Pingu in the City

Review in brief: Pingu’s surprise anime reboot, while a resounding hit with pre-established fans of the European claymation series, is difficult to recommend to newcomers despite being fairly entertaining in its own right. Though this short series provides simple fun, it’s a definitive step down from the older claymation seasons. That said, if you’re already a fan you’ll probably like Pingu in the City just fine. Review in full: Though this review is solely about Pingu in the City, it would be difficult to truly understand what’s right or wrong about it without looking back to its source. Originating from Switzerland in 1990, Pingu gainedinternational acclaim as a children’s claymation series that made fantastic use of its medium to present zany yet touching short stories about the eponymous penguin. The international aspect was reinforced by how it told itself though expression rather than verbal dialogue, allowing characters to morph themselves to convey thoughts & emotion while having them speak “Penguinese”, a silly gibberish language that fit in perfectly with the typically light-hearted nature of the show. Japan was one of the many countries Pingu gained a following in, resulting in a CG anime reboot few saw coming but many became excited for. This reboot is, in a word, alright. Many more descriptive words could be used, but they wouldn’t be completely honest. It’s unfitting in some ways, and yet it’s definitely still Pingu. It’s a little unspirited, yet specific aspects of it were certainly made with spirit. Lacking almost works, but in truth there’s no less going on here than there was before. It’s a whole product for sure, but you could say it’s missing just a couple screws that would have held the whole thing solid. It starts with the production values. The use of CG does an average job of replicating the original claymation, though there is an initial effort to avoid the looser effects from the old show (they start making things a bit looser from the halfway point of the first season but it still isn't the same). At the same time a few odd bits of repeated animation & freeze frames are scattered about, and while giving Pingu transformation sequences was a cute touch it does wear its welcome. In essence, while it clearly looks like Pingu, it doesn’t hold the same expressiveness the original did, which means the plot can’t take advantage of the art style like it had before. At least the Penguinese functions the same and usually does its job well, even if it sounds somewhat different (I swear the chef penguin was made to sound the slightest bit French). There’s little noteworthy music to speak of though. Pingu moving to the city gives the show a new setting but it isn't tapped into all that much. The environment and set pieces are interacted with in ways befitting an explorative children’s show, but nothing about it has to do with being in a city. Most of the jobs & activities Pingu partakes in could have taken place at his old village. Sure, the show can go on without the “city” aspect, but for what is essentially a look into a child’s exploration of his new home it results in many missed opportunities, especially as Pingu isn’t performing a new job every episode (in fact most of his jobs are recycled 2 times or more). The city itself also feels awfully generic in the end, though part of it is also how static it is from an artistic standpoint. If you put humans in this setting I’d almost think I was looking at Soviet Murmansk after 5 colors of pastel paint were evenly distributed. The humor is pretty much in the same vein as the older Pingu episodes but it's not quite as quirky as the original due to its much more formulaic nature (Pingu observes job, gets job, does job, has job-related conflict, creatively resolves conflict or the episode ends before then). The show still has its moments, especially the first few episodes with the chef penguin (probably because Pingu does the silliest things to him, albeit unintentionally). Some episodes don't follow this formula (such as the racing and babysitting episodes) and they are usually more enjoyable as they actually explore things that fit the characters and the concept of children exploring rather than some random job Pingu gets a sudden interest in (which, again, could have worked fine if he didn’t repeat jobs so often). It honestly isn’t enough to give the show consistent charm. It’s almost frustrating to watch this season despite its occasionally down-to-earth episodes when it’s usually just one or two of the characters messing around with a job they were curious about for six minutes before the main joke happens and the credits roll. For the new viewer, they’ll likely find a couple episodes charming and simply see the rest as a standard kid’s show. Fortunately the old characters that appear are themselves and the new ones fit in quite well. Pingu himself is a big part of what makes his show enjoyable; his impulsive & childish nature leads him into many crazy situations but he is also hardworking and well-meaning, so even if his approaches to problems are less-than orthodox he generally manages to solve them through genuine effort, even though he rarely takes an optimal path to it and it doesn’t always work out. His interactions with his little sister Pinga bring out both of Pingu’s sides in a strong way, further reinforcing his immature yet admirable character. Robby the Seal is like a foil to Pingu, usually fooling around and just looking for a good time, but he has a good chemistry with Pingu and they always find a way to help each other in the end. It’s a shame his appearances are limited and are mostly just in the later episodes. Most of the other characters have a few defining traits, which considering the limited screen-time they receive is enough to serve their roles and occasionally bring interesting moments to the table on their own accord. A little more expressive movement would have gone a long way towards having a consistently memorable cast though, and while there are definitely stand-out characters, the cast as a whole isn’t able to make the city come to life by themselves. Verdict: Pingu is back, but this season just isn’t quite the same. At times it has a genuine charm to it but when the majority of episodes can be chalked up to “standard fare” despite occasional quirks it’s time to take off the nostalgia goggles and be honest with what it is. I still found Pingu in the City enjoyable, but it’s not consistently good like Pingu was for me in the past. Side note: The second season addressed most of the points made in this review and is overall a much better showing. I could recommend the entire Pingu in the City series on account of the second season alone. The above review of the first season is untouched from before then though, and will remain as such because standalone all of its points still apply to its season. My review of the second season is also standalone, but in the context of it following this season of Pingu in the City versus this review following the claymation series.