The Adventures of Lolo the Penguin

The Adventures of Lolo the Penguin
Directed by Kinjiro Yoshida
Gennady Sokolsky
Produced by Toru Komori
Takeo Nishiguchi
Written by Victor Merezhko
Eiichi Tachi
Shozo Matsuda
Starring Svetlana Stepchenko
Lyudmila Gnilova
Rolan Bykov
Elena Sanaeva
Narrated by Alexei Batalov
Music by Masahito Maruyama
Cinematography Alexander Chekhovsky
Production
company
Life Work Corp
Soyuzmultfilm
Sovinfilm
Aist Corporation
Jim Terry Productions (USA version, "Scamper")
Enoki Films USA (USA version, "Scamper")
Release date
  • January 1, 1986 (1986-01-01)
Running time
 78 minutes
Country Japan
Soviet Union
Language Russian
Japanese

The Adventures of Lolo the Penguin is an animated film from 1986, originally released as a three-part serial. Its original title and literal translation is The Adventures of Small Penguin Lolo. The film was a co-production between Japan and the Soviet Union. It is an animated feature film about the life of an Adélie Penguin.

Plot

The film starts in November, when the Adélie Penguins return from the North Sea and prepare nests for the female penguins, however many penguins try to take rocks from each other, the female penguins come and lay their eggs, they then separate from their mates to get food while the males take care of the eggs. It would take 40 days before the females return. Owing to the hunger getting to them almost all the males go to get some food, and, as a result a flock of Skuas come and try to snatch the eggs. Toto, the father of a couple, manages to save one of his eggs, and an egg belonging to another couple. When the females return, he tells his mate Lala that one of the eggs does not belong to them. He then rightfully returns the other egg to the couple and they have one egg for themselves.

Soon the eggs hatch, and the egg they kept for themselves is hatched into a baby penguin named Lolo, which is named after his great grandfather, and like many baby penguins, he is given food from Lala's crop, however, he wants more food, so he tries to get food from another family, he then asks his mother why he is an only child, she tells him it is just the way it happens, around the same time, he is introduced to another only child, a pink penguin named Pepe, in which they become best friends.

Lolo, like any other penguin, is very curious and questionative, which can annoy a few other penguins that don't have an answer, such as Grandfather Pigo, furthermore, he is shown to wander off several times, in one of his adventures, he tries to befriend a baby skua, but gets attacked by an adult skua, he then slides off the mountain and gets launched by a rock, becoming unconscious, because of his wandering, his mother becomes worried, and Gigi and Zizi tell her that they saw him going somewhere, causing her, Grandfather Pigo, and Pepe to become worried.

Lolo is then discovered by a husky named Don, who tells him that scientists are coming to study the Antarctic, Lolo then tells him that Pigo says that humans are their enemies since they catch them and take them to Zoological gardens, Don tells them the people who do that are poachers and that they don't like them either, whilst playing, he runs into a scientist, who takes him back to the penguin settlement, he tells Toto about his adventure, but he punishes him due to him forgetting about not going anywhere.

Soon after, the baby penguins attend something similar to Kindergarten, as Pigo teaches them about the dangers of the Antarctic such as Skuas, Killer Whales, and Leopard Seals, Lolo asks him about having friends, and he says the penguin friends are Blue Whales, and also elephants seals, despite getting half of his body trapped inside of the elephant seal's mouth, they are taught by a penguin named Nini on activeness, later on, whilst taking a nap, Lolo tries to go off to see Don, in which Pepe tags along wondering where he is going, so he introduces him to her, and they play around together, however, a skua comes and seizes Lolo, but he bites the foot of it, which causes him to be dropped, with wounds on his back, so Don takes him to the scientist, who heals his wounds.

The rest of the penguins are worried about their disappearance, and they start freaking out when a truck comes, worried that there are poachers on the truck, but they see it is just a scientist dropping them off, Pigo tells them that they were lucky because it wasn't poachers, it was just somebody at the station, but Toto tells Lolo he would talk to him at home.

Lolo is later watching the Skuas, thinking about trying to fly, and Pepe watches, however, he fails since penguins can't fly, but more trouble occurs when the ice breaks, causing them to be stranded on an iceberg, this worries and upsets Pepe, but Lolo tells her if she cries he would go away, so she tries not to cry, they try to get help from Emperor Penguins, but they deny because they are too proud, so Lolo calls them idiots, back at the colony, the penguins are searching for them, but with no luck, though everyone but Pigo still has high hopes that they will come back, meanwhile, on the iceberg, Lolo and Pepe are attacked by a Leopard Seal, but Lolo stops it by throwing a giant snowball at it, and the seal is eaten by a Killer Whale.

