MR Popper s Penguins Review

MR Popper s Penguins 

Everybody loves penguins. They waddle. They squawk. And those little black matching suits they all wear? C’mon on America, what’s not to love? And everyone loves Jim Carrey too, right? Okay, that’s a stretch but Carrey, who started his movie career almost twenty years ago talking to animals in ACE VENTURA PET DETECTIVE, smartly revisits safe territory in MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS, a mostly successful and quite funny new family comedy A contemporary adaption of Richard Atwater’s 1936 novel, it’s the story of Tom Popper (Carrey), a wealthy if shady New York real estate developer who treats his own children with the same indifference that his own explorer father did to him years earlier. Shipped six live penguins by the recently-deceased dad, Popper at first tries to dispose of them, but when his children (Maxwell Perry Cotton and Madeline Carroll), fall in love with the friendly critters, he embraces them as a way to reconnect with the kids as well as the ex-wife (Carla Gugino) he still pines for. Once it’s revealed that he’s housing the penguins, Popper has to contend with a strict zoo keeper (Clark Gregg) who wants to confiscate the birds because he believes that Popper’s spacious penthouse apartment is not well-suited to take care of all of them even though Popper (somehow) keeps it frigid cold and entertains the birds by having them watch videos of Charlie Chaplin (who they view as a waddling kindred spirit).
Though far from great art, MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS is hard to resist, thanks to a seamless blend of live action and CGI for the birds, as well as the innate anthropomorphic-like charms of Jim Carrey. The penguins perform plenty of acrobatic pratfalls and slapstick but are not shown performing feats much beyond what a penguin could do naturally, a wise move that keeps the film grounded. The old actor’s rule — never work with animals or kids — has never seemed more apt. Carrey ends up playing the straight man but his (relatively) low-key approach never robs MR. POPPER;S PENGUINS of its energy. There is some of his trademark wackiness (his mock slo-mo courtroom entrance is vintage Carrey), but the penguins steal the scene from Carrey every time, and he gives it up gladly. The supporting performances are fine and I especially enjoyed Clark Gregg’s benign villain, Ophelia Lovibond as Popper’s super-cute British assistant, and 85-year-old Angela Lansbury as a rich snob unamused as she watches penguins slide around the circular corridors of the Guggenheim (a very funny scene). Of course this is not to overlook the humor of MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS because it is a very funny movie, though often crude. Much of the humor is of the bathroom nature; with non-stop scatological jokes dealing with penguin poop and a handful of fart scenes (one of the penguin’s name is ‘stinky’). But kids have a healthy interest in bodily functions and you can’t ask too much more from a summer family comedy that this film doesn’t deliver. Director Mark Waters takes a well-worn formulaic story and makes it witty and slick enough for an adult audience, while also infusing obvious lessons for the younger generation about responsibility, tolerance and the important things in life.