Farce of the Penguins
Voices of Samuel L. Jackson, Lewis Black
Mo?nique, Christina Applegate
Written and directed by Bob Saget
Think Film 2007
80 minutes
I ask for the Lord’s forgiveness: I actually enjoyed something Bob Saget was involved in. For a comedy fan, this is the first capital sin. After all, Saget starred in that TV show with the two twin girls who looked like monkeys. Farce of the Penguins is a rather clever if often times sophomoric take-off of the crunchy granola cult favorite March of the Penguins. This DVD is not for the whole family though I would not be surprised if a parent or two rented it for their kids because there were penguins on it -read the box folks: Not Recommended For Children.
The premise of this DVD is basically what would happen if someone took all the deleted scenes from March of the Penguins, looped a few, added footage stolen from National Geographic or the Discovery Channel, wrote pretty decent and blue voice over dialogue. The great Lewis Black stars in Farce of the Penguins as Jimmy the penguin while Saget is also very good as Jimmy’s pal Carl (think Lenny and Carl from the Simpsons). They are on their annual 70 mile march to meet the ladies (voiced by Mo’nique and Christina Applegate).
This is pretty funny and rather blue relationship comedy animal style. What adds to the pleasure of Farce of the Penguins is the many talents who contributed to this DVD. Samuel L. Jackson plays the Marlon Perkins Jacques Cousteau voice-over role, Harvey Fierstein plays a Jewish ex-girlfriend, and, in something like this you have to have Gilbert Gottfried as, of course, the Freezing Nuts Penguin. There are also a few stylistic jabs at Disney romantic animated movies.
At 80 minutes, Farce of the Penguins does not overstay its welcome but does stretch the premise a bit. This is a fun to watch and very unusual DVD; where else are you going to hear Lewis Black sing?