The Pebble and the Penguin

The Pebble and the Penguin is a 1995 American independent animated musical romance comedy-adventure film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. The film stars the voices of Martin Short, Jim Belushi, Tim Curry, and Annie Golden. Based on the true life mating rituals of the Adélie penguins in Antarctica, the film focuses on a timid, stuttering penguin named Hubie who tries to impress a beautiful penguin named Marina by giving her a pebble that fell from the sky and keep her from the clutches of an evil penguin named Drake who wants Marina for himself, causing Hubie to team up with a cantankerous yet good-hearted rockhopper penguin named Rocko. Towards the end of production, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures significantly changed the film, resulting in Bluth and Goldman leaving the film and asking to have their names taken off of it. The two would later start working at Fox Animation Studios. The film was released in the United States on April 12, 1995, by MGM/UA Distribution Co., was panned by critics and became a box office failure, grossing $3.9 million against a $28 million budget. It is the final film to be produced by Don Bluth Limited before the studio went bankrupt and ceased operations.