The Penguins (Пингвины) is a 1968 Soviet animated short.
A penguin called Pingvin goes to the sea to fetch food and gives his egg to his neighbor Pyngvyn. But the latter falls asleep, and the egg rolls away into the sea, so instead, Pyngvyn finds an egg-like stone and hands it over to Pingvin when the latter comes back.
Much later, penguin chicks have hatched and steadily grow up, but Pingvin is still stuck with the egg-like stone...
Tropes present in the movie:
- Art-Style Dissonance: Cutesy penguins. Many cutesy penguins, coupled with an absolutely heartbreaking story.
- Babysitter from Hell: Pyngvyn falls asleep, and the egg entrusted to him falls into the sea. He starts to chase after it half-heartedly, but when he sees it's already far away, he gives up after just a few steps.
- Downer Ending: Pingvin drowns trying to save his egg, which isn't even an egg.
- Fat Bastard: Pyngvyn, who neglects Pingvin's egg and lets it fall into the sea and doesn't even have the guts to tell Pingvin the truth, is noticeably fatter than the rest of the penguins.
- Foregone Conclusion: Pingvin will never hatch his egg, because it isn't one.
- Good Parents: Pingvin adores his yet-unborn child and surrounds it with love and care. Little does he know the child is already long-dead and what he believes to be his egg is a stone.
- Hope Spot:
- Pingvin gets out of the sea literally seconds after the egg falls there, and as Pingvin is a great swimmer, there is still some chance of rescuing the chick… but Pyngvyn, Dirty Coward that he is, keeps silent about what happened and gives Pingvin an egg-shaped stone.
- Twice more, Pyngvyn seems to think of admitting the truth, but he never does.
- The penguins start to migrate and almost persuade Pingvin to abandon the supposed egg… but then Pingvin turns around and goes to fetch it.
- Karma Houdini: Pyngvyn never answers for his criminal neglect that led to the death of Pingvin's unborn child, and, indirectly, the death of Pingvin himself.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If Pingvin had returned even less than a minute earlier, his chick would have been safe. But the reason Pingvin doesn't return earlier is that, apart from feeding himself, he also catches several fishes that he gives to Pyngvyn in return for watching the egg.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Unbeknownst to Pingvin, his baby chick dies in the beginning of the movie. From Pingvin's own point of view, it's the opposite trope since he holds the supposed egg above water for as long as he can even when he is already drowning.
- Scenery Dissonance: Pingvin drowns on a bright sunny day, with a beautiful sunrise ahead of him.
- Senseless Sacrifice: Pingvin drowns trying to rescue a stone.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Early in the movie, Pingvin helps Pyngvyn get to the shore since the latter is too fat to do so himself. Pyngvyn doesn't seem to appreciate it at all.
