Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
sir_biggy
POLICE!! POLICE!! THIS WOMAN IS HERE TO MEET A TEN YEAR OLD BOY, I REPEAT THIS WOMAN IS HERE TO MEET A TEN YEAR OLD BOY!!! You had one job penguin highway, you had ONE FUC-
Animation. The animation is very amazing,mwah chef's kiss. The style, the ambience it's just... it's just so good it feels like they're trying to draw your attention from something, hmmmmm... oh yeah, trying to draw your attention from the fact that THE ADULT WOMAN GROOMED A TEN YEAR OLD BOY, yeah penguin highway you're not slick, I know why your animation's good, you might have tricked my good friend but you won't trick m- AWWWWW IS THAT A FACKING PENGUIIIIN!!! AN ARMY OF PENGUIIINS!!!!!? Animation's a 10 cause...penguin 🐧
The story of penguin highway is very easy to follow, Aoyama,a smart kid feels he's to grown f…
Read at the sourceNo_H0RNY
I recommend this show because it doesnt get a lot of attention. it does the job as slice of life mixed with supernatural movie. it is one of my best anime films.
A story with a child perspective and the curiosity as the plot goes is well put together. the premise is very much a mystery until the ending. while theres some unnecessary scene or maybe plot , it doesnt bother too much. Dont worry about the visuals, It does very well captivating your eyes, but not may be par with makoto works with comix wave films. The Design of characters maybe looking bit more of ghibli style but this is just my preferences and i love it. With interesting story to cover and Very amazing sound design as well, it is a well done movie. I hope after you read this u give this show movie a try and maybe put your th…
Read at the sourceRaidzAnimez
This movie was a really decent movie to watch and enjoy with family. It was a kids hunt type of film solving a mystery and as a teenager it was a great thing leaving a tear in my eye at the end. The magic with penguins in Japan suddenly came there. One boy wanted to know how and why it happened. The animation was great plus with the art-style making a nice blend to the blender. The pacing was really slow, but you will manage to watch it. The voice acting from dub and sub were really good as-well. I prefer both. The soundtrack as-well was really great and a blend with good music for the backgrounds. The movie was such a treat to watch. would recommend it to anyone who is new to anime and like slow pacing movies.
Read at the sourceAeroGunz
“Penguin Highway” is what happens when You want to write a mystery but You lack the skills to pull it off organically.
We follow Aoyama - a fourth grader with knowledge compared to that of an adult… or at least he thinks so. He likes to indulge himself in pseudo scientific experiments that probably fuel his ego. One of his journals is entirely dedicated to “Geometric study of boobs”, now that’s a branch of science I can get behind. He has an ego, he treats others with reservation and sees himself as more than a child. To be honest… he’s annoying. Watching him is like watching a dollar store ripoff of Sheldon Cooper from “The big bang theory” (and writing a worse character than him is a real achievement as his really badly written). His boring and a lot of his “deductions” are just an ass…
Read at the sourceHaustlaufivindi
A very peculiar anime that is not quite suitable for a mass audience. But those who will like it, like me, may well get such moral, intellectual and aesthetic pleasure from "Penguin Highway" which watching other animated movies will hardly bring. First of all, it should be noted that although this movie is about children, it is not at all for children and not even for most teenagers. Rather, it will resonate with young adults and mature people, especially with those who were or are fond of science fiction, and will immediately recognize the roots of “Penguin Highway” in Lem's “Solaris”, Lewis Carroll's “Alice in Wonderland” and Heinlein juveniles. Probably fans of Satoshi Kon's surrealistic narration will also like “Penguin Highway”, although the drawing and the general mood here are not c…
Read at the sourceUncool_Slut
With a wholesome story and beautiful visuals, it's great to watch. The parts, in the beginning, are hard to follow, but reaching the end makes things more clearer.
If you wanna watch it, go in with an open mind, try not to figure out everything, the movie will make sure that you are satisfied with the ending. The overall mood of the movie is jolly and there are not a ton of emotional moments.
Hiroyasu Ishida has got some great sense of 3 point perspective drawings, which turned me into an instant fan. Its aesthetics are great and the animation is beautiful.
Read at the sourceyernco
*Spoilers*
What even is there to say about this movie. A lot actually. Coming into this movie I was expecting a wholesome movie with good animation but nothing really special, but instead, I got a movie that could compete to be one of my favorites. This movie was beautiful in a lot of ways. The characters, the story, the animation, and the music were all so amazing that they outweighed the very little bad that there was. When I say there was very little bad I really mean it, I could only think of maybe one thing that I could call out as "bad" but in all reality, it's more of a nitpick of mine. Let's start with that one bad thing, then move onto all the good things.
