Tom Popper (Carrey) grew up with an absentee dad who used to communicate with him on CB radio from his Antarctic expeditions. (Kids, CB was like old timey cell phones.) As a grown up, Popper’s a corporate wheeler-dealer who’s out of touch with his own kids. His father leaves Popper some penguins in his will, and the penguins turn his New York apartment and life upside down.

New ‘Mr. Popper’s Penguins’ Trailer Is Penguin-Filled To The Max

You know where this goes. At first Popper doesn’t like the penguins. He’s annoyed with them. Then they start to grow on him and he learns valuable lessons that help him reconnect with his family too. That’s the deal and it feels organic. At least they’re not forcing a B.S. agenda. It actually is good for people to learn to listen to each other.

The corporate subplot is Popper’s firm wants him to buy Tavern on the Green so they can tear it down. So they’re evil and he’s going to have to rebel against them. Popper has to sell Mrs. Van Gandy (Angela Lansbury) on the deal, so of course his penguin antics seem unprofessional.

Carrey still makes the best faces in the business and he elevates the animal antics with his physical skill. It’s not laugh out loud funny, but basic penguin humor. They poop, they waddle, they sleep in his bed. Carrey is really playing to kids, so it’s almost a little toned down, or maybe he just didn’t want to upstage the penguins.

There are some silly stretches of credibility. A house sitter does fine with the penguins until she freaks out and bolts, leaving the door wide open. That’s just not something a normal person does. Popper’s catch phrase “Yeahbsolutely” is no “all righty then.” Clark Gregg plays a hardcor zookeeper who wants to take the penguins away but the film never makes him a moustache twirler, or even a real threat.

So probably not a Screen Junkies type movie but maybe some of you have kids. As summer kids movies go it’s solid entertainment.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins stars Jim Carrey as a man who receives a lot of penguins, which poses many humorous problems for him, as you can no doubt imagine. Ultimately, those penguins seem to help him connect better with his family, which is a big relief for me personally. The Fox film also stars Angela Lansbury, Carla Gugino, Dominic Chianese and Madeline Carroll.

Jim Carrey will dance to “Ice Ice Baby” with a group of penguins in theaters nationwide June 17, 2011.

Directed by Mark Waters and based on the book by Richard & Florence Atwater, Carrey plays a man who gets a bunch of penguins. He also works in real estate. Problems occur because he gets all these penguins. What problems? Find out June 17, 2011, when the movie will be shown in many movie theaters. You know who else you’ll see? Carla Gugino and ”Murder, She Wrote” star Angela Lansbury. I believe there will also be several penguins in the film. (IMP)

I am not familiar with the source material, the 1938 children’s book Mr. Popper’s Penguins, but if it happens to be one sheet of paper that says simply, “Mr. Popper lives in a house with penguins for some reason,” then this movie appears 100% faithful to the source material.

Uhhhh…he seems to live in a nice house?

He’s in a tuxedo. That’s a pleasant little play on penguin imagery….

That’s seriously all that can be said about this trailer.

The studio’s Planet of the Apes origin story, Rise of the Apes, is moving from June 24th to November 23rd. That makes sense, because Thanksgiving reminds us about how we took over this land from the Native Americans, so it makes karmic sense that we’d see a movie about apes taking over the world from us. Shame us with a big screen analogy, Fox!

Meanwhile, Fox must have a lot of faith in the Jim Carrey comedy Mr. Popper’s Penguins. They’re moving it from August 12th (the Baltic Avenue of summer movie spots) to June 17th (pure Boardwalk, baby). Let’s hope Carry’s penguins don’t… slip up!

Do you get that joke? It’s a joke about penguins being slippery.

Other notable mentions from Fox’s new calendar:

- The Sitter, a new “R”-rated Jonah Hill comedy, gets bumped from July 15th to August 5th. (Ouch.)

- What’s Your Number?, a new “R”-rated Anna Faris comedy, got moved from April 29th to September 30th. (Meee-ouch!)

- The Big Year, starring Jack Black, Steve Martin and Owen Wilson as bird-watchers, officially has my attention starting Oct. 15th. (Deadline)

Jim Carrey was spotted on the set of Mr. Popper’s Penguins in New York City’s Central Park canoodling with none other than two penguins. He seems to be thoroughly unimpressed with their presence. Maybe it’s because Morgan Freeman isn’t narrating their every move. I was hoping they’d be real penguins, but there’s something too stoic about them. They’re either so stunned that they’re working with comedy legend Jim Carrey, or they’re robots. I just suddenly got the urge to rewatch Batman Returns. (Cinema Blend)

Looks like Ben Stiller and Noah Baumbach are no longer interested in adapting the childrens’ book Mr. Popper’s Penguins and no doubt making it depressing, so Fox is looking to director Mark Waters (Mean Girls) and Jim Carrey to fill their spots. Goodbye hipster soundtrack, hello funny faces!

The LA Times says nothing is confirmed at this point, and that Owen Wilson and Jack Black are also being considered. Sounds to me like someone at Fox is just shouting out names and hoping two of them are available, interested, and not dealing with personal sh*t at the moment. Zack Galifianakis! Martin Scorsese! Cobb salad! At this point, the studio exec takes his lunch from the mail room guy and shoves him out of the conference room. (SlashFilm)