Step 1: Go ahead and pop this Penguin treat. The Jim Carrey comedy is the kind of brain friendly family entertainment perfect for a summer movie.
Step 2: Add penguins. Seriously, you could be watching the worst movie ever made and if they happen to stick in an adorable penguin, suddenly the film isn’t so bad. Based on a 1938 children’s novel, the Mr. Popper’s Penguins story is simplicity to the point of formulaic. Popper (Carrey) is a workaholic real estate whiz who specializes in getting people to sell their old properties so he can tear them down and build shiny new buildings. Popper has an ex wife (Carla Gugino) and two kids (Madeline Carroll and Matthew Perry Cotton) he doesn’t pay a lot of attention to. Wait, is this sounding a little like Carrey’s other comedy Liar, Liar? Yes, but unfortunately not quite as funny.
Step 3: Don’t fight the penguins. Things start to change for Popper when his late father, a professional adventurer who was never home when Popper was a kid, leaves him six “souvenirs,” aka Gentoo penguins from the Antarctic. Suddenly, Popper’s pristine co-op Manhattan apartment turns into a happy fun place for the flightless fowl, who also begin to take over Popper’s life – for the better. His kids love the little rascals – Loudy, Stinky, Lovey, Nimrod, Bitey and our favorite, Captain – and want to spend more time with dad, as does the ex wife. Of course, his career suffers, but well, it should, right? Popper has to take a hard look at himself, right?
Step 4: Learn something from the penguins. Mr. Popper’s Penguins is about as predictable as it gets, which would have been fine if Jim Carrey has been more on top of his game. He really needed to tap into his good old zaniness as Popper. There are a few choice moments – especially with the penguins, because let’s face it, you gotta have SOME kind of crazy Carrey comedy with those little cuties – but it wasn’t enough; you really crave his facial contortions and wacky impressions. Maybe Carrey is getting tired of all that. I hope not.
Step 5: Let the penguins work their magic. The rest of the cast all do a serviceable job supporting the main players. And yes, I’m talking about the Gentoos. They completely steal the show. What is about penguins that make us all go “Awww”? From the incredible documentary The March of the Penguins to the animated Happy Feet, these lovable creatures are simply cinematic naturals. Mr. Popper’s Penguins uses the real deal for most of the movie (and they DON’T TALK), with only a few up close “reaction” shots generated by computer animation. The winged actors are incredibly smart and as long as you had some kind of fish on your person, you could get them to do just about anything. Apparently, Carrey bonded with his co-stars by literally having fish in his socks. He admits in the press notes he has an obsession with penguins, saying it is physically impossible not to be happy around them. “They are like puppies, times ten!” I wholeheartedly concur. All in all, Mr. Popper’s Penguins will certainly delight the kiddies, but their parents might wish for a tad more Carrey irreverence.
Step 1: Order up a heaping pile of Meatballs right away. Cloudy with a Chance is a thoroughly delightful and hilarious 3-D animated comedy that’ll definitely get you craving giant pancakes, gummi bears – and yes, said meat.
Step 4: Add some great vocal talent. With something as hysterical as Meatballs, you need funny people to deliver the lines appropriately: Hader is perfect as the nerdy Flint, socially awkward but trying his best; Anna Faris voices Sam Sparks, a perky weathergirl sent to the scene by her network but who harbors some deep-seeded geekiness herself, thus endearing her to Flint immediately; James Caan is Flint’s technophobic dad, a burly, kindly fellow who is all eyebrows and mustache; Bruce Campbell plays the bombastic town mayor and main instigator of the food frenzy; and the best of all, Neil Patrick Harris as Flint’s pet monkey, Steve, who (with the Monkey Thought Tran attached) blurts out monosyllabic thoughts like his name “Steve!” and his favorite food “Gummi Bears!”
Step 1: Hold onto your seats as Pixar takes you on yet another delightful adventure 
Just hop onboard! Right after I posted that 
As well, there were monitors showing behind- the-scenes footage of the actors performing their roles in what looked like tripped out wet suits, with black dots all over their faces and wires going every which way. I swear Zemeckis came up with this technology just to torture his actors. There were also artifacts from the Charles Dickens Museum in London, including a first edition of A Christmas Carol and other letters he wrote. As a literature major, this particularly fascinated me.
story, as well as morph my face into a character from the movie. It was kinda difficult to line up my eyes where I was supposed to, so in my picture I had my tongue sticking out from concentrating too hard. Lovely. I chose to morph with an image of Marley’s ghost since that was the only pic that didn’t show my tongue. You can even email the picture to yourself. I didn’t, though. Wonder if Jim Carrey emailed his pic, on the left there.
the movie opens), I watched Scrooge bah humbug his nephew Fred, after the later wished him a happy Christmas and then a scene in which Marley visits Scrooge to let him know he is in for a bumpy night. It all looked pretty damn cool. Even though I’ve seen A Christmas Carol a hundred times, this kind of animation technology will surely allow the story to stretch its imagination. Beware though — small kids (under 5, let’s say) might get a little scared by the imagery.
