Trivia / The Pebble and the Penguin

• Box Office Bomb: The film did so poorly it bankrupted the animation company. Budget, $28 million. Box office, $3,983,912.
• Channel Hop: At least internationally. MGM handled North American distribution, but Warner Bros. distributed it internationally due to Bluth's studio having a seven-year deal with them (WB had released Thumbelina and A Troll in Central Park stateside). When the deal expired, all international rights went to 20th Century Fox, as then-owner Rupert Murdoch had purchased Media Assets, who bankrolled all three. As of 2020, Disney (ironically) owns the international rights to Pebble through 20th, while MGM retains all domestic rights. Despite this, MGM is actually credited on the international DVD release of the movie, due to Fox utilizing the 2007 "Family Fun Edition" transfer for their release and due to them holding the worldwide home video rights to MGM catalog at the time.
• Creator Backlash: Bluth disowned the film, primarily for its terrible animation and the studio interference that hindered the movie's production. He wouldn't even draw any of the characters at conventions, especially not Hubie. He actually got wholly fed up with the production towards the end of it and he and Gary Goldman outright abandoned it for Fox as it continued to crash and burn. In the November 2001 issue of "Toon Talk", he had this to say about it;
  “Penguin had story problems. We knew it. The crew knew it. (Once the crew came under ownership by Media Assets), the story and the film were now compromised. Hence, neither of us stayed to complete the motion picture."
• Creator Killer: At least for Bluth's career as an independent filmmaker. The film's failure shut down his second home-grown studio in Ireland and convinced him to take up the offer at Fox's new animation unit in Arizona, where he's been residing ever since. His animation career as a whole wouldn't end until after Titan A.E..
• Cut Song:
  • Subverted with Marina's reprise of "Sometimes I Wonder"; Gary Goldman found while supervising the restoration for the 2007 DVD that it slowed down the pace, but he failed to convince MGM to let him remove it.
  • Although unknown if it was victim of the studio getting involved, another song, "Helpless Hopeless Romantic", can be found on the soundtrack. It's performed by a character known as The BeachMaster (an elephant seal) and his many wives, as well as speaking lines by Hubie and Rocko.
• Executive Meddling:
  • MGM/UA took over the distribution late in its production, after Warner disowned Bluth's studio because of the combined failures of Thumbelina and A Troll in Central Park (for contractual reasons, Warner still had to release it globally). Scenes were then cut, characters removed and voices re-recorded. Bluth was so upset with the results that he opted to have his name taken off the credits, and accepted an offer to work for Fox Animation, where he finally had a brief change of fortune.
  • Despite Bluth's departure with his name, the studio still advertised with "From the director of The Land Before Time!" It didn't help matters that it is credited as "A Don Bluth Limited Production" in the main titles, so his name was still on it regardless.
• In Memoriam: The film is dedicated to production staffers Michael Carey and David Corbally.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The film was unavailable on DVD outside of the United States for several years, likely due to rights related reasons with the distributors. It eventually saw an international DVD release in 2012, nearly 20 years after the movie first came out.
• Troubled Production: Late into production, Bluth had a falling out with Warner over the failure of his last two films, control of the project was seized by MGM/United Artists and everything went to hell: animation was farmed out for rushed completion, resulting in Off-Model or outright incomplete shots being approved, fully animated scenes were cut, and several voices had to be re-recorded. Bluth was furious with how badly the finished film looked that he and Gary Goldman outright abandoned ship, Bluth taking his director credit with him, to start up a new animation unit at 20th Century Fox.
• Uncredited Role: Upset with the Executive Meddling imposed on it late in its production by MGM, Don Bluth went on to deny director's credit.
• Vindicated by Cable: While this was overshadowed by A Goofy Movie and bankrupted Bluth Entertainment leaving Don Bluth no choice but to move to Fox, it quickly found its audience on cable.

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