Farce Of The Penguins

Synopsis: The tale of the mating rituals of Emperor Penguins and their epic journey to collect food for their young, set to an allegedly hilarious voice-over soundtrack.

They really should be more people who say no in Hollywood. The moment Bob Saget, star of the Olsen twins’ television show, Full House, went to the studios with the idea of producing a spoof of the 2005 smash hit, March of the Penguins, alarm bells should have started ringing in Tinseltown. Yes, he may have been most of the voices of America’s Funniest Home Videos which had us laughing as young and old more or less seriously injured themselves but putting silly voices to footage of penguins just isn’t funny. He has tried to translate what made his television show popular but it just doesn’t work.

This is lowest common denominator comedy with absolutely no redeeming value whatsoever. It just doesn’t tickle the funny bone, it’s puerile and the most disappointing thing about the whole sorry affair is the talent who were persuaded to get involved with such a sorry piece of trash. Samuel. L. Jackson, Christina Applegate and many more provide vocal accompaniment to the penguin’s shenanigans but do not manage to add one ounce of hilarity.

The one reason to watch this film is the actual shots of the penguins. As with March of the Penguins these creatures are charming and funny in their own right. The addition of trash talk only detracts from the now famous images of the Emperor Penguins making their epic journey in the name of their newly born children.

From penguin sex talk to the pointless Planet of the Apes riff at the film’s end, this is painful to watch. The identity of Farce of the Penguins target audience is confounding: it’s too stupid for adults and too racy for kids. The jive talking bad language is obviously aimed at an American teen market, which makes the humour fall even flatter for an international audience. A waste of time for the filmmakers and the audience alike, the only creatures who come out this with any measure of dignity are the penguins who have made their journey for a far better reason than being the butt of a stupid film. The single star out of five is for them alone; avoid or, if you really can’t help yourself, rent March of the Penguins instead!

 

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