Meanwhile, they are found by what they think are scientists, but are actually poachers, they are told this by a Macaroni Penguin named Mak, they then realize that they are gonna be taken to a zoo, they try to befriend another dog, a St Bernard named Jack, they try to find a way to escape by opening the latch, but Mak tells them it is impossible to reach, they hear Jack howling and he tells him whenever he does that, a storm occurs, and a horrible one does occur, back at the settlement, the penguins can't find them, but the penguins still have hope that they will return.

Lolo then finds a stick and uses it to free the 3 of them, while escaping, they are hungry, and find disc shaped food that looks like Nilla Wafers, although it is not mentioned what it is, they hear the poachers coming, they try to keep quiet, but a mouse frightens Pepe, they then realize they have escaped, in which a huge pursuit occurs, and Pepe is almost taken by a poacher, but she bites his nose, and they escape into the back of the ship, the poachers try to get them with a net, but Jack howls, tricking them into thinking a storm is happening, he then gives them a life saver, and they float back to an iceberg, at this time, they are now able to swim and catch food on their own, some blue whales come and they take them home, they can't see where the penguins are, so they call out to them, and Popo comes to see what's going on as they slide down the hill, and everyone is extremely happy that they return.

However, all is not well as Nini alerts that poachers have taken the children, Pigo tries to chase them and free them, but a poacher shoots at him, and whilst missing, startling him, Lolo wakes him up and he tells him that people in black have come and taken the children, Lolo then tells Toto that it was probably the poachers that they escaped from, so they chase after the poachers, however, some of the penguins are shot, but due to the gunshots, a giant wall of ice falls down causing a giant wave to come and sink the ship.

At this time, it is time for the scientists to return to their home, and back at the penguin settlement, Pigo tells them that Toto has been killed along with some other penguins, but it is time they go to the north sea, and he proposes that Lolo should be their new leader, and Mak, Pepe, and Lala agree, Lolo asks Mak if he would join them, but he decides to find his flock, the penguins then go to the North Sea, the film ends with a shot of the Aurora Australis.

Production

The original film was created by Takeo Nisiguti who had sought a co-production with Soviet animation. He contacted them in 1980 and the film took several years to develop. During this time, the Soviet animation industry received film equipment commonly used in Japan. This film marks the first time Soviet Union and Japan collaborated to make an animated film.

The film was animated in 1986 by Soyuzmultfilm. It was co-produced by Soyuzmultflm and Japan's Lifework Corporation with music by Masahito Maruyama. It was sponsored by Aist Corporation and Sovinfilm. The Russian version premiered on Soviet television on June 25, 1987, whilst the Japanese version was released on OVA in 1988. an English version of Lolo was produced by Film Export Studios. The "Scamper" version was released by Enoki Films USA. A French dub was produced by Agovision and distributed by Arkeion Films.

Additional dubs of Lolo were made in Estonian, Czech, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and Finnish.

Additional dubs of Scamper were made in German, Swedish, Portuguese, Danish, Bulgarian, and Serbian.

Additional dubs of both versions were made in French, Arabic, Hungarian, and Polish.

Another version called Pim De Pinguïn was released in Dutch.

Titles

The Japanese title of the film is Chiisana Pengin Roro no Bōken (小さなペンギンロロの冒険) and in Russian, it is "Приключе́ния пингвинёнка Лоло́" (Priklyucheniya pingvinyonka Lolo), both literally translate as The Adventures of Small Penguin Lolo. Apart from language, the Russian and Japanese versions are identical.

Other languages were released:

