Pingu: The Movie (2018 film)

Pingu: The Movie (also known in other territories as Pingu's Big City Adventure) is a 2018 American-British-Swiss animated film based on the 1990 stop-motion children's television show, Pingu. The film is produced by DreamWorks Animation in association with Mattel Creations and HiT Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures in the US and StudioCanal in the UK. Nick Herbert and Liz Whitaker directed the film, Ross Hastings wrote the screenplay, Alan Sylvestri composed the music, and David Sant, and Marcello Magni provided the voices.

The film first premiered in the United Kingdom on February 16, 2018, the United States on March 9, 2018, and then in Switzerland on April 13, 2018. The film received generally widespread praise from critics, praising it’s updrifting story, beautiful animation, charming humor, and faithfulness to the source material, and it grossed $270.8 million worldwide against it's $45 million budget. The film was nominated at the 91st Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature but lost to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It got nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award, won Best Animated Film at the Toronto Film Critics Awards and earned four nominations at the Annie Awards and won it for Best Animated Feature.

Pingu: The Movie would spark a new franchise of films, which includes a sequel entitled Pingu 2: Lost in the Arctic (2021) and two upcoming Pingu films include Pingu 3: Take Me Home (2023), scheduled for in July 2023 in the UK and August 2023 in the US and Pingu 4, set to be released in 2025. A revival/continuation of the series, which premiered in Japan 5 months before the film, titled Pingu in the City aired in 2017 and later in the UK and the US in 2018.

Synopsis
Pingu and his family are about to move into the big city and Pingu is not ready for the changes in his life. But with the help of friends both old and new, Pingu will find a way to embrace his new life in Penguin City.

Plot
[Will be worked on when the film is done]

Cast

 * David Sant as Pingu, Father, Grandpa, Pingj, Robby, Pen-Pen, Chef Fred, Carpenter, The Inventor, Football Manager.
 * Marcello Magni as Mother, Pinga, Pingu's three aunts, The Twins, Pendra and Flower Shop Lady.

Production
The film was announced on February 2006, before the final episode of the original Pingu series, when HiT Entertainment and DreamWorks Animation was reported on developing a Pingu movie, with the latter providing the animation for the film, with Nick Herbert, who was the series director on seasons 5 - 6 in the original Pingu series, hired as director and Paramount Pictures distributing the film with a planned release date on July 2009. However, after some story problems the crew at Hit and Nick faced, DreamWorks hired Liz Whitaker to help Nick as co-director, with her eventually becoming a director alongside Herbert, and Ross Hastings to write a new script for the film, and thus restarting production on March 2008 the film and delaying it to July 2012.

But then in December 2010, after creative differences and story clashes with HiT executives and Nick, Liz, Ross, and the crew, the company decided to fully give the project to DreamWorks with the Pingu crew all migrating to the animation studio. Due the migration from HiT to Dreamworks, the film was rescheduled to July 2015.

However, in January 2015, the film was put on hold indefinitely due to DreamWorks’ major restructuring after the box office disappointments of their other films from the year prior, Mr. Peabody & Sherman and Penguins of Madagascar.

But then in May 2016, Herbert announced that the film’s production will possibly resume after Comcast and its NBCUniversal division purchased DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion. After Universal acquisition with DreamWorks, the film's production resumed on September 2016, with most of the crew returning to work on the film. Herbert interviewed with Verify on "how the film was about 85% completed before the DreamWorks restructure and that they will finish the other 15% of the film".

The film would later reveal its new release date of November 2017 with Universal Pictures as the movie's new distributor, but then was later pushed back 3 months later in March 2018.

The animation was animated DreamWorks Animation and later outsourced by Animal Logic, the Australian animation and visual effects digital studio behind The Lego Movie franchise and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, who DreamWorks brought in to help not only finish but to also re-render the animation after Universal rescheduled the film to 2018. For the animation, DreamWorks and Animal Logic made and re-render the film's animation to replicate a stop motion film in the style of the original series (and The Lego Movie), right down to the backgrounds, designed by Steve Odekerk, and everything looking as if it was made out of plasticine like the series.

