Aoyama is just a 4th grade kid but he already knows everything including the fact that has only 3999 days left to be called an adult. He is very intelligent and science genius who keeps discovering various things in the world. He has even choose his future life partner: a working woman who also looks after him sometime when he comes back from school. Everything seems to go normal until a bunch of penguins appear in his small town. It’s not even winters and nobody seems to understand the cause of their appearance so suddenly in summer’s season. Aoyama takes up the job of figuring that out and in the process he comes across some mysterious facts about his town that he never imagined.
To be very blunt, this movies is extremely weird. Probably not as much as The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl but somewhat close to that level. If you have seen that movie then you will understand that. Those who are familiar with the writer of this movie can expect this bizarreness as Tomohio Morimi has written Walk On Girl and Tatami Galaxy and both have been adapted into anime and directed by the same director, Masaaki Yuasa – but did not direct this movie. The director of Penguin Highway is Hiroyasu Ishida who has directed for the first time. While Studio Colorida has produced the movie which has produced a few movies so far. But even if the movie is weird, a good and popular cast can be the reason for attracting the viewers with a little bit of emotions involved in the movie. But when it comes to Penguin Highway, did the movies manage to attract its viewers? It won’t be completely wrong to say that to some extent it did.
The story is focused on a young boy, Aoyama and his character is the most established one in the entire film but also an entertaining achievement when it comes to character writing. He is a kind of kid who behaves like he knows everything with not doubts at all. He is the most intelligent in his class and is into a woman who is way too old for him. These elements can be a bit off for the viewers even if you take just one of them, particularly when a character of such age is written as someone who talks and behave like an adult. Honestly, at some points Aoyama doesn’t seem like a boy of his age. But still, the character can’t be disliked as the way his character has been written and his voice has been performed (in both languages) is really good. He is an intelligent boy with a lot of scientific knowledge and rational views about life. But that does not interrupts the quirky storyline, in fact his knowledge and curiosity is what takes him to the right approach of investigating the sudden penguin outburst in the town, which also shows his childish nature. He never behave like he is superior and unlike other kids his demeanor prevents his from being an irritating kid. Talking about his love for an elder woman, it is something which sounds weird but has been shown in a way that it doesn’t sees weird. He seems to be fascinated with breasts, but his notion regarding them is not sexual. He asks himself why The Lady’s body structure gives him a different impression compared to his mother’s and since he is just a kid and is not mature sexually, all that has been portrayed in a very innocent manner. The boy does claim, with utmost certainty, to marry her one day in the future but there is nothing shocking about it as it is normal for kids having crush on older people and wishing to marry them one day ( we all had at least one childhood crush)
As far as the supporting cast goes, they are not as fascinating or written with so much details as the leading character. They just fulfill the need of their respective roles. However, the character of The Lady is not well written and doesn’t seem to have developed in the movie. Although there are moments when we see her character apart from Aoyama’s perspective but unfortunately that hasn’t much given any development. Same is the case with the other characters. All other kids are adorable and interesting but hasn’t given any depth to their character and can be easily forgotten. Thankfully, there are tons of penguins for enough fascination.
Like mentioned before, this is the first movie the director has ever worked on and, he has done a good job but only for a director who has done it for the first time as the unevenness of the movie shows that. The pacing of the movie doesn’t feel like a regular movie but a series of three parts. The beginning of the movie shows various experiments that Aoyama performs and it feels like arcs of the series. The story starts to build up and properly progresses much later in the movie. This slow pace seems a little boring till the middle part of the movie but it doesn’t mean that the movie is not good.
Animation is done by Studio Colorida that has only worked for short animated movies and has no prior experience with the full-length movies. But considering that, Studio Colorida has done an excellent job. The animation looks attractive with bright and lively colors. The penguins looks just as cute as they supposed to be and when there is something important, that needs the audience attention, it does offer a satisfying experience. There are some flaws here and there that can be ignored in the anime series but are noticeable in the movies. There are also some moments when there is no motion except for the lips moving when there are lot of heavy dialogues. There are also some off screen scenes that are only implies with sounds and dialogues rather than actually showing it. Foer example, there is a scene when The Lady and Aoyama are hiding under the table while being followed by the police. We don’t really see them doing that as we only get to know it through dialogues while on our screen we only see the police roaming around which doesn’t require much of an action. These are some minor flaws but, we have watched a lot great animated movies that have raised the standards in the animation industry, so these faults are easily noticeable.
The soundtrack and the music is done by a new composer who has no prior experience of movies or series. It is composed by Umitarō Abe who has done a fine job. It’s quirky and light but doesn’t create a lasting impact for such a bizarre movie and a peculiar story. It’s easily forgettable. But, since, it’s the first time he has composed a score for a full length movie, we can’t complain more. But we would like to see him working in more movies or series to observe if that’s his style or was he just being cautious for his first project. The soundtrack that actually felt different was the ending theme, titled ‘Good Night’ which was not performed by him. It was performed by Utada Hikaru. It is melodious and is really memorable, creating a lasting impact in the climax. The best part about this song is that the translation is given by the singer herself, meaning we directly get to know the interpretation of the Utada Hikaru rather than the translator’s word to word translation.
Like we stated above, the dubbed voicing has done very well, the role of two kids have been played by actual kids. Gideon Modisettas has voiced Aoyama and Landen Beattie has voiced Uchida. It doesn’t just sound real but the kids have done a great job in portraying their respective characters. One kid, Hamamoto has been played by an older voice actor Anne Yatco (which doesn’t sound authentic) but the performance doesn’t seems bad. Other cast include Erika Harlatcher and Keith Silverstein who has also done a good job.
The On-disc offers interviews of the writer and the director including promos and the past work of the director compiled in a video which is quite interesting.
If you like the surreal art style and storytelling of Masaki Yusa and the quirky style of Studio Gibli or Makato Shinkai, then you will definitely find this movie very intriguing. But if you want logical explanation in the movies like the protagonist of this movie then you might not be interested in this one. But, all in all Penguin Highway is very fascinating and enchanting with lots of cute penguins. A lot more than you can imagine.
