPC). With the exception of the Arctic scene, where it's entirely animated by Illumination.
 * The movie will most likely have subtle but faithful references from the previous installments with it being seasons one to six and Pingu in the City, including Pingu's affinity for donuts, the list of penguins from said installments including recently added newcomers, the original design for Pingu will appear as one of the toys displayed for when Pingu rises to fame in a 13 minute sub-plot plus a cartoon with the original penguins from the show with Ryota Iwasaki and Fumiya Tanaka reprising. And most of all, the giant walrus that was in Pingu's Dreams, but this time he's got a whole army to himself and about to take down every penguin with every fiber of their being.