Despite watching this on German TV with no subtitles to help me, this story of an Iranian man (an ostrich rancher no less) struggling to support his family through abject poverty was a tale that easily crossed language barriers. The lead performance from the father (forgive me for not hearing his name) was truly captivating and some of the cinematography was excellent. I'll certainly have to find this again as I could sense it was a film that deserves to be watched under better circumstances.

As you can see from the poster, it’s an animated film about surfing penguins. The best thing about this was Jeff Bridges as a washed-up, ex-pro surfer–penguin and the mockumentary style it was animated in, which intercuts voice-overs and interviews with the actual story. Surfers are likely to get a kick out of it, with a couple of characters and cameos based on various pros. Other than that, it was all fairly expected with some hit-and-miss family comedy and optimistic themes of love and friendship etc. Pretty harmless when you’re looking for something to eat in front of on a Sunday evening.

This has to be rated up there as one of Will Smith's best performances, pairing perfectly with his son, Jaden Smith. It's the kind of film that leaves you at the end of the credits wanting to be a better person.

Although at first impression it hung on that fine line between quirky and knowingly arty, this flick managed to break through my skepticism and showed itself to be an honest, heartfelt and genuinely hilarious film. Some of the scenes—especially those involving the children—were brilliant and I’ll be laughing about the “back and forth” scene for months.