Alyson Hannigan

Bob Saget thought it would be funny to parody 2005’s surprise hit and Oscar winner March of the Penguins. If Saget wins an Oscar, then I’ll eat my hat.

“Meet Carl (Bob Saget) and Jimmy (Lewis Black), two cold penguins on a desperate mission to get themselves some hot booty. After years of empty one-night stands, Carl wants more than a piece of penguin tail. He wants the love of the beautiful Melissa (Christiana Applegate). (She also has a buddy named Vicky (Mo’nique)) Now it’s up to Jimmy to help his neurotic friend win her heart and find his dream girl. The only thing that stands in their way is...a seventy mile trek across Antarctica. It’s a road trip like no other, as these two best bros make their way to a penguin island paradise. From director Bob Saget comes a raunchy, yet heartwarming comedy like no other.”

Did I mention that it was narrated by Samuel L. Jackson? Obviously slumming or getting paid a ton of Bob Saget’s money. At least I hope you did Sammy. Saget calls upon a lot of his celebrity friends to contribute vocal cameos. They include Gilbert Gottfried, Jason Alexander, Jason Biggs, Carlos Mencia, Abe Vigoda, Pen Jillette, Damon Wayans, Jim Belushi, Dane Cook, Harvey Fierstein, Whoopi Goldberg, Alyson Hannigan, Jonathan Katz, Jamie Kennedy, Jon Lovitz, Norm MacDonald, and Full House alums John Stamos and Dave Coulier to name a few. It also includes musical performances by Applegate and Saget. Yes, the film has musical numbers.

Farce of the Penguins has penguins and a lot of tired gags. It seems to me that this film is about 2 years too late. If they wanted to parody March of the Penguins they should’ve timed it to when “penguin fever” was in swing instead of right now. What they do is place all of these tired gags together with wildlife footage of penguins and scenes of various other species doing the wild thing. Most, if not all, of the jokes fall flat.

It seems like an idea that was more suited to a 30 minute parody on Saturday Night Live instead of a 80 minute film. Actually, the pitch sounds funnier than the actual movie. “Yeah, it’s a parody of March of the Penguins and it would be narrated by Samuel L. Jackson.” Reminds me of the funny pitch that Buck Henry does in the Player when he pitches The Graduate 2. A funny pitch, but it would suck if it were an actual movie.

Farce of the Penguins is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and enhance for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary by Bob Saget. “To the Earth’s Ice-Hole and Back” is a 15 minute interview with Bob Saget. There’s also 7 minutes of “Never Before Seen Bonus Footage” with optional commentary by director Bob Saget.

“Behind the scenes Montage” runs 11 minutes and has footage of Saget, Lewis Black, Samuel L. Jackson, Tracy Morgan, Gilbert Gottfried, Mario Cantone, Drea de Matteo, Joely Fisher, Carlos Mencia, John Stamos, Mo’nique, Abe Vigoda, Jason Alexander, Rob Weiss, Cliff Dorfman, Jon Lovitz, Jason Biggs, Jamie Kennedy, Abbey McBride, Stu Stone, Nick Simunek, Brie Larson, Jodie Sweetin, Vanessa Evigan, Jennifer Finnigan, Christiana Applegate, Dave Coulier, Jonathan Silverman, John Salley, David Koechner, Lori Loughlin, Norm MacDonald, and Bob Saget singing (please make it stop). Finally there are three Farce trailers, uncensored, censored, and the “greenband” trailer.

Farce of the Penguins might’ve sounded like a funny idea at the time, but I can’t say that any of the comedy made me laugh. Perhaps I made the mistake of watching the thing sober. If you want to hear Mr. Saget drop the F-bomb several times on his clean cut Full House/America’s Funniest Videos image then by all means you’ll want to see this movie. Otherwise they might’ve called it Farts of the Penguins.