Starting with the only nitpick I had with this movie. The relationship between the main Lady and Aoyama was honestly a littl…
Read at the sourcewachotaku
It's okay. It relies too heavily on the animation and beautiful art style it has, but the story falters quite a bit, specially in the middle part.
The final act is cute, with some fantastic elements (very Ghibli like) and a pretty realistic representation of how a young boy may come to terms with stuff he can't really comprehend.
I did find weird a few of the interactions between the young boy and the dentist woman. It's super understandable how he may feel about her and his way of processing their interactions, but it felt like she played along almost too much, which was a little bit uncomfortable to see.
Overall it's an enjoyable movie but I expected more. Half of my scoring may go to penguins. They're fucking cute.
Read at the sourceDivafromJOJO
My rating 8/10. I loved the story at first its kinda confusing but then you'd later understand it over time. Its about a boy who loves science and experiments one day a bunch of penguins come out of nowhere and Aoyama tries to figure out whats happening. So far nothing adds up and then one day it hits him he goes to see the dentist who is also his friend and together try to connect the dots.
the animation was really amazing and I don't regret watching it. I do however regret not watching it sooner. I do think it doesn't deserve a 10/10 its nothing personal tho I just have a hard time giving them out...
Read at the sourcetrung_mal
Here are a few of my thoughts: The most similar anime I've watched prior to this one was Hello World and to compare I felt more lighthearted and satisfied after credit rolled than with Hello World.
The movie has a refreshing art style and fascinating objects of mystery for a fantasy world in the eyes of a bright and curious kid. the surrounding characters are portraited fittingly to the lyrical thoughts and attitude of the boy toward each of them.
I like how the mysteries built up intensity with sensible pacing, convoluted, disentangled toward an end that felt very boyish and personal to the main character's view; to which I'd feel it doesn't matter if I tended to find the conclusion non-sensical. In the end, in the shoes of the boy, I'd find the sense of melancholic wonder in the dentis…
Read at the sourceZergneedsfood
I really disliked this movie. I merely thought it was disappointingly mediocre when I finished it a few weeks ago, but the more I've thought about it, the worse it's become.
Coming from someone who loves some of the previous works of the author (Tatami Galaxy, Uchouten Kazoku), I was pretty stoked for this. A more recent movie, The Night is Young, Walk on Girl wasn't my favorite anime movie of all time, but it had some decent pieces that was really just hampered by Yuasa's over indulgence in his artistic ego. I felt like a different director this time could really bring this movie to life. And I love penguins; they're cute!
Instead what I got was an incoherent plot, a vapid non-story that preys off people's inability to properly distinguish between an aesthetic story and a lousy package…
Read at the sourcethedarkbillymays
This film is an absolute classic in the making. Taking a page out of Studio Ghibli's book, the artwork is phenomenal, with warm, bright colors taking center stage for the majority of the film. The characters are enjoyable and have subtleties all their own. Our protagonist, the young genius, is analytical and strange, but feels about as innocent as a kid his age would be. His supporting cast, including his dentist's assistant/neighbor, and rival/ new friend all play wonderfully off of each other and make them feel organic and lively.
The environment plays an amazing role in making you feel right at home in a bizarre sleepy town as events unfold. It's almost like I could feel the passion put into this project oozing out of the screen while I watched. If you don't feel charmed the first time…
Read at the sourcepocketcroc
Morimi adaptation (tick)
Coming of age story (tick)
It's about penguins (tick)
It's beautifully imaginative and has a fantastically unique premise it executes and takes flying with glee. Just try watching its opening sequences or its climactic half hour or so without grinning ear to ear. It's brimming with youthful wonder, like Hosoda's Mirai dashed with generous helpings of Ghibli and sprinkles of Pixar. Fantastically written flawed MC and holistic perspective-taking from his viewpoint, great dialogue (comparing Aoyama to the penguin puffing out its chest- 'so proud for someone so small', Aoyama's faux-objective dialogue collapsing under the weight of emotions he can't process or admit yet, the motifs and symbolism such as the titular 'penguin highway', etc.), outstanding micro-pacing du…
Read at the sourceVinyl_Acropolis
This is the first of these I've written, so it's less of a review and more of my own thoughts. Penguin Highway, on the surface, looks like a fun story of kids investigating a cute mystery in their town while dealing with the struggles of growing up. And it is, and a very good one at that. The artwork is great, the soundtrack is nice, and the story is easy to follow and intriguing as you peel back the layers. But if I could offer my opinion on what the film is about, I think it's there where the core of the movie is. Penguin Highway is a movie about the mystery of life. The conflict is resolved by the end of the movie, but the mystery still goes on in a way. Not all the questions are answered, and I think that's the point. Life, which the film refers to a lot both as a journey and as a phys…
Read at the sourcelaingalion
First, be wary of which translations you use. The some translations are off and cause a ton of confusion. The original Japanese dialog is carefully crafted which is important because the witty responses are the main character's selling point. On the contrary, the English translations are basic and often grammatically wrong.
