Penguin Highway is one of those animated films that leave you with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the animation is great, with a mix of 2D and 3D that works very well in the sets, with nothing out of place. But then you get such basic, personality-less character design that it feels like they lacked love in that area. The story, which is an adaptation of a novel, is a bit choppy. You can tell they're trying to cram a lot of information into a short time, and that makes the pace uneven. Even so, it has its charm as a story of initiation into adulthood, and the main character manages to strike a chord at certain points. The big flaw here is the Spanish dubbing, which is terrible. It literally takes you out of the film in several scenes. If you can, watch it in the original version, because the dubbing doesn't do it justice at all.

An odd but incredibly charming coming-of-age story that explores the desire to grow up sooner rather than later and combines that with childish wonderment to explore, and attempt to understand, the world around us. It's weird and surely an exploration of that very childlike wonderment that still resides in Hiroyasu Ishida, but it's pretty damn good and a beautiful watch as well. We spent too long asking, 'Where are the penguins going?' and 'Why are there penguins here?' but never thought to stop and ask, 'How are the penguins?'.

What a lovely movie. It was so beautiful and so surreal, couldn't love it more.