  • English (Worldwide, Filmexport): The Adventures of Lolo The Penguin (The original version)
  • English (U.S., Enoki Films USA): The Adventures of Scamper The Penguin (The American version)
  • German: Bauzi — der Pinguin aus der Antarktis (VHS) / Bauzi - Der kleine Pinguin (DVD) (The American version)
  • French (Quebec): Kiri le pingouin (The American version)
  • French (France): Les Aventures de Lolo (The French version)
  • Portuguese (Brazil): As Aventuras do Pinguim Arteiro (The American version)
  • Swedish: Pelle Pingvin (The American version)
  • Danish: Et pingvin eventyr (The American version)
  • Dutch: Pim De Pinguin (The Dutch version)
  • Arabic (first dubbing): البطريق لولو (The original version without music)
  • Arabic (second dubbing): مغامرات البطريق (The American version)
  • Arabic (third dubbing): طاعة الوالدين (The American version without music)
  • Polish (first dubbing): Pingwinek Lolo (The original version)
  • Polish (second dubbing): Przygody pingwinka Wiercipięty (The American version)
  • Bulgarian: Приключенията на Скокльо (The American version)
  • Serbian: Pingvin Pingo (The American version)
  • Hungarian (first dubbing): Nyüzsgi, a pingvin kalandjai (The American version)
  • Hungarian (second dubbing, Duna television): Lolo kalandjai (The French version)
  • Czech: Dobrodružství tučňák (The French version)
  • Komi: Лоло - ичöтик пингвин (The original version with partially different music)
  • Lithuanian (dubbing, Lithuanian television): Pingvinuko Lolo nuotykiai (The original version with partially different music)
  • Lithuanian (one-voice translation, LNK): Pingvinuko Lolo nuotykiai (The original version with completely original music)
  • Lithuanian (two-voice translation, TV8\SDI): Pingvinuko Lolo nuotykiai (The original version with completely original music)
  • Estonian (dubbing, Tallinnfilm): Pingviinipoeg Lolo seiklused (The original version)
  • Finnish: Lolo - pingviininpoikasen seikkailuja (The original version)
  • Ukrainian (many-voice translation, TakTreba Production): Пригоди пінгвіненяти Лоло (The original version with completely original music)

Foreign Dubs

English version

Another version of the film was created by another, albeit a very little-known company which dubbed it into English, it was a Soviet studio called "Film-Export" also known as "Sovexportfilm", a company that dubbed other Soyuzmultfilm cartoons into English, although it is sometimes erroneously considered to be made in the UK. In this version of the trilogy, it was dubbed into English, however the script, character names, soundtrack and visuals were not subjected to any alteration, and remain in their original form. The division into a three-part series and intermediate titles between the series have also been preserved.

Titles in this version have been completely replaced by English, but kept the original style and font, but became much less detailed and only mentioned a few of the key figures. In addition to the transliteration of the names of the creators of the cartoon into English, the credits are different from the American English dub (E. Tati, V. Merezhko, G. Sokolsky, K. Yasaida). The author of the English text in them is named as Nikolai Kurnakov. Other information about the team who dubbed these titles is unknown. The credits for the year that the first film was dubbed is listed as 1987, The third was listed as being dubbed in 1989. However, possibly due to the US version being made, this version didn't see a release for quite a long time.

It wasn't until the mid to late 2000s that this version saw a release, this release was distributed on DVD and VHS in Australia in 2005 and 2007 by Force Entertainment (now called Beyond Home Entertainment) and Sefa Video, this version was mostly preserved with most of the English titles, but the release edited the film by cutting a number of scenes, a total of 15 minutes, reducing the time to 63 minutes, possibly not only for censorship, but also due to the poor quality copy of the movie, as evidenced at the end of the movie, the edits are made extremely roughly as well, causing some scenes to jump to another. The three parts of the film were combined into one film.

Deleted scenes:

  • The Aurora Australis at the beginning of the film. (It is kept at the end of the film.)
  • The introduction at the beginning. Both this and the former were replaced by 2 static shots of the Aurora Australias with an English version of the opening notice and the film's opening card (albeit in a different font)
  • Toto spanks Lolo.
  • Part of the Kindergarten scene with Nini, where the young penguins are running and sliding on the block of ice.
  • Lolo and Pepe try to get the attention of xenophobic penguins.
  • Jack talking to the three caged penguins.
  • Lolo, Pepe, and Mak slide down the banister.
  • Lolo, Pepe, and Mak swim for the first time.
  • Grandfather Pigo being shot.
  • The scene where Toto fights for the rifle, but gets shot and killed.
  • Three background penguins shot and killed (but the following scene is kept, and the dialogue of Grandfather Pigo explains Toto had perished.)

