Mr. Popper’s Penguins Wobble into Your Heart – movie review

Jim Carrey’s latest movie, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, is a cute movie that shows the importance of family. The movie which also has Angela Lansbury is a family film that has a winter theme, but also an important message that more people need to learn.

It follows Mr. Popper, whose own father was too busy with his job to be there for his son, who later on also puts work before his own family. His kids have a stressed relationship with him (though he seems on friendly terms with his ex-wife), and a certain gift from his own father is sent to help him. Can his gift of penguins help him and his life, or will they destroy it?

Mr. Popper’s Penguins was more of a family film than I thought it would be. I should have known that since Jim Carrey was in it that it would be more of a family-oriented movie and not just a little kids’ movie, which is what I assumed.  After all, the trailer did show dancing penguins–not really what I would think most family films would go for. The underlying message was more the focus of the film than the penguins, even though those penguins did add something special to a film that might otherwise be boring.

While the characters like Mr. Popper and his family were not exactly nice people, Angela Lansbury’s character helped thicken the movie by directing the plot to the topic of families (Tom, his bosses, and his family were more focused on what was at hand, in general). The movie would have been meaningless without Mrs. Van Gundy (Lansbury).  For example, when Tom asks Mrs. Gundy to sell him her land, she tells him that she needs to know what kind of guy he is and says that his focus on business gives her an idea of who he really is. This commentary on Mrs. Van Gundy does not mean Mr. Popper and his family did not play an important role in the film, they just needed that direction Mrs. Gundy pushed them in.

As for the penguin characters, I am going to assume that they did use some real live ones with robots and animation mixture. However, I am not sure. No matter what they used, they did a fabulous job, and those penguins did steal the show…while most of the focus was on the family, those penguins were scene stealers in more than one way. It was hard not to pay attention to what they did or how they acted.

The plot was based upon a book of the same name, as so many of today’s movie are. I am not familiar with the book, but I do know they made the movie current. Clips of YouTube and current star names were dropped. The plot was even, and as I said Mrs. Gundy added that something extra that they needed.  

The setting was New York City in winter, which sort have made it feel more like a holiday film and not a summer one. But it worked out well anyway. The costumes were good, as were the sets and, of course, the computer animations were about as real as you can get. Who ever was behind the animation part did a fabulous job.

I really was glad that the movie turned out better than I thought it would be. I think that the trailer was more or less a way to attract kids to the film, but, as I stated above, both kids and parents got the humor. It seemed to be a real crowd pleaser, which is great for any movie.

For my usual ratings and age suggestions, here we go. This movie really is a real family film. Little kids to big kids to adults will all find this movie enjoyable. It wasn’t crude or offensive, just a nice movie that offered something for everyone. So any age group is ideal for this movie. For my rating, I will give this a nine point five, they lost five points just based on the bad trailer. Other than that I thought the movie was perfectly cute and fine.