12+ I 2011 I 1h 34m I Comedy - Adventure I
Thomas Popper Jr. (Jim Carrey) is a divorced real estate agent in New York City. His father was an explorer who traveled extensively during his son's childhood, and they communicated with each other over a world-class radio transceiver.
When his father dies, he leaves him a gentoo penguin that is kept in a freezer. Later, five more penguins arrive. Popper initially wants to give the penguins to various animal rescue organizations and then to the local zoo, but when his two children, Janie and Billy, come to visit for Billy's birthday, the penguins must stay.
Meanwhile, Popper is tasked by his employers to acquire an old restaurant, the "Green Tavern" (located in Central Park), which they later want to demolish to build a new property in its place. The restaurant is owned by an elderly woman, Selma Van Gundy (Angela Lansbury), who is unwilling to sell it at all, except to someone with real human values.
The indomitable penguins help Popper get closer to his children and date their mother again, even though Amanda Popper (Carla Gugino) has already found a man.
Popper is fired by his employers when they find him struggling with his penguins at home (Popper keeps all the windows open and shovels snow in the 300-square-foot apartment to keep the penguins happy). Suddenly, three penguin eggs appear. Two hatch, but the third doesn't hatch for a long time. Popper loses his job while tending to the third egg, but is not tragically affected by the incident.
Believing that if he can't save the third egg, he is not fit to raise the penguins, so he donates them to the zoo. He turns his attention back to the property he is about to acquire and returns to work as if nothing had happened. Popper finds a letter that came with the first penguin package, written by his father. His father tells him that he loved him very much and that the penguins will love him too. Popper realizes that he must do the same for his children. Popper's children and wife are disappointed that the penguins are gone, so they go to the zoo together to get them back. With the help of his children and wife, Popper frees the penguins, which the zookeeper had already wanted to exchange and send to three different zoos around the world.
The owner of the "Green Tavern", seeing that Popper has her children with him again and that he also treats the penguins with love, gives him the restaurant. However, instead of demolishing it, Popper continues to operate the restaurant. It was not long before it was revealed that she herself had regularly met her father in that restaurant when he occasionally returned home to his family during his travels around the world.
At the end of the story, Popper and his family go to Antarctica with the penguins so that they can live with their relatives. Popper's first penguin, Captain, has laid another egg. Popper tells his children that they must come back to see the little penguin, whom he names "Bald Eagle" after his father's old radio call sign.