The Adventures of Scamper the Penguin

Infobox Film
name='The Adventures of Scamper the Penguin'


caption=
genre=Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
director=Kinjiro Yoshida, Gennady Sokolsky, Jim Terry
producer=Touru Komori
writer=Eichi Taji, Shozo Matsuda
starring=
music=Bullets
cinematography=
editing=
distributor=Enoki Films, Life Work Corp., Soyuzmultfilm
released=flagicon|USSR 1986 flagicon|Japan 1988 flagicon|United States 1989
runtime=64 mins
language=Japanese, Russian, English
budget=
amg_id=
imdb_id=0098259

"The Adventures of Scamper the Penguin" (also known as "The Adventures of Lolo the Penguin" outside the United States) is a 1988 Japanese-Soviet co-produced animated feature film about the early life of an Adélie Penguin.Japanese title of the film is nihongo|小さなペンギンロロの冒険|"Chīsana Pengin Roro no Bōken" and Russian is " _ru. Приключе́ния пингвинёнка Лоло́" ("Priklyucheniya pingvinyonka Lolo"), both literally translate as "The Adventures of Small Penguin Lolo". The film is mostly targeted at a very young audience, although the movie is narrated like a documentary about the life of the penguins during the spring and summer seasons in the Antarctic.

Plot Summary

The story begins with the end of winter, and the southern skies showing the aurora australis. A flock of penguins, coming from the north, returns home. The females separate from their mates to go hunt, as males go and find a large spot clear of snow, where they built their nests. The females return to lay their eggs, only to eventually separate from the males again, whilst the males take care of the eggs. A flock of aggressive seabirds constantly threatens to steal the penguin eggs and raids the nesting grounds while the females are away. A penguin couple named Gilbert and Gracie saves the egg of another family, meanwhile one of their two eggs is stolen from their nest. When Gracie returns she finally comes clean that one of the eggs he takes from a neighbor nest is not theirs. They return it to the rightful owner and have one egg for themselves.

When the eggs finally hatch, Gilbert and Gracie receive a new-born penguin chick whom they name Scamper (Lolo), after his tendency to scurry around. Scamper, like any other young penguin, is over-inquisitive and very curious. Together with his best friend Snowflake (Pépé), Scamper goes on many journeys through the wild, learning about the creatures that live in region. He eventually also makes friends with a tame husky puppy called Cowboy (Dun), who is on an Antarctic trek with his scientist master.

Eventually, however, Scamper and Snowflake get separated from their home, and faces many dangers such as attacks by sea gulls and killer whales. Eventually, they get captured by a large group of poachers, whom they later escape with the help of an old guard dog on board and a Macaroni Penguin chick who had also been captured by the poachers.

The young penguins return home, only to find that the poachers have also come to capture all the penguin chicks to sell to zoos. Scamper leads a rescue, and the poachers are eventually defeated by a sudden a tidal wave.

The story ends as the winter comes, and the penguins go northward again, now led by Scamper.

External links

*imdb title|id=0098259|title=Scamper the Penguin (Chiisana penguin Lolo no buken)
* [http://www.animator.ru/db/?p=show_film&fid=3307 "Priklyucheniya pingvinyonka Lolo"] at the Animator.ru (Russian)