Penguin Highway

Name: Penguin Highway
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Animation, Family
Released: April 12, 2019
Duration: 118 min
Rating: 82
Cast: Christine Marie Cabanos, Erika Harlacher, Gideon Modisett, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Kana Kita

2019

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Universal acclaim based on 4 Critic Reviews

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Universal acclaim based on 13 Ratings

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8.8	User Score Universal acclaim based on 13 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Eleven Arts | Release Date: April 12, 2019 | Not Rated

Starring: Christine Marie Cabanos, Erika Harlacher, Gideon Modisett, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Kana Kita, Landen Beattie, Mamiko Noto, Megumi Han, Miki Fukui, Misaki Kuno, Naoto Takenaka, Rie Kugimiya, Yû Aoi

Summary: Budding genius Aoyama is only in the 4th grade, but already lives his life like a scientist. When penguins start appearing in his sleepy suburb hundreds of miles from the sea, Aoyama vows to solve the mystery. When he finds the source of the penguins is a woman from his dentist’s office, they team up for an unforgettable summer adventure.Budding genius Aoyama is only in the 4th grade, but already lives his life like a scientist. When penguins start appearing in his sleepy suburb hundreds of miles from the sea, Aoyama vows to solve the mystery. When he finds the source of the penguins is a woman from his dentist’s office, they team up for an unforgettable summer adventure. [Eleven Arts]… Expand

Director: Hiroyasu Ishida

Genre(s): Adventure, Fantasy, Animation, Family

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 118 min

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Critic Reviews

Peter Debruge

Apr 12, 2019

To simplify matters: If you see just one anime feature this year, it ought to be Penguin Highway. It’s not that the style or story is mind-blowingly original, the way the best Miyazaki movies are; rather, this well-written cartoon playfully complements the kind of storytelling that Westerners are already enjoying via American-made, live-action series, while incorporating lots of delightfully Japan-specific details along the way. Read full review

Natasha H.

Apr 11, 2019

With a nuanced perspective and eye for detail, director Hiroyasu Ishida has swept the floor with a debut that hits all the sweet spots of a coming-of-age story, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store from him and Colorido in the future. Read full review

Richard Whittaker

Apr 15, 2019

It perfectly catches that childish point just before adolescence, where young boys are starting to notice girls but still want to find frogs in pools. Read full review

G. Allen Johnson

Apr 25, 2019

The joy of discovery is at the heart of Penguin Highway, a delightful new anime that is about the mysteries of life, both scientific and personal. Oh, and it’s about penguins, too. Read full review

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User Reviews

pnac3d

Apr 25, 2023

An amazing movie. For me, the innocence of discovering love and attraction to another when you're just a kid is very well represented here.

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Icivindur

Jan 15, 2022

“Penguin Highway” in the form of a light, fabulous summer adventure of a young prodigy and his friends, narrates about studying of the world as great wonder, returning viewer to childhood. If you look a little deeper, under the transparent outer layer you can see the problem of scientific“Penguin Highway” in the form of a light, fabulous summer adventure of a young prodigy and his friends, narrates about studying of the world as great wonder, returning viewer to childhood. If you look a little deeper, under the transparent outer layer you can see the problem of scientific ethics and limitations of rational cognition. "Penguin Highway" clearly refer to Stanislaw Lem's "Solaris" and Tarkovsky's movie.

The main asset of “Penguin Highway” is the protagonist, although a ten-year-old schoolboy, but as far from the ordinary schoolboy or the stereotypical child in anime as possible. Our hero is a true follower of the philosophy of stoicism, like a reincarnated Marcus Aurelius. Aoyama has strong logical mind, irrepressible thirst for knowledge, vivid imagination, strong character and firm principles. He, as a real philosopher, is driven by love for truth and love for beauty, and also by love for the Other, which does not allow him to turn into complete egoist. He is passionate about solving mysteries, although Aoyama's logical mind sometimes makes it difficult for him to understand the feelings of those around him. Thus he seems incomplete, lacking insight and empathy.