American English version

North American rights to the film were acquired by Enoki Films USA, a company that licensed anime in the United States, This version was sourced from the Japanese version, it was directed by Jim Terry of Jim Terry Productions, and was edited by Collins Walker, and like some versions was mounted into 1 full-length film, which caused changes, the film's name was changed to The Adventures of Scamper the Penguin, It was originally released on VHS by Celebrity Home Entertainment & Feature Films for Families in 1992. it also had a DVD release from the same company in 2004 and was re-released in 2006 by Sterling Entertainment. This dub was released in a number of countries around the world and whilst keeping some scenes from the original Russian version, this version cuts out most of the violent scenes from the original (as well as non-violent scenes), including, but not limited to:

  • The small overture containing post-production credits and plays glass harmonica music.
  • Both scenes of the Aurora Australis.
  • The scene of Toto asking Popo why he is leaving is altered, in the original, there was snow in the area, in this version, the snow is removed.
  • The scene where Toto tells Lolo why he can't go off yet is changed to him telling him about when he fought the seagulls.
  • The scene where an adult male penguin (named Gugu in the original and Gray Beak in this one) alerts Toto (Gilbert) of seagulls. In the original version, he is alerting about humans.
  • The first conversation that Lolo has with Grandfather Pigo is altered. He now encourages the young penguin to "(metaphorically) explore the world". In the original version, Pigo answers Lolo's question about humans and is trying to avoid Lolo's questions about Zoos.
  • The scene of Lolo invading a bird's nest, attempting to befriend a baby seagull, and being attacked by an adult seagull. However, Lolo's face when he sees the bird charging towards him is edited and moved to the scene when the Seagulls attack Lolo.
  • The scene of Lolo being spanked by his father Toto.
  • When Toto finds out that Lolo left the colony a second time, he asks what he is going to do with him, in the original, he proposes to try and save them.
  • The scene where Pigo talks about the humans after the scientist drops off Lolo is changed to him not believing Lolo about the scientist saving him. In addition, Toto's line after that is changed to him telling Lolo he is in big trouble instead of telling him that he would talk to him at home.
  • The scene where Pigo falls from a hill is altered. The children's laughter from the elephant seal incident is now reused for the falling incident.
  • The scene where an orca is about to eat a leopard seal.
  • The scene where Nini tells Lolo to sit out of class for showing off. In the original version, she tells Lolo, that he is not old enough to swim yet.
  • The scene involving the death of Toto, as well as several other adult penguins.
  • The scene where poachers are drowning from a tidal wave.
  • The scene where the community of penguins mourns the fatalities was edited.
  • Most scenes with blood are edited, with the exception of Lolo's wound from being abducted by a seagull.
  • There is an added "The End" title at the end of the film.

The poachers are now "zookeepers" despite being called poachers in a trailer, and the scenes where Toto (and three other penguins) was shot and killed are deleted entirely. Toto's absence is not explained and the film's conclusion is rushed. The credits also credit Livevok Corporation as Lifework Corporation.

Almost all of the characters' names are changed, with the exception of Jack. It's unknown why the names were changed, but it was probably to avoid confusion with the characters from the NES game The Adventures of Lolo, which came out the same time as the US version came out; among them are:

  • Lolo who is now Scamper
  • Toto who is now Gilbert
  • Lala who is now Gracie
  • Pepe who is now Snowflake
  • Mak who is now Louie
  • Pigo who is now Mr. Feather
  • Nini who is now Rosie
  • Don who is now Cowboy.
  • For more information about the name changes, see the cast list.

Narrations in the original version were made by a man. For "Scamper", they were made by a woman. Additional dialogue is added which includes expressive mumbling, hiccuping when the one penguin is choking on the rock he swallowed while fighting for it with another penguin, and saying "hi" when waving, regardless of whether or not their mouths are open. And many dialogs are very far from the original; one example is when Mak introduces himself, where his line is corrected, saying that he is a Macaroni penguin instead of a Macuori penguin.

A new soundtrack was made for Scamper the Penguin. It was arranged by Mark Mercury (credited as a band named "Bullets"). The music was synthesized instead of orchestrated. In "Lolo", there was only a soundtrack; there were no lyrics. For "Scamper", there were several songs with lyrics added. Example scenes include when the seagulls attack while the male penguins leave the nest, Lolo & Pepe teaching Don how to slide, and escaping from the poachers while on the ship.

The opening segments were replaced by ones similar to common American children's animated television series. A common practice of American dubbing of the time, the original closing credits segments were deleted and not included in the new closing credits. The replacement closing credits segment is abridged.

