2019's 'Penguins' had real potential of being great and had all the ingredients to be. Reasons for wanting to see it were quite a few. One being my undying lifelong love for Disney. Another being my every bit as strong love for penguins, probably along with seals my favourite animal. The DisneyNature documentaries are interesting, even if the quality has varied. With wonderful ones such as 'Earth' and 'Oceans', and also a couple that underwhelmed like 'Elephant' and 'Born in China'.
'Penguins' is not up there among the best DisneyNature documentaries. It is also not one of the worst. Personally put it somewhere in the middle along with 'Monkey Kingdom'. Actually saw this not long after seeing 'Snow Chick: A Penguin's Tale' and when comparing briefly the two, there is no question as to which is the better one of the two. That sounds like 'Penguins' is bad. It isn't. There is actually a lot to like here, but one big thing in particular jarred the brought things down.
Lets start mentioning the good things. 'Penguins' looks gorgeous for one thing and it is mainly the quality of the visuals that make it worth seeing. The scenery is absolutely spectacular, while being a lot more than cute penguins in beautiful environments. The environments are indeed breathtakingly beautiful but they are also suitably cruel and unforgiving, there are times without being too dark where 'Penguins' does show that penguins do have difficulties in their habitats. This is all enhanced by the cinematic-worthy photography. Some of the music has a nice atmosphere and is appealing in instrumentation.
Steve is a very entertaining and likeable penguin that is always worth rooting for every step of the way in all the stages of his journey, not coming over as too humanised. In fact all the penguins are immensely engaging and it is hard to not feel anything for them, cheer for them, cry for them and admire any accomplishments. 'Penguins' is full of charm and entertainment value, plus very cute without being sickly, and while it didn't emotionally connect with me quite as much as 'Snow Chick: A Penguin's Tale' for example there are affecting parts. Some of the narration intrigues and informs.
Most of the time however, the narration didn't do an awful lot for me. Like other DisneyNature documentaries, its writing did try too hard to appeal to younger audiences and ended up being too childish and over-simplified. It also tried to inject some humour intended to lighten the mood, but this came over as clumsy and over-silly. Ed Helms' delivery added to the problem, too much of it is too over-eager and can talk down to the audience.
While not near as much of a problem, for my tastes some of 'Penguins' was a little too over-scored in mood and placement.
In conclusion, mostly enjoyed it but would have loved it if the narration didn't jar as much. 7/10
