Penguin Highway
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| It was an incredible movie, I was looking forward to it, knowing it's the feature debut of Studio Colorido. After watching it I even learned that the author of the original novel also wrote Tatami Galaxy and Night is Short, Walk on Girl, which were turned into amazing adaptations my Masaaki Yuasa. So it made me appreciate Penguin Highway even more. It's been quite some time since I sincerely enjoyed a movie so much from the first minutes. It made me smile, laugh, and cry in the end! Wonderful characters, great setting and quite a creative exploration of its theme (coming of age), which can be interpreted in various ways. There were a number of thematic elements, like the end of the world, black holes, parallel worlds (hinted at by Alice Through the Looking-Glass on the shelf of the dentist woman), and so on, which helped the viewer interpret the second half of the movie while not taking his hand and telling him everything in the face. I think it was a great directorial decision. This movie is a great milestone for Colorido and Hiroyasu Ishida, I wish them the best. 9/10 for me. |
St0rmbladeApr 8, 2021 2:05 AM
| I'd been meaning to watch this movie a lot sooner honestly but, well, here we are... Certainly an entertaining and a very enlightening watch but I just couldn't help but be a little let down by the lack of closure/answers to the whole mystery. With that said though, it was fun seeing how the mystery was being built up with interesting stuff sometimes even out of the blue being thrown into the fray. Almost like the curiosity of a growing boy, I suppose you could say. Animation Quality, in terms of the color palette used, character designs and visuals throughout, was the highlight of the Movie for me. Being able to bring out so much life out of these imaginations, it's just fantastic! I can't wait to see how this Studio will fare with a piece excelling in the Storyline department, boy that would be something to die for! Characters were well-rounded and the main leads chemistry, in particular, a treat to watch. Unlike many, I don't give too much cahoots on age differences so I wasn't turned off much at all. I'm not saying I wanted it to sail all the way, however. Aoyama's fascination of science and boobs was hilarious and fun to keep up with. It's amazing how full of himself he is too but childish at the same time, I would definitely like to see more of this type of protagonists. And there is no doubt where he gets this from (his father), lol. Soundtracks had a nice feel to it that was very fitting for the various scenes of the movie, in my opinion. Pretty good ED theme there, too. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure why the Dentist lady vanished ultimately despite having a gut feeling that it would in the latter half. And a bunch of other questions of course... As such, I'm going to settle with a little harsh 7/10. But I'm definitely looking forward to the next project from this team! Lastly, congratulations for the nomination in the Media Arts Festival. |
#Anime4Life be my Life Motto! #PrayForKyoAni  |
| The movie was more entertaining than I expected. The music, visuals and the overall portrayal of the world around Aoyama were really heartwarming and uplifting. I enjoyed the humor and the warmth of the movie. It surely intrigued me and as so many stories of this kind, the explanation at the end wasn’t all that enlightenimg. But unlike most stories that make you want to resolve the mystery and leave you a little bit disappointed at the end, I didn’t feel any disappointment here. The bond between Aoyama amd the lady took over the story for me and it was definitrly a delight to watch. Refreshing movie. |
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| This movie took me by quite the surprise not only was the story and characters superb but the touch of illogical and impossible things in an enclosed space was just amazing and also quite touching. Someone said to me this movie was focused for children but well I got to say it's more a movie for everyone. I really found it more than superb! It really has been a long time since I've seen a movie as fantastic as this! A total piece of art! And a highly recommendable movie for anyone if you ask me. |
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| The interesting art style. Looks simple but yet pleasing to look at. |
