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Seeking input on Mr. Popper's Penguins
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My son recently watched the movie, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, at his dad’s house. He really seemed to like it. I have been thinking of adding the book to our schedule for the past two years but somehow have neglected it.
I was wondering if those of you who have read it can tell me more about it, if you/your kids liked it, and what ages you think it is best for. Also, if you’ve seen the movie, what do you think of it? Thanks.
Sue, we read Mr. Popper’s Penguins two years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was very disappointed when a movie came out and did not want my children to see it. I want so much for my children to remember the details of the books we read, not the movie versions, which have often been re-written or parts totally omitted for the sake of the screen. I was upset when I learned that my children saw this show at their grandparents’ house one weekend. I know they enjoyed it, but I would have preferred that they not see it.
I have never seen the movie, nor do I want to. I’m sure it’s probably clean and family-friendly, but I don’t want my memories of the book to be marred because I watched the movie.
This is my opinion of all the books we’ve read. Charlotte’s Web is probably the only movie that I can think of that the story line stays pretty close to the book. I won’t allow my kids to watch Stuart Little, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Black Beauty, or Pollyanna either. Like I said, I’m sure they’re all great movies and would be enjoyed by all of us, but I don’t want the movie to ruin what images my children’s imaginations have already formed.
Just my opinion,
Lindsey
Mr. Popper’s Penguins is one of my children’s favorites that we have read. It is a really fun read aloud. We all laughed! I would definetly add it to your read aloud list.
That being said, I did check out the movie to see if it was anything like the book. It is NOT. I was very dissappointed in the movie. I was glad that I chose to watch it without my children. (I just didn’t like the potty humor in the movie or the fact that they changed the storyline so much.)Of course, this is coming from someone who had read the book first.
I think your son would really enjoy the book!
We do let our kids watch movie versions of some books, AFTER they have read the book, only. They are able to compare and contrast the characters and situations in the books compared to the movies and some pretty good conversations develope from this. We discuss why some things were changed for the movie version and if they thought important information was left out, etc.
That being said. I previewed Mr. Popper’s Penguins and DID NOT like it! The only similarity to the book was that there happened to be penguins that were sent to a man named Mr. Popper. EVERYTHING else was changed! I am not kidding, it was not they same story at all! And it was very silly (on the side of being stupid). I would recommend against seeing the movie!
We recently read and enjoyed Mr Popper’s Penguins here too…even DH enjoyed that one which is saying a lot. We’ve never seen the movie though, so can’t make a comparison. But I do recommend the book!
Jen
I may be the only one here that didn’t enjoy the book…lol. We tried reading it years ago, but I couldn’t get through it. It was so many years ago I can’t even put a finger on why I didn’t like it.
We love Mr. Popper’s Penguins! We read it 2yrs ago and my son read it on his own last yr. Younger ds will this year. At that time, my kids were 6 and 8. However, I first read the book in the 6th grade!
I was excited when the movie came out until I read the reviews and saw some parts. Nothing like the book! So, we won’t be seeing the movie until much later when the boys will be allowed to view certain things.
You can go to http://www.pluggedin.com to get a review from Focus on the Family. HTH
We read the book and enjoyed it. We saw the movie and I agree with everyone else, it is nothing like the book. Independently, I wouldn’t say the movie was horrible, well, it was a movie with J. Carey, so that kind of speaks for itself (not that I hate all of his movies, but you know). I’m just glad we read the book first instead of trying to get my boys into a book that is so different from the movie.
They did discover the differences and were kind of confused as to why it had to be changed so much. My middle ds doesn’t like that, he thinks “hollywood” should stick more closely to the story.
Book is wonderful, movie is NOT THE SAME STORY AT ALL, the only common thing is the penguins. Penguins are cute, movie is dumb, dumb, dumb!!!!
Sue, after all that negative feedback on the movie you probably don’t need any more convincing but I’m another one who was very disappointed in the movie. Even my older kids (who also saw it) thought it was really badly done. But we love the book. So fun!
Definitely read it! Just prep your son that it is a totally different story.
Ok, so sOMEone on here has to say it….
I read the book, I liked it.
I saw the movie, I liked that too 🙂
I usually never see the movies of any books I have read but it seemed like it would be cute, so we tried it. We all thought it was funny in parts, silly in others. Noone in our family was upset that it was a different story, I guess simply because we didn’t expect to be. I mean we all know that is what Hollywood does, so I just told the kids that it looks different, but who wants to give it a try?! So for us it was what I think they intended…different but at the same time enjoyable 🙂 LOL!
We read the book first then watched the movie. We loved the book and thought the movies was ok. My kids said they enjoyed both, but they really wished that the movie had been true to the book. All three of my kids enoyed the book. They were 9, 8 and 5 at the time.
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