Trey the Penguin

Trey the Penguin is a 1977 animated film produced by Japanese animation studio Topcraft and co-produced in the United States by Brut Productions. It was released in November 1977 in the US by Universal Pictures and in Japan a month later. The film was directed by William Feigenbaum and Katsuhisa Yamada.

Trey the Penguin was released to positive reviews from critics and grossed $24,134,458 at the box office, making it one of Brut's more successful movies; The film also gained a cult following through strong sales of the Magnetic Video VHS and TV broadcasts of the film. In 2017, Turner Classic Movies in partnership with Fathom Events gave the film a limited re-release in theaters for it's 40th anniversary.

Plot
TO BE WORKED ON

Voices (incomplete)

 * Dan Hennessey as Trey
 * Julie Bennett as Annie
 * Hans Conried as The Penguin King
 * Paul Frees
 * Len Maxwell
 * Frank Welker
 * Marie Osmond
 * Rex Allen
 * Paul Lynde
 * Michael Graham Cox
 * Earl Hammond

Production
Trey the Penguin was produced over a 4 year period, beginning in 1973 and finishing in 1977. Initially, United Artists was going to release the movie, but they weren't a fan of the first script draft of the movie, so they rejected it. Brut Pictures, the company co-financing the movie, later presented the script to Shick owned Sunn Classic Pictures, who expressed interest, but ultimately didn't believe the film was up to their standards, eventually Brut Pictures found favor at Universal Pictures, making this film their first animated film in almost 12 years since Pinocchio in Outer Space and their last animated film release until An American Tail, which was released in 1986

Release
Universal released the film to US theaters on November 16th, 1977, while in Japan, it was released in December of that year by Toho Company.

After Faberge, the owner of Brut Pictures, sold it's interest of some of their films to Turner Broadcasting System, Trey the Penguin was also sold to the company. As of today, the film's rights are currently held by Warner Bros. through their acquisition of Turner Entertainment Co. in 1996.

Home Media

 * 1980 Magnetic Video VHS (under arrangement with Brut Pictures)
 * 1983 CBS/Fox Video VHS
 * 1988 Turner Home Entertainment VHS
 * 1994 Turner Home Entertainment VHS
 * 1998 Warner Home Video VHS
 * 2002 Warner Home Video DVD
 * 2006 Warner Home Video "Deluxe Edition" DVD
 * 2012 Warner Home Video 35th Anniversary Edition Blu-Ray/DVD
 * 2017 Warner Home Video 40th Anniversary Blu-Ray steelbook

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently has a score of 74% based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8 out of 10. Vincent Canby described the film's visuals as "creative, but nothing new" but still pointed out that "the story has enough charm and heart to keep maybe even older audiences entertained".

Legacy
The film was known for also serving as an influence on Garrett Fredrickson, who was a writer for the film, it was also part of the reason why he decided to dub A Penguin's Memories for the English language market, stating that "Trey was one of those films that gave me an interest in Japanese animation, and it also influenced me to produce the English dub of A Penguin's Memories, as both films were some of the first to carry a genuine human-like society for the penguins to act in."

Over the years, the film gained a strong cult fanbase, thanks to the film's common airings on HBO as well as other cable networks at the time. The 1994 VHS from Turner Home Entertainment was one of the highest selling VHS tapes of that year.

In 2017, Turner Classic Movies and Fathom Events gave the film a limited re-release for the film's 40th anniversary from November 13th to November 26th of that year.