Did you know that penguins have their own internal GPS system?
Yeah, to we humans it almost seems like a magical thing, but these flightless birds can traverse hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles during their migration and feeding cycles and always swim their way back home.
That strange and wonderful ability is a big part of the story of a penguin named Dindim.
Of course, Dindim didn’t have a human name when his adventure began. In fact, this Magellanic penguin didn’t have much of anything. He didn’t have a mate or a family to swim home to. He just followed the penguin crowd.
On one migratory trip, though, the young penguin got sidetracked enough that he found himself in the midst of an oil spill. Weighted down and unable to swim, he floated along, nearly starving to death. Then he was found by an older fisherman off the coast of a small Brazilian island.
This particular fisherman, named Joao, lived a quiet life with his wife, Maria. They once had a growing family, but a terrible accident left them childless and, well, just floating along in their own way.
When Joao toted a struggling penguin into her kitchen, Maria wasn’t exactly overjoyed with the oily arrival. But after her husband gave the wounded creature a thorough cleaning, a careful feeding and lots of loving care, she relented. And before you could say Where have all the sardines gone? the much-improved penguin began padding about like a happy family member.
And the whole fishing village, young and old, thought him a welcome addition.
Eventually, the freshly dubbed Dindim (Portuguese for “ice pop”) was strong enough to waddle his way out to the ocean once more and swim back to a colder, more penguin-friendly part of the world.
Joao saw him go. And he smiled a bitter-sweet smile. It was nice while it lasted.
As I said, though, a penguin’s internal GPS always leads them home. Joao’s island was 5,000 miles south of Dindim’s penguin base of Patagonia, but home and family are important.
So, eleven months later, Dindim gave his human family a visit.
The first of many.
Joao instinctively moves to help the struggling penguin even when others suggest he turn away. And not only does that choice save the penguin’s life, it also begins to change Joao’s perspective on things around him.
The older fisherman had been closed off to friends and family and darkly mournful since the death of his son—something he blamed himself for. And through the act of tenderly helping and healing, Joao’s hard emotional shell begins to soften.
With time, Dindim’s obvious bonds with his new “home” helps Joao, who in turn reaches out to old friends that he had long turned away from. So, in a very real sense, Joao is able to heal emotionally as Dindim heals physically.
Finally, Joao and Maria get to the point of being able to talk about the grief that had closed off both of them. Maria tells her husband, “I never thought it was your fault. Never.” That statement alone powerfully impacts the normally stoic Joao.
By the end of the film, a changed Joao is able to reach out to friends and express his thanks for their efforts on his behalf. Through all of the above, the film makes a clear declaration that helping others—be they wounded humans or animals—is a wonderful balm for one’s own scarred-over hurts of the heart.
In stressful moments, a friend of Joao’s tells him that she’s been praying for he and Maria … and Dindim.
It’s not specifically faith-focused, but a journalist tells Joao and Maria that Dindim’s repeated visits and his “friendship” with them gives him a sense of hope for their troubled world.
None.
Early on in the film, a storm causes a young boy to tumble out of a fishing boat, hit his head and sink beneath the water. The boy’s father struggles against the surging waves but fails to save his son.
Dindim gets caught up in an oil spill and underwater seaweed. We see him struggling not to sink beneath the water. It’s intimated that he floats a long time and almost succumbs to starvation. Later, when Joao cleans the oil-covered Dindim off, he also notes that new feathers will need to grow to protect the bird. (He crafts a makeshift sweater to help keep it warm in the meantime.)
Later, Dindim is taken out into a desert-like area by some researchers. He escapes his captors but must traverse the harsh landscape and he falls down a rocky cliffside. The bird is knocked unconscious by the fall, but then he staggers up, covered in red scrapes. (He makes it back to the ocean.) Later still, Dindim is found floating in the waters near Joao’s island and it appears that he has died. (But Joao is able to revive him.)
None.
None.
A University board for anthropological study determines that Dindim’s behavior must be examined closely and directs its researchers to cage the bird. (However, the head researcher—whose credo it is to not interfere with nature—allows Dindim to escape capture when the penguin breaks out of its cage.)
My Penguin Friend is not a large, complicated adventure. It doesn’t compel you to think about the dark, difficult things of our broken world or challenge you to somehow fix those ills.
Rather, this is a simple, sweet film based on a simple, sweet true story.
Yes, we find some sad moments here. But this is a movie you can take the kids to without fear, and then talk about afterward. It tells a tale of a guy who offers help and healing to a suffering animal and, in return, gains some important healing of his own.
Perhaps more significantly, this pic celebrates the wonder of the nature God created. And it lauds the simple attributes of friendship and kindness. You know, the sort of stuff that actually makes a broken world better.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
