A Penguin's Memories

A Penguin's Memories is a 1987 American-Japanese animated film from 1987. It is an English dub of the 1985 Japanese anime film called Penguin Memory. It is directed by Shunji Kimura and Martin Rosen and is produced by Akira Sugatani and Rosen. It stars Gregory Snegoff as Mike, a penguin who served in the Delta War, who returns home after the war but has received post-traumatic stress disorder a few minutes before the war was over. It is produced by Nepenthe Productions, CM Land and Hakuhodo and is distributed by United Artists. Suntory Beer also produced the film, as it's where the film inspiration came from, but they were uncredited in the US release due to the product not getting a US release.

Plot
Coming soon!

Cast

 * Gregory Snegoff as Mike
 * Debbie Reynolds as Jill
 * Frank Welker as Tom, Car Driver
 * J.K. Simmons as Al
 * Lou Diamond Phillips as Jack
 * June Foray as Madam O'Hara & Mike's Mom
 * Dom Deluise as Paul
 * Lea Thompson as Susan & Peggy
 * Michael Keaton as Bob Adams
 * Hank Azaria as Dr. Moe
 * Mickey Rooney as The Librarian
 * as Jimmy
 * Tom Bosley as The Piano Player
 * Tim Curry as The Police Officer

Production
After the release of the film in Japan, film producer Martin Rosen saw the movie and decided to make an English language version, after getting the license to make one from CBS/Sony Records, the dub went into production. It was originally slated for a January 1987 release but was pushed to June of that year because it took Rosen's production company, Nepenthe Productions, several months to find a distributor. Cindy and Donald Hewitt were hired to translate the film into English as well as rewrite some of the lines to make it more accustomed for American release. The two would later write Disney's English dubs of various Studio Ghibli films.

When the film's title came to view by Rosen, he thought that the film's original title, which literally translates to Penguin's Memory: A Tale of Happiness, did not work very well, and changed the movie's name to A Penguin's Memories due to it fitting the film a bit more.

While the dub is fairly faithful to the original movie, a few differences were inserted as well, these include:
 * Al's line "If we could give him a cold beer, he'd get better in no time." was changed to "You better give him some medicine, Mike, or he'll die."
 * When Al is describing his girlfriend, he instead describes her as "the most beautiful penguin you'll ever see"
 * Mike saying Jill's name after Jill reveals that she loves him is cut out as Brooks found the line unnecessary
 * Most of the soundtrack, with the exception of many sound effects and some music pieces, were replaced by music composed by Clint Mansell, as well as added into certain scenes that lack music, such as the scene when the police come to Mike's home after his brawl with Bob Adams.
 * In addition, during the Delta War scene, music that would later be used in Requiem For A Dream, another film that Mansell composed, is used.
 * The film's ending song is cut out, and an instrumental theme plays in the final scene, and the credits instead play the song Time and Tide by Alan Price, which was also used in Rosen's previous film The Plague Dogs.
 * Mike's pet bird, Chico, is renamed to Winifred.
 * Mike's line to Bob Adams and the 2 other penguins "How about you people give up?" is changed to "You can just find somebody else!", in addition, Bob's line "I can't do that, if this little lady runs off on me, it will all have been for nothing. So hand her over!" is altered to "No way! She's the best singer I've ever had! You better hand her over or else you'll give it!".
 * When Bob Adams is whacking Mike with his cane, instead of asking if it hurts, he instead says "I told you! If you didn't hand her over, you would get it!"

Release
A Penguin's Tale had its premiere at the Annecy International Film Festival in May of 1987, and was released in American theaters on June 12th, 1987.

Distribution
Nepenthe Productions had struggled to find a distributor for the film, as many marketers were quite concerned about the film's subject matter being too dark for an animated film, to add to that, Embassy Pictures, which had released Rosen's previous films in the US, had shut down by the time this film was produced, leaving the film in limbo.

United Artists, which had previously distributed The Plague Dogs in the UK, acquired the film's UK distribution rights, however, when they learned the film didn't have a US distributor, they decided to release it in the United States as well, however, marketing wasn't exactly too high due to MGM/UA Entertainment's concern about the film possibly attracting a younger crowd despite getting a PG-13 rating.

Rating
A Penguin's Tale received a PG-13 rating for violence and strong language, as well as frightening scenes and alcoholic references.

Box Office
COMING SOON

Critical Reception
A Penguin's Tale initially received mixed reviews from critics, with some praising the story and voice acting, while others criticized the tone, and described the animation as "clunky". In a more positive review from Roger Ebert, he stated "While I do admit the animation needs a major amount of work, the film's story was pretty well done and the voice acting was spectacular.

However, in recent years, the movie has obtained a cult following, with TV airings on HBO, and reception has been warmer ever since it's release. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 80% based on 30 reviews, the site's critical consensus reads "The animation is a bit clunky, but you just don't care. It's an anime film that definitely deserves a watch". The film in 2018 also started to become a bit notorious for the fact the character designs from Club Penguin strongly resemble the character designs from this movie.

Home Media
Due to UA only merely distributing the film, the film wasn't released on VHS by MGM/UA Home Video, it was instead released on VHS in the US by CBS/Fox Video and in the UK by Guild Home Video. Another VHS was released in the UK by Entertainment In Video.

In 2002, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released the film again on VHS and for the first time on DVD, featuring an audio commentary from Martin Rosen, writers Cindy and Donald Hewitt, and editor Walter Murch, the original Japanese cut with English subtitles, a documentary on the English version of the film, and some of the commercials for Suntory Beer with English subtitles and a short introduction from Martin Rosen on them. The DVD became rather successful amongst Anime fans leading to it becoming one of the first Fox films to be released on Blu-Ray on January 9, 2007. Fox's Blu-Ray was later reprinted in 2012