One example of bad translation is of "Onee-san", one of the main characters of this movie. The closest translation would be "Lady" as it is written in the character list of this website. However, the English translation sometimes refers to her as "the dentist's wife" but no where in the Japanese dialog does it mention that she is married. The English translation creates unnecessary questions like "how did she get married?", "does the husband know his wife's history?".…
Read at the sourceSlaceTheDark
Welcome to my review to the 2018 movie 'Penguin Highway'. It's runtime is almost 2 hours so be prepared for it. For this review I will try to limit myself from giving spoilers as much as I can. Before I forget it, this movie is done by Studio Colorado.
Plot/Story: Aoyama is a very intelligent kid. He always looks for experiments and things he does not yet know. One day however, something very unusual happens. Penguins. In the middle of an empty field. As out of nowhere penguins appear everywhere in the city and Aoyama and his friends try to solve this experiment. Oh, and there is also an older girl that is friends with Aoyama and asks him to solve a certain puzzle, a mystery for her.
Now that the synopsis is out of the way, let's get this bread. This plot and movie is crazy. A lot of very…
Read at the sourceYTG21
Very good movie with excellent visuals. Recommend it. Worth your time. Shame it didn't get hyped as much as other good anime movies.I would give this a solid 9 plus.
This movie is about a pretty smart and curious kid who happens to fall in love with a dentist. The dentist is an actual mystery as the little boy happens to unravel that mystery. The kid is not like super genius but your above-average kid with keen scientific experiments.Do watch the movie with good quality. Because the visuals will blow you away. Don't want to spoil the awesome experience by saying more.
Do watch this if you have spare time.
The reason I liked this anime is because of the smooth story, slight feel of romance ( hardly any romance here), awesome visual and good action. Very pleasant experience for me as I was…
Read at the sourceSaacool
So this is probably the visually best animated movie I've ever seen. If you know you're going to see it, see it on the biggest possible screen, you won't regret it.
That said its not without its faults, there is one overlying issue, and a couple less intrusive issues that mean my enjoyment does need to be qualified.
First and foremost the art is easily 10/10. Just absolutely gorgeous graphical quality, solid animation, the framing occasionally questionable but that's an issue for later.
The story on the other hand suffers heavily. I could just leave it at: "This movie only exists for visuals" but theres definitely a lot to be said, its too bad there isn't enough committal to any individual theme. Through the story the themes that come up off the top of my head are: "Scientific process,…
Read at the sourcefillyy
Penguin Highway is an anime film about a boy who is mature for his age but still has some things to learn as a growing boy. He is a genius kid who finds great interest in researching new and bizarre phenomena. The film is structured quite well and uses a lot of metaphors through the animation and storytelling to represent the coming-of-age of his character. This film does have a bloated run-time of about two hours and it compromised some of my enjoyment. The dialogue is poorly written and attempts at humour in the film don't quite cut it. I do appreciate the representation of the mystery behind the penguins and the phenomena as a metaphor to discovery, exploration, and learning. This film is good to analyse as it presents metaphors in an effective way to tell a story.
The animation is dec…
Read at the source-HippySnob-
"Penguins inexplicably appear in a suburb some distance from the sea, and a grade-school boy seeks to solve the mystery, in this humorous and at times philosophical novel for young adults that puts author Tomihiko Morimi's playful sensibilities on full display."
Adapted from the most finest work since Tatami Galaxy, The Night is Short, and The Eccentric Family
"As the wind blew, the grass sparkled, wet from the morning dew. There was a squeaking noise that sounded like the school’s floors creaking. In the middle of the huge empty lot, there were a number of penguins waddling around."
Going embark into superstitious child-oriented but with eccentric wholesomeness from within every sense of direction and far detail like in most avant garde Satoshi Kon's films. The Mindsets of capturing th…
Read at the source