PENGUIN HIGHWAY
Winsome anime adventure with a trippy science-fiction twist.
Should You Watch It?
If your family enjoys imaginative anime, Penguin Highway offers a colorful and winsome adventure. Its quirky humor and appealing characters support a positive outlook on family, friendship, scientific discovery, and the search for truth.
The film’s main concern is its young protagonist’s fixation on female breasts. That material is handled as an immature crush, but it still calls for parental discernment. Some high-level science may also confuse younger viewers, and the ending leaves aspects of the mystery unexplained.
For older children and adults, this is a worthwhile animated adventure. For younger children, choose something else or preview it first. The practical answer: see it with older children and adults, using discernment.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESTen-year-old Aoyama considers himself a scientist and hopes to become an astronaut. When penguins begin appearing around his Japanese town, he investigates and discovers that his dentist’s assistant may be connected to them.
With two classmates, Aoyama also studies a mysterious floating ball of ocean water in a nearby meadow. As the strange phenomenon grows, the children work to understand its connection to the penguins, the young woman, and the danger facing their town.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars means a good, entertaining film with meaningful flaws. Penguin Highway is colorful, winsome, and filled with infectious quirky humor. Its unusual premise and appealing characters give the adventure a distinctive charm.
The science-fiction elements involve ambiguous, high-level physics about bending or folding the space-time continuum, which can be confusing. The origins of the female dental hygienist and her ability to create penguins also are not fully explained by the end. Even so, the movie remains entertaining to watch.
The Worldview
Penguin Highway has a light, redemptive worldview that celebrates family, friends, and the search for truth. Aoyama’s scientific curiosity encourages careful observation and a desire to understand the world. The movie also shows strong bonds between children and their parents, while a bully is ultimately redeemed through kindness and love.
The film’s emphasis on science sometimes hints at humanism because God is mostly absent from its explanations. Still, one character makes a positive reference to God, and the story’s underlying idea that the universe can be studied and understood fits with the belief that creation has order. The floating ball of ocean water serves as a light, not overbearing metaphor for the dangers of climate change.
The film honors the longing to discover truth, but Christian faith reminds us that wisdom ultimately comes from God: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God” (James 1:5).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Light moral, redemptive worldview extols family, friends and searching for truth, with a positive reference to God in one line and a bully in the movie is redeemed with kindness and love, but there’s a hint of humanism in the movie’s use of science, and there’s a light, somewhat hidden metaphor to the dangers of climate change
Foul Language
One “d” word and children call female breasts “boobs”
Violence
Small city is endangered by a mysterious floating ball of ocean water that suddenly starts growing larger to possibly threaten the town, adult scientists investigating the phenomenon are sucked into the ball, a penguin is hit by a small truck but it bounces off the truck and waddles away, bullies harass boy and tie him up to the front of a soda dispensing machine, alligator like lizards swallow a penguin and scare people, and boy scares bully in the dentist’s office with a phony made-up story about the bully’s allegedly deadly gum and tooth disease
Sex
Boy has a crush on a young woman and fixates on her breasts, young boy’s crush amuses her, but she admonishes him to stop staring at the shape of her breasts under her sweaters and shirts, and boy eventually expresses the wish that, when he grows up and becomes an adult astronaut exploring outer space, they will meet again and young woman seems open to that idea
Nudity
Boy has made a couple simple nude drawings of female breasts in his scientific journal
Alcohol Use
No alcohol use
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No smoking or drugs;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Male protagonist withholds information from two female characters he knows and the younger female clearly becomes jealous of the older female when she learns about her, plus a bully harasses the male protagonist, but he’s redeemed with kindness and love.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Aoyama wants to understand the world through observation and experiments. How can scientific curiosity help us appreciate the order God has made?
Psalm 19:1 · Proverbs 25:2Aoyama hides information from people who are helping him. When does keeping a secret become dishonest, and how can we practice truthfulness?
Ephesians 4:25 · Proverbs 12:22The story shows a bully being redeemed through kindness and love. How does Jesus call us to respond to people who mistreat us?
Matthew 5:44 · Romans 12:20–21Aoyama dreams about becoming an astronaut and discovering more of the universe. What can creation teach us about God, and what should wonder lead us to do?
Psalm 8:3–4 · Psalm 111:2The Final Word
Penguin Highway is a colorful, funny, appealing adventure with a positive outlook on family, friendship, and truth. Its breast jokes and immature fixation require discernment, especially with younger children. For older children and adults, our answer is WORTH THE TRIP — AGES 10 AND UP.
