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PENGUIN HIGHWAY

"Delightful Animated Adventure with a Trippy Science Fiction Twist"

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What You Need To Know:

PENGUIN HIGHWAY is an animated science fiction coming-of-age tale from Japan about a 10-year-old boy who has a crush on his dentist’s female assistant. The boy discovers the young woman has special powers that enable her to change objects into little penguins. The woman and the penguins seem to be related to the appearance of a mysterious floating ball of ocean water. Eventually, with the help of some friends, he hypothesizes there’s been a break in the space-time continuum somewhere. The floating ball starts growing much bigger, threatening the town where the characters live.

PENGUIN HIGHWAY is colorful and winsome, with a quirky sense of humor and appealing characters. However, some of the high-level science can be confusing, and the ending leaves some things unexplained. PENGUIN HIGHWAY has a positive outlook on family, friends and discovering truth. However, caution is advised for older children due to some jokes about the young protagonist’s obsession with female breasts. The floating ball of ocean water in PENGUIN HIGHWAY is a metaphor for the dangers of climate change, but the metaphor is light and not overbearing.

Content:

(B, C, H, E, L, V, S, NN, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:
Light moral, redemptive worldview extols family, friends and searching for truth, with a positive reference to God in one line and a bully in the movie is redeemed with kindness and love, but there’s a hint of humanism in the movie’s use of science, and there’s a light, somewhat hidden metaphor to the dangers of climate change

Foul Language:
One “d” word and children call female breasts “boobs”

Violence:
Small city is endangered by a mysterious floating ball of ocean water that suddenly starts growing larger to possibly threaten the town, adult scientists investigating the phenomenon are sucked into the ball, a penguin is hit by a small truck but it bounces off the truck and waddles away, bullies harass boy and tie him up to the front of a soda dispensing machine, alligator like lizards swallow a penguin and scare people, and boy scares bully in the dentist’s office with a phony made-up story about the bully’s allegedly deadly gum and tooth disease

Sex:
Boy has a crush on a young woman and fixates on her breasts, young boy’s crush amuses her, but she admonishes him to stop staring at the shape of her breasts under her sweaters and shirts, and boy eventually expresses the wish that, when he grows up and becomes an adult astronaut exploring outer space, they will meet again and young woman seems open to that idea

Nudity:
Boy has made a couple simple nude drawings of female breasts in his scientific journal

Alcohol Use:
No alcohol use

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:
No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:
Male protagonist withholds information from two female characters he knows and the younger female clearly becomes jealous of the older female when she learns about her, plus a bully harasses the male protagonist, but he’s redeemed with kindness and love.

More Detail:

PENGUIN HIGHWAY is an animated science fiction coming-of-age tale from Japan about a 10-year-old boy who has a crush on his dentist’s female assistant and finds she has special powers having to do with a mysterious break in the space-time continuum.

Based on a 2010 novel by Tomihiko Morimi, the movie is narrated by 10-year-old Aoyama, who fancies himself a scientist like his father and wants to be an astronaut. Aoyama is precocious but a little bit full of himself. He dreams about how “amazing” he will be as an adult, adding, “I’m sure lots of girls will want to marry me.” He also has a crush on his dentist’s hygiene assistant, Onê-san or “Lady,” and draws pictures of her breasts in his scientific journal where he writes down all his experiments and hypotheses.

One day, Aoyama sees some penguins in the large empty field near his home and investigates. Lots of penguins start showing up in the town. People think the penguins are from a nearby island, but Aoyama discovers they have special abilities when one penguin bounces off a speeding truck and isn’t hurt.

One day, after being bullied by one of his classmates outside of school, Aoyama surprisingly discovers that it’s the dental hygienist, Onê-san, who’s making the penguins suddenly appear. They start conducting experiments to see how she’s able to do that.

At the same time, Aoyama and his buddy, Uchida, follow some of the penguins into the woods. In a meadow, they run into their really smart female classmate Hamamoto, who’s discovered a strange floating ball of ocean water in the meadow. Aoyama, Hamamoto and Uchida begin studying the strange phenomenon. However, Aoyama never tells Hamamoto about his experiments with Onê-san and never tells Onê-san about the experiments with Hamamoto.

It turns out that not only does Aoyama have a crush on the female hygienist, but the school bully has a secret crush on Hamamoto while Hamamoto has a secret crush on Aoyama. How the movie resolves this romantic quadrangle and how the penguins and the floating ball of ocean water relate to one another makes for a delightful cartoon adventure with a trippy science fiction twist. Jeopardy occurs when the floating ball swallows Hamamoto’s father and starts growing larger, threatening their little town.

PENGUIN HIGHWAY is a colorful, winsome piece of Japanese anime. Like many animated movies from Japan, it has a quirky sense of humor that’s infectious. Part of that is due to the quirky traits and personal appeal of the main characters. That said, the movie contains a fair amount of ambiguous, high-level physics having to do with bending or folding the space-time continuum. So, some of the science is confusing. Also, when the story finishes, the origins of the female dental hygienist and her ability to create the penguins don’t seem to be fully explained. Their role in the story is still entertaining to watch, however.

Like its young protagonist, PENGUIN HIGHWAY is obsessed with following the scientific method. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the character of God doesn’t enter into the equation, though one of the characters does make a positive reference to God in one line at one point. There’s very little lewd or immoral content in PENGUIN HIGHWAY, except for the movie’s references to the young protagonist’s fascination with female breasts. Countering that problem is the clear bond that exists between the protagonist and his mother and father and between his female friend’s bond with her own father. Thus, PENGUIN HIGHWAY extols family and friends as well as the benefits of science in furthering human knowledge and understanding the world around us. Of course, when it’s done properly, science works well because there is an order to the universe that God has created for human beings, and for cute little penguins. Science works because God exists. Finally, the floating ball of ocean water in PENGUIN HIGHWAY is a metaphor for the dangers of climate change, but the metaphor is light and not overbearing.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


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