Movie Review

DisneyNature's Penguins tries too hard to march birds into our hearts

There is a long history of penguins' cuteness winning the day in movies. The 2005 documentary March of the Penguins grossed $127 million worldwide, the success of Happy Feet spawned a sequel, and the penguin sidekicks in the Madagascar series became so popular that they eventually starred in their own movie.

All of which is to say that if anything should be a slam dunk, it is DisneyNature’s Penguins. Taking its cue — perhaps a bit too much — from March of the Penguins, it follows the journey of Adélie penguins as they make their annual migration to find a mate and create the next generation. Instead of focusing on the group as a whole, though, the filmmakers turn the film into a story about one specific penguin, whom they name Steve.

Steve goes on quite the adventure, getting separated from the colony early on and trying to catch up for most of the film’s running time. He and the other penguins experience all the joys and perils of their kind, including finding a mate, making long treks for food, evading predators like leopard seals and killer whales, and more.

The filmmakers, led by directors Alastair Fothergill and Jeff Wilson, decide to have actor Ed Helms not only narrate the film, but give voice to Steve as well. It’s an odd choice, given that the footage of the penguins is more than enough to provide all the drama and comedy you might need. Instead, Helms is required to describe the action seen on screen and then provide an inner monologue for what Steve might be thinking in certain situations.

This technique highlights the peculiar need for some humans to anthropomorphize animals, as if doing so makes them more relatable. In this instance, it doesn’t make this one penguin any more or less interesting. In some sequences, it actually makes you question the honesty of the filmmakers, since keeping track of Steve among literally millions of other penguins would seem to be improbable, if not impossible.

Still, the footage is as stunning as you’d hope from a good nature documentary. Given that the filmmakers have worked on series like Planet Earth, The Blue Planet, and Frozen Planet, the quality of their visual work should come as no surprise. Their commitment to documenting the birds and enduring the harsh Antarctic weather themselves comes through in every frame of the film.

People love penguins in whatever form they are shown to us on screen, and their adorable nature is all over DisneyNature’s Penguins. It would have been nice if the filmmakers had trusted the material they had instead of trying to force the issue with some out-of-place anthropomorphizing of their subjects.

Behind the scenes of DisneyNature's Penguins.

Behind the scenes of DisneyNature's Penguins

Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Studios

Behind the scenes of DisneyNature's Penguins.

Dudes Doing Things

Behind-the-scenes look at the Dude Perfect media empire in Frisco

Dude Perfect

Dude Perfect

Dude Perfect

The five buddies who now comprise Dude Perfect had no intention of creating a brand or even a business 16 years ago when they started making a video of basketball trick shots while they were attending Texas A&M.

“My dad would say we were procrastinating studying for finals at that time, which he is 100 percent correct,” said Coby Cotton, whose twin brother Cory is also part of the group. “We were just having fun, and that’s one thing that I am grateful to say has continued.”

When they posted that first video on YouTube in April 2009, the nearly 3 1/2-minute clip was just a way to share with family and friends what they were doing on an $80 portable basketball rim they bought for the backyard.

Things have expanded far beyond that small circle. And the tricks got much bigger, like the world record shot made from 856 feet high in Las Vegas two summers ago on the third day of attempts.

Dude Perfect now has more than 61 million subscribers on YouTube, with 482 videos that have gotten more than 18.5 billion total views. An "Average Dude vs. Steph Curry" video did 16 million views just four months ago.

The group’s family-friendly content has gone beyond just basketball shots and is big business, among the top 1 percent of channels on the second most-viewed website in the world.

Professional athletes, celebrities and musicians want to be part of their productions, both short form and longer videos. Among those who have taken part in recent Dude Perfect projects are Tom Brady, Caitlin Clark, and Paul Skenes; the pitcher was blindfolded when he struck out 6-foot-6 Cody Jones, the DP member known as “Tall Guy.”

Dude Perfect dudes: twins Coby & Cory Cotton, sandwiching Garret Hilbert, Tyler Toney, and Cody Jones.Dude Perfect

The group last year hired its first CEO after acquiring at least $100 million in capital from a private investment firm. There are plans for a Dude Perfect theme park, and earlier this year the group opened a new headquarters. The facility located in a North Texas warehouse district includes a full basketball court with moving rims on one wall, half a football field with a regulation goalpost, a pickleball court, a putting area, a hidden candy vault and room for expansion to include experiences for fans.

“A sports lover’s Barbie dreamhouse” is how new CEO Andrew Yaffe described the 80,000-square-foot facility.

“If you ask the guys what they intended in 2009, I don’t know that this would have been in their wildest dreams,” said Yaffe, who previously was a senior NBA executive overseeing the league’s social, digital and original content. “We think about this is what a media company looks like in 2025. And it’s really exciting to think about what that can be in 2030 or 2035.”

More than trick shots
Dude Perfect has evolved from that original video shot with a single camera into successful content creators, with a mix of sports and comedy that is more than just basketball shots. The group will embark on another live tour later this year.

There have been nearly 50 episodes of “Overtime” since 2018, a variety show usually around 25 minutes with a variety of segments and often special guests. Curry in that recent episode took part in a 3-point shooting contest using a football, Frisbee, pickle ball and soccer ball before finally a basketball.

There are occasional videos such as “All Sports Golf Battle” when on a course without actual golf clubs, including once at Augusta National when Bryson DeChambeau used items like a tennis racket, Frisbee and pool stick. “Stereotype” videos poke fun at any number of groups or events.

“They’ve built a media empire that brings families together, whether it’s trick shots, epic challenges, live events or experiences that truly redefine what it means to connect with fans,” said Brian Albert, who leads Google’s US YouTube video deals and creative teams. “They are creator trailblazers.”

Safe for families
Even before each of the Dudes became fathers — there are now 16 children ages 10 and under between them, and another on the way — they wanted to be one of the world’s most trusted brands for families to enjoy together.

“Early on, we met through some Bible studies and so we knew we weren’t going to cuss in our videos, we weren’t going to have alcohol promotion,” Jones said. “Early on, it actually hurt our brand because people were going to YouTube in order to kind of have that wild side of things. And since, it’s only helped because we’ve become brand safe.”

Tyler Toney, the bearded Dude often front-and-center in videos, said that is the best thing they hear from parents.

“But it wasn’t until we had our own kids where we’ll be up here at the office filming and then I go home and now I’m on my TV at home and my boys are watching,” Toney said. “I get to hear myself a lot and it gets old, and I apologize now to all the parents for how loud we are in a lot of the videos. But it’s cool to see that even in our families the importance of that, having that quality entertainment that we can enjoy with our own kids.”

For the record books
Dude Perfect’s first record for longest shot came from the third deck of Texas A&M’s football stadium in the fall of 2009. That came months after the initial video of trick shots, which had been followed by one they did at a Christian-based camp that summer.

They made a shot from atop the 561-foot tall Reunion Tower in Dallas in 2014, a record then broken by another group before Dude Perfect reclaimed it in Las Vegas.

“We’re not hoping to have to improve on the world’s highest shot from The Strat in Vegas any time soon,” Coby Cotton said. “That was an exhausting experience.”

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