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| It was a surprisingly solid movie. Great pacing, a very intriguing mystery that reminded me of Interviews With Monster Girls with its scientific analyses on the mystery lady's penguin powers and the ocean phenomenon, and a satisfying conclusion to the main character's arc. The movie made me reevaluate my enjoyment and rating of other standalone anime films, cause I rarely find ones that satisfied me from beginning to end. The only thing I didn't like about the movie was Hamamoto. I wanted to know why she seemed angry when Aoyama was suggesting that Onee-san was an important research subject for the big mystery, but it's kinda never answered, and her arc is left unfulfilled. It's a shame, cause she could've been much more, given her role as sort of a science assistant to Aoyama. I'm gonna be rewatching the film real soon though, to see what I missed in the plot. This is the only anime film thus far that has strongly STRONGLY encouraged me to rewatch to analyze its story and themes. |
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| So we have an opened ending again. He pretty much says he is going to love the lady only, with a little glimpse of hope at then the toy appearing. Suggesting she might come back... |
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| Man, the Shota x Onee-san vibes were so strong here. Especially when Aoyama spent the night at her place without even giving his parents a call. He has some great taste in women tho, I must admit that. Not gonna lie, I decided to give this movie a chance only because I love penguins and the visuals in the trailers were really pleasant to the eyes. This said, it was an interesting story overall and I found its sense of humor rather entertaining but the lack of proper explanations regarding the origin of the whole phenomenon that caused the initial conflict of this movie was very disappointing. In the end, the Onee-san's origin was never explained nor speculated and the only consolation we got was that Aoyama may perhaps find an answer once he grows up. The same can be said for what that "Sea" thing was, since its explanation was kinda vague but guess I will go with the idea of it being some sort of "black hole" that leads to a place outside the known reality. Why did it appear to begin with? I have no idea. Anyways, as for other aspects: production values were highly impressive with some very catching visuals as well as a nice selection of colors for its palette and regarding cast, I found most of the characters rather charming with Uchida being probably the most moe little boy I have seen in a while. He was such a lovely klutz. Hamamoto and particularly Suzuki were kinda annoying tho... but well, "kids". By the way, special mention to Aoyama's father. He had few interventions but I really liked each one of them. He gave some very good advices to his son and seeing him being this supportive of his investigation was something quite heartwarming, honestly. 6,5/10 -> 6/10 - Overall, it was a truly enjoyable experience but not gonna lie, not knowing anything about Onee-san's true identity was kind of a let down for me. |
SouthRzVaSep 21, 2020 12:00 AM
| Super fun and enjoyable film! Studio Colorido makes some really good stuff! |
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| 6/29 A boy. LMAO at dude drawing the dentist lady boobs and comparing it to his mom. Boy of culture. He's in 4th grade. He has a imouto. He's counting down the day he becomes 20. He's going to reject the girls who want to marry him because he knows who he is marrying. That lady is cute. Yo! He almost got hit. His name is Aoyama. Penguin's? Uchida. Project Amazon. Suzuki. Dat push. Uchida is down. Hamamoto. Stanislaw disease. Someone's coming. They have nice oppai. It's her from before. Dem legs. lol at Aoyama checking out her oppai. Boy of culture. OMG! I need a sequel showing Aoyama as an adult getting his woman back. I need my waifu Dentist Lady back. How could the gods punish Aoyama, who is a boy of culture, like this? Dentist Lady too perfect to be gone forever. A sequel needs to happen. Original watch date: Some time after 9/1/2019 (not a typo). |
| If you see that my post is exactly 1 month old (or more) from when it was posted... Don't waste your time, especially when you want to reply with something petty & insignificant. Assume that I've moved on (because I have). |
| This was perhaps one of the best anime films I've ever watched and enjoyed every second of it... I feel like a lot of the mystery is solved with basic (or maybe more advanced) knowledge of wormholes and Jabberwocky, maybe some other theories that I simply didn't know. Jabberwocky is a poem by Lewis Carroll, the writer of Alice in Wonderland. All the words are made up or mixes of existing words, but in the end he sort of strikes fear into the reader with the Jabberwocky, it is really a very original poem into how emotions don't really react to logic and can be triggered by anything, no matter how absurd. I'm not a physicist but I've heard a bit here and there to make sense of it (maybe incorrectly). The girl was created alongside the ocean at the end of the universe, but she had also always existed in the universe as well. It's most likely just a creative take on quantum physics as fiction is wont to do! But it sort of made sense without explanation and I'm glad they didn't use needless gobbledegook but instead left it as an Easter egg for people who understand this stuff. |