The original picture quality of Lolo contains vivid colors compared to Scamper, which the latter has more greenish tinted colors, possibly due to poor NTSC conversion. This also occurred with dubs that used "Scamper" as the source film. A few frames of Scamper contain modified backgrounds. While many scenes were deleted in the final version of Scamper, frames from other scenes were reused to keep the Scamper film the same approximate length as the Lolo film, and also to add time for the background songs containing lyrics.

Recently, the movie was released on Amazon Video, but for some reason, instead of containing the US version, it instead uses the Russian version.[1]

UK release

Even though so many people thought the Soviet English dub was made in the UK prior to the mid 2010s, the US release was actually released in the UK, Brightspark released the American English version under the name "The Adventures of Scamper" several times, but in 2011, they released it under the name: "Tappy Feet - The Adventures of Scamper". Which caused scandalous fame in the UK[2]

French

The film was dubbed into French in Quebec, Canada which was sourced from the American English dub. It was also dubbed in France and was released theatrically and given a new soundtrack with some of the original soundtrack and was released on April 13, 2005, 24 years after the Russian language version came out, it should be noted that the French version came out 2 and a half months after the release of the French penguin documentary film March of the Penguins. The French version's edits are basically the same as the German version, but with the music, names, and death scenes from Lolo reinserted, The second Hungarian dub and the Czech dub were then sourced from the French release.

Estonian

The Estonian dub is a carbon copy of the Russian-language release of Lolo The Penguin. The opening production credits are left in Russian with a dub narration of the credits. The glass harmonica music scene is otherwise unedited.

Komi

The Komi dub is a carbon copy of the Russian-language version of Lolo, whilst faithful to the original, whenever dialogue is heard the music is changed, making the only scenes with the original music the non dialogue scenes.

German

The German dub is a carbon copy of Scamper, including the new theme song and credits as well as the new music. Both the theme song and the credits were translated into German. The opening credits are abridged instead of the credits, though all the songs are higher pitched, and for some reason, Lolo is called a Humboldt Penguin, which doesn't live in Antarctica, the fact of him being an Adelie Penguin is actually acknowledged in the US version. However, several deleted scenes were restored:

  • The scene of Lolo being spanked by his father Toto.
  • The scene where Pigo falls from a hill is completely restored, as a result, it shows the penguins looking with their eyes instead of them laughing at him, though laughing can still be heard.
  • The scene where an orca is about to eat a leopard seal.
  • The scene where poachers are drowning from a tidal wave.
  • The scene where the community of penguins mourns the fatalities is partially restored, though it is currently unknown if Pigo mentioned that Toto died in this version.

Dutch

The Dutch version is known as De Avonturen van Pim de Pinguïn (Translating to The Adventures of Pim the Penguin) and has elements of the Scamper version (use of the theme song) and the Russian version, but it contains a completely different theme, soundtrack, and sound effects, and of all the dub of the film, it is the only version of the film to be reformatted into widescreen.

Portuguese

The Portuguese version is a redub of the Scamper Version of the film, all the songs are left in English, albeit the credits have a narrator saying the credits.

Arabic

3 Dubs were made in Arabic, the first dub was sourced from the original version, the original opening credits and closing credits are deleted and replaced by a new one, which is 2 minutes before the film itself plays, the music is completely removed, and there is a sound of lightning during the Aurora Australis, the 2nd and 3rd dubs were sourced from the American version, the 2nd dub retains the music, while the 3rd one has none.

Voice Cast

Russian

Japanese

French

  • Julia Ferrari as Pépé
  • Simon Koukissa as Lolo

Additional Voices:

  • Alexandra Chabert
  • Bernard Demory
  • Caroline Klaus
  • Jean-Claude Sachot
  • Jean-Marie Burucoa

Dutch

  • Eva Zeijlstra
  • Ket van der Brugge
  • Linn Stevens
  • Nanette Quartel
  • Hans Kuyper
  • Peter Joosten[4]

US English

  • Tyler Weed
  • Danielle Romeo
  • Cody Walker
  • William Romeo
  • Virginia Masters
  • William Oliver
  • David Miles Monson

Uncredited

References

  1. ↑ "Amazon.com: Scamper the Penguin: Rolan Bykov, Vyacheslav Nevinnyy, Evgeniy Leonov, Yuriy Volyntsev: Amazon Digital Services LLC". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 2018-04-28.
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ 小さなペンギンロロの冒険 Приключе́ния пингвинёнка Лоло́('88日ソ) - 声優辞典(作品) (in Japanese). Kanemoto.mydns.jp. Retrieved 2014-05-02.
  4. ↑
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