To match Aoyama, there is the Lady ("Onê-san" in the original, which literally translates as "older sister" but in the context means Miss or Young Lady) - beautiful about 20-year-old girl with graceful hourglass figure, kind, cheerful and witty, who in her free from spending with Aoyama time, is engaged in fixing holes in teeth (she is dental assistant) and in the space-time continuum. Aoyama is utterly in love with her, deeply caring for the Lady, enjoying watching her perfect face while also being passionate connoisseur of her magnificent bust. However, like Aoyama, she is also incomplete, being overly carefree and irrational. The Lady often spends time with Aoyama, teasing him, chatting and training him to master the game of chess. The town in which Aoyama lives has already been studied by him, the surrounding world is logically ordered, and the plan for the future, in which Aoyama becomes a great man and marries the Lady, has been drawn up and is not subject to discussion.

But then chaos bursts into the carefully built rational little world of Aoyama - in a town far from the ocean, Antarctic penguins appear from nowhere. Of course, this ridiculous event challenges the wunderkind's mind and worldview. He immediately rushed to hypothesize about the causes of the phenomenon. However, events take on a completely irrational turn when it turns out that the penguins are created by the Aoyama's beloved Lady, and giant sphere of oceanic water hanging in the air is found in a forest clearing. The Lady herself does not quite understand who she is, how she creates creatures and asks our hero to solve this riddle. So Aoyama faces the Mystery - at the same time his scientific and love interest, which can quench his thirst for knowledge and beauty.

"Solaris" and "Penguin Highway" are basically deal with the epistemological problem of relationship between the subject and the object of cognition. This problem of limitation of rational cognition and ethical restrictions of dealing with the unknown is profoundly explained by Tarkovsky in his interview and by C.S. Lewis in "The Abolition of Man". There is anecdote by Aoyama early on in the movie in which he compares the Lady's breasts and his mother's breasts which are abstractly belong to the same category of objects, but in reality make him feel completely different. In fact that's how aforementioned epistemological problem may be simply illustrated: the subjects of scientific study should not be treated as abstractions, but rather as quite specific phenomena, to each of which, despite the quantitative similarity, a special, qualitatively different attitude should be formed. The object, stripped of its qualitative properties and reduced to mere quantity, is not wholly real.

Another layer of the "Penguin Highway" is the interaction between male and female, where the male logic of Aoyama is called upon to structure chaos - the feminine principle of the Lady, which is the Mystery, opposite to the light of Aoyama's Logos. Symbolically here both male and female became complete through their mutual love - the Lady learns about herself, of how to use her abilities and accepts her responsibility, while Aoyama gains empathy and insight through his love for the Lady, realizing that rational analysis and theoretical hypothesis are not the same with reality, that abstract object is something different than particular phenomenon, that not all mysteries should or could be resolved and that if they should, they must be treated carefully in order to avoid harm. He grew up through realization that answers he seeks for, including the answer to his love for the Lady, lie not in the field of rational cognition. This movie is so unusual and magical that it is easily become my favorite anime.… Expand

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alejandro970

Nov 6, 2022

Every scientific event has a reasonable explanation. The stories of penguins that arrived en masse at the beginning of the century, now in a more original and fresh approach, in a story with a lot of dynamism and sympathy.

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DawdlingPoet

Nov 20, 2021

This is, I can assure you, the first film I've ever seen in which penguins are imagined into being!. Its a typically cute anime film, although the plot/dialogue does talk about ladies boobs (the main character seems to be noticing his new found puberty via a fascination in a ladies breasts),This is, I can assure you, the first film I've ever seen in which penguins are imagined into being!. Its a typically cute anime film, although the plot/dialogue does talk about ladies boobs (the main character seems to be noticing his new found puberty via a fascination in a ladies breasts), so its maybe not the best film to show to really young kids. Its not exactly sexually explicit either though. Its quite a quirky and imaginative watch, with a lovely light soundtrack and cheery characters. I liked the main plot, with talk of manifesting penguins and 'the penguin energy' - its so random, it made me smile/giggle a fair bit. The animation is pretty, with fields a bright, luscious green and so on. For an anime film, this is quite cheerful and fun. I particularly liked the scenes set in the forest, the (as mentioned) light and airy, classical/instrumental type music played and the dappled sunshine in between the trees, plus the colourful skies/sunsets in some scenes. Its a fairly engrossing watch, one I'd happily recommend to fans of anime films. I really liked the childhood innocence of it (the ocassional references to body parts aside) - it has a nice whimsical charm to it.… Expand

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