| Very pleasant movie! Like a Ghibli'd version of Spielberg. Some truly fine backgrounds and skies too. In fact, I may have enjoyed this more for the technical side rather than actual plot, in a way. |
| So... renting the film.. OK. Downloading the film. 1 hour later, starting the film... Oh, 1h48? That's a big difference even for a NTSC to PAL conversion. And then someone tells me that the french version was abridged in various places (explanations, a bit of breasts and so on). Great, so we are back to those times ?? Does anyone have a file for the full film? (Can't find the original dub with hard english subtitles online.) @St0rmblade Any idea? |
| I like the animation and all but I still prefer the novel, they omit some details but I understand because it's a movie and movie can't capture everything in the novel. I just feel that the conclusion with the onee-san is kinda lacking, but I still enjoy it 7/10 |
| Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. |
| A fun, enjoyable, and yet interesting watch. This movie went above my expectations (especially seeing the 7.62 score on MAL). Personally, I don't understand why the score isn't higher. It was quirky, fun, interesting, thought-provoking, and unique. Great animation, awesome characters (I especially liked the Dentist Lady - we never know her name until the end, huh?), and a wild, interesting, and unique plot. One of my favourite sequences in the movie was when the Dentist Lady and Aoyama rode those penguins into the Sea. There was a lot of weird visuals there. Reality itself seemed to be collapsing. It was disorienting, weird, and interesting. I really loved seeing those. None of my expectations of how the plot would unfold came true, and I didn't have that many of those to begin with. It all seemed so unique. And so this was a very enjoyable movie. I definitely recommend this movie to anyone who's interested in whimsical and interesting, thought-provoking concepts. At the start, I thought it was maybe a 7, but maybe an 8. As I kept watching, the 8 solidified, solidified, and slowly broke down. And then by the final parts of the movie, I already felt that 8 was far too low. It's a 9/10 for me! I'm really looking forward to reading the novel by Tomihiko Morimi, which is the source material for this movie. |
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Rei_III said: So... renting the film.. OK. Downloading the film. 1 hour later, starting the film... Oh, 1h48? That's a big difference even for a NTSC to PAL conversion. And then someone tells me that the french version was abridged in various places (explanations, a bit of breasts and so on). Great, so we are back to those times ?? Does anyone have a file for the full film? (Can't find the original dub with hard english subtitles online.) @St0rmblade Any idea? I thought France was pretty liberal with nudity and lewdness, but I guess because it's different kid's film. |
| Before anything else, I have to mention just how difficult it was to find a tolerable way to watch this: every sub track I could find was hilariously awful and blatantly done through Google Translate, while the dub was also comically awful in that it felt like every voice actor was reading their lines for the first time and they just went with that, making every line of dialogue painful to listen to for its sheer monotony. On that front, definitely one of the worst anime watching experiences I've had for quite a while. As for the plot, this was nothing more than an okay coming-of-age story, certainly nowhere near as enjoyable or compelling as any of Tomihiko Morimi's other works. That perhaps says more about the strength of his other works than it does the weakness of this, as this is still okay rather than anything close to being outright bad. 6/10 |
| Dood, that was a very good movie ! I wasn't expecting much from the beginning but was pleased for sure ! It got me even more intrigued into the whole plot and phenomenon, maybe I'll read the novel one day or another. The animation when they landed on the bubble/sea world was magnificient, I loved every seconds of it ! Well deserved 8/10 ! (Also I love Penguin ~ That's a big plus ~) |
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| How come there was not a hot 31 year old dentist lady trying to groom me into falling in love with her when i was 7 years old? Wait, maybe it is actually good that didn't happen to me This story was creepy as fuck, but since it was not an old guy and a lil girl people are giving it a pass |
