Penguins (film)

Penguins is a 2019 American nature documentary film directed by Alastair Fothergill and Jeff Wilson. The coming-of-age story follows an Adélie penguin named Steve, who joins fellow males in the icy Antarctic spring on a quest to build a suitable nest, find a life partner and start a family. The American release of the film is narrated by Ed Helms.

Produced by Disneynature, the film was released in the United States on April 17, 2019, five days before Earth Day. It is the fifteenth nature documentary to be released by Disney under the Disneynature label. The film received positive reviews from critics, who singled out the "beautiful cinematography".

Premise
The coming-of-age story follows an Adélie penguin named Steve who joins millions of fellow males in the icy Antarctic spring on a quest to build a suitable nest, find a life partner and start a family. None of it comes easily for him, especially considering he’s targeted by everything from killer whales to leopard seals, who unapologetically threaten his happily ever after.

Release
The film was released in the United States on April 17, 2019.

Box office
In the United States and Canada, Penguins was released alongside Breakthrough, and was projected to gross $5–7 million from 1,800 theaters in its five-day opening weekend. The film made $503,000 on its first day and $456,000 on its second. The film ended up underperforming, grossing just $2.3 million in its opening weekend (and a total $3.3 million over the five days), finishing outside the top 10. In its second weekend the film fell 50% to $1.1 million, finishing 10th.

Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 53 reviews, with an average rating of 7.07/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Disneynature: Penguins plays up its subjects' adorable appeal with a beautifully filmed documentary that adds plenty of anthropomorphic entertainment value for young viewers." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 78% and a "definite recommend" of 52%.

Variety's Courtney Howard called Penguins a "sweet, sentimental Earth Day documentary" and wrote "Instead of bombarding the audience with factoids and heavy scientific terminology, it lets a poignant narrative unspool — one with an engaging, highly accessible and hugely entertaining underdog hero's journey."