Plop and the Penguin (2007)

Directed by: Dennis Bots | 73 minutes | family | Actors: Walter de Donder, Aimé Anthoni, Chris Cauwenbergs, Agnes De Nul, Edo Brunner, Jacques Vermeire, Leontine Borsato, Arijan van Bavel, Piet Paulusma, Pierre Wind

The tradition of Kabouter Plop continues and every year a new part appears in the cinemas. The gnomes Plop, Lui, Klus and Kwebbel enjoy undiminished popularity among toddlers and preschoolers, so it may be a while before the adventures of the little figures come to an end. This time Plop and his friends are going very far from his milk inn, because they are going to the South Pole!

The film opens with a funny scene in which a naughty truck driver, Eugene (Arijan van Bavel), drives nodding through the snowy landscape. His comrade Alfons (Edo Brunner) grumbles, but is just as tired himself. It seems that the men have made a long journey and because they are so tired they do not notice that a box has fallen from their truck. This includes Pinkie, a penguin, who luckily escapes, otherwise he would have ended up in the penguin soup of Louise Appelboom (Leontine Borsato)! This mean woman wants to become world famous with this special dish. When Eugene and Alfons arrive at Louise’s hotel, she is very angry that they only caught one penguin. She hadn’t sent them to the South Pole before that! You can imagine she’s even angrier when she finds out that one penguin has escaped too! She then decides to go to the South Pole herself to catch a lot of penguins. Eugene and Alfons have to come along. But luckily the polar gnome Snorre is still there. He went with Pinkie when Eugene and Alfons captured him. He goes looking for his friend, but the droll penguin has already arrived at Plop’s inn!

Plop and his friends don’t know what kind of animal Pinkie is; they have never seen a penguin. Suspecting that it is an elephant, they are concerned that it will be very cold in the snow. So they quickly put him to bed, with a blanket and a hot water bottle. Pinkie doesn’t like that at all, but luckily Snorre follows in Pinkie’s footsteps and he can tell just in time that Pinkie is a penguin, who loves the cold very much! Snorre also tells Plop, Klus, Lui and Chatter what Louise’s plans are and they quickly decide to help. An exciting adventure follows. Will the gnomes outsmart the humans and save the penguins?

Like previous productions, ‘Plop en de penguin’ does not disappoint, considering the target group. The toddlers who already know Plop will certainly sympathize with the exciting (but never scary) story and for the little ones without prior knowledge it is also easy to follow, because the characters are well introduced. The infatuation of Chatter and Snorre is very funny, also the jealousy that Klus feels is comical. The roles of Alfons, Eugene and Louise are played out in a good way, Arijan van Bavel is a convincing sulk (who turns out to be right after all – “Maybe they are gnomes!”), and Leontine Borsato is fierce loose in her Cruella de Vil imitation. There is also nothing to criticize about the decoration of the film. Of course you can clearly see that some sets come from the computer, but a toddler can’t see that, why would you invest more money in it? ‘Plop and the penguin’: you get exactly what you expect, no more, but certainly no less. Nice kids movie.