| When I watched the movie, my first reaction was, oh wow, great visuals, great artstyle, colors, music but in terms of story writting, wth did I just watch for almost 2hrs because I thought that the pay-off of the movie wasn't good enough because they didn't explain anything and I was ready to think it's another mediocrity scored around 5 or 6 at best because of the visuals. But then I thought again that there must be a meaning behind all that or some symbolism that maybe I didn't understand well. Why Penguins, what was that "sea/ocean" huge ball, who was the no-name /dentist assistant /lady Onee-san? I get why others who didn't see it scored it less and it's also my objection too that the symbolisms weren't pictured more clearly in the movie After that analysis, I'd score it eventually as an 8 and totally recommend and I hope it helped others to watch the movie again, from another point of view. |
NerdcatladyOct 19, 2022 10:32 AM
| This movie is so hard to. Configure in my head. I understand it more from a pulled away perspective of what the movie was going for. Being about this kid who wants to grow up fast but still has things about him that make him his age in a myriad of ways. It kind of gave me the feeling FLCL has almost. In it's wackiness but also its goal of perspective. And I will say a kid like Aoyama whose smart above his peers tip toeing the line of being a prodigy. Just really like to funnel his time into odd projects and life planning. Also really about tiddies (this just made me laugh). Colorido as always flexes it's individual flare of popped colors and child animation. Using some of the coolest transition and movement really molding it into probably one of the most unique experinced watches and I feel like I've been around the block to see enough variety so that feels wholly fresh. I do wish they could've went more off the wall but I do this movie is already pushing the envelope in a lot of areas. I'll also side mention that I was not appreciative of the teeth horror in so many scenes. Really threw me off guard and some of my own worst fears. I'm glad I went into this ultra blind even if I didn't get what I thought might have been here. Not really to my taste in terms of story telling or journey, it didn't captivate me aside from the visuals which though on the whole, really hits. I don't know if anything here will really stick. 6/10, could change but I feel paticularly strong on this. ++ The relationship Aoyama and his dad have, don't know why but I like that they care about one another yet almost treat one another like colleagues in their worldy discussions. +++ I noticed some director flourishes from here. I had watched Drifting Home first and seeing all the abandoned buildings in the sea towards the end was very reminicent of the visuals in that. I like those small details. Good job Hiroyasu. |
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| What A "Trashy" Ending Song |
| GO SAKABE IS A ROUSING SONG |
| Well, i didn't really like this movie. It looks like a "light version" of Tenki No Ko: its a story about a strange natural phenomenon, this phenomenon is connected with the main character, the heroes travel to another world, and at the very end the main character disappears The film is very childish and naive. I watched it only for the interesting interactions between the shounen and onee-san, but i would also note the really good location and nature visuals and good direction (angles, panoramas - it was done with high quality). Otherwise, it’s boring movie, the characters are too "mary sue", the childrens are too smart for their age, onee-san is practically not a developed character at all (and i personally dont like her voice), there are a lot of bad taste moments like stupid chases and such. And there are many more strange disgusting moments, for example when a bully, excuse me, pisses on the main character’s papers - was that moment really necessary?? What else can i say - boi is truly a genius since he already realized at that age that breasts are the meaning of life ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) If he doesn’t become a great scientist, then he will become a great hentai artist. Onee-san is a cool shotacon woman, but the loli completely boring. I'd say that Tenki no Ko is much more interesting and the characters there are better. |
x_scolopendra_xJun 29, 1:24 AM
| I loved this movie. I'm pretty surprised by how hard people have been on this movie. Here I thought I was more on the picky side, especially when it comes to movies. It's a simple child-meets-alien adventure with creative and detailed sci-fi concept, gorgeous visuals and an emotional core. E.T., basically. It captures a lot of what it feels like to be a kid; the confusing feelings for a girl, the confidence and optimism, the joy and wonder of discovery, the thrill of keeping secrets with friends from grown-ups, the lessons you learn from those same grown-ups, the terror of uncertainty about the world and your own powerlessness. I didn't like Drifting Home from the same director as much as this one, but I definitely would like to see more from him. |
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