The cast from the 5th & 6th seasons (David Sant and Marcello Magni) reprised their roles for the film.

Songs
For the score of the film, DreamWorks hired Alan Silvestri to compose the score for the film. The film features a song in the end credits called Believe it or Not by Joey Scarbury, which was a theme song from the 1980s superhero comedy-drama, The Greatest American Hero.

Release
Pingu: The Movie was released in the United Kingdom under StudioCanal on February 16, 2018 and then later in the United States under Universal Pictures on March 9, 2018. The film was later released in Pingu's home country of Switzerland on April 13, 2018.

Box office
Pingu: The Movie grossed $76,197,737 in the United States and Canada, and $194,662,662 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $270,860,399, against a production budget of $45 million.

In the United States and Canada, Pingu: The Movie was released alongside A Wrinkle in Time, The Strangers: Prey at Night, and The Hurricane Heist. The film made $4.1 million on its first day, debuting third behind A Wrinkle in Time and Black Panther. It went on to debut to $7.3 million, finishing third at the box office behind both Black Panther and A Wrinkle in Time. Some analysts believe that despite it’s poor opening weekend, the film fared well thanks to some good word-of-mouth and it’s praise from critics.

In the United Kingdom, the film only grossed £67,000,000 ($82,674,650).

Critical Response
On Rotten tomatoes the film received an approval rating of 88% based on 110 reviews and an average rating of 8.9/10. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 84 out of 100 based on 49 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Home media
Pingu: The Movie was released on DVD, Blu-ray, Ultra HD Blu-ray, Digital HD on May 18, 2018 by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. The film was released on Universal's streaming service, Peacock on March 10, 2023, just in time for the 5th anniversary of the film's release.

Follow-ups
A Japanese revival/continuation of the series, called Pingu in the City (ピングー in ザ・シティ, Pingū in za Shiti), first aired in Japan on NHK on October 7, 2017 (5 months before the film), ITVBe's preschool block LittleBe in the UK on February 25, 2019, and on NBCUniversal's Peacock in the US on March 15, 2019.

The sequel, titled Pingu 2: Lost in the Arctic was released on August 13, 2021. In the story, Pingu and his friends attempt to search for Pinga across the Arctic only to get themselves lost and have to find their way back to Penguin City while meeting some friends and creatures on their way. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, it was an immediate hit at the box office.

In November 2021, Universal Pictures announced that two Pingu films are in development with a third film, entitled Pingu 3: Take Me Home, scheduled to be released on August 11, 2023, and a fourth Pingu film slated for a 2025 release date.

In December 2022, 7 months before the release of the third film, Universal Pictures and The Pingu Company announce that they are considering the possibility of a Pingu 5 in 2028, just in time for the 10th anniversary of the first Pingu film and 38th anniversary of the Pingu franchise.

Trivia

 * This is the first Pingu film for several things
 * This marks Pingu's first theatrical animated feature ever made.
 * This is the first Pingu production to be made since the 2009 BBC Children in Need music video.
 * The is the first film to be distributed by Universal Pictures, making it DreamWorks' first animated film to be distributed by the company after their purchase in 2016.
 * The backgrounds for the film were designed by Steve Odekerk, the founder of O Entertainment.
 * This is DreamWorks' second CG stop motion animated film since 2006's Flushed Away, Animal Logic's second computer stop motion animated film after The Lego Batman Movie (a month later to it's US release), the first stop motion film not animated by Aardman Animation and the first stop motion/CG stop motion animated DreamWorks film the studio made without Aardman.
 * This film takes place in between the original Pingu series and its follow-up series, Pingu In The City.

Credits (WIP)
See Pingu (2018 Movie)/Credits