Pingu's the Thing (2012) User Reviews

A Pingu 18+ Video Is Good

[lindseycatherine · 7/10 · 27 June 2020]

Too Bad Its Was Taken Down But It's Rebooted In 2020 Known As Thingu

Noot noot, Norris.

[Pjtaylor-96-138044 · 7/10 · 7 December 2021]

'Thingu (2012)' (also known as 'Pingu's The Thing (2012)') is a parody of the popular kid's television show, 'Pingu (1980 - 2006)', and John Carpenter's classic horror film, 'The Thing (1982)'. It was forcibly removed from YouTube shortly after its release due to some legal issues, so was recreated as 'Claycat's The Thing (2012)'. This version features cats instead of penguins and is part of Lee Hardcastle's 'Claycat' series that that sees his clay feline characters recreate various horror movies and other gruesome media in succinct fashion. It's worth noting that, perhaps due to extra experience, it could be argued that this short is better than the original, though it obviously lacks the subversive charm of seeing a kid's cartoon twisted to tell an altogether much more horrific story. In 2020, Hardcastle uploaded a video entitled 'Pingu's The Thing (2020)', which is described as having been remastered - using the the original JPEG sequence and a wholly recreated soundscape - and contains several disclaimers that the characters within it are not the same characters from 'Pingu (1980 - 2006)' (because, I guess, parody is dead). It has certainly had an interesting life. I'm glad that it can be appreciated in all its glory once again, as the original was a clear case of parody and thus fell under fair use. It's an inventive and entertaining little short that uses the contrast between its cute claymation and gruesome imagery incredibly well. It also does a great job of recapping Carpenter's classic in just a couple of minutes. It's a really fun watch in all its forms (whether it stars cats or penguins). It's a solid slice of subversive animation. 7/10.

Why?

[TheEoghShowOld · 30 October 2019]

Sooo... someone decided to remake all of the most famous scenes from John Carpenter's "The Thing" with Pingu characters. Why? I have no idea. Honestly, the most interesting thing I got out of this was learning all these years later that the seal actually had a name (Robby).

This really shouldn't be a thing

[Horst_In_Translation · 2/10 · 21 January 2018]

"Pingu's the Thing" is an animated short film from 2012, so this one's already over 5 years old and the man in charge here of the key production values like directing and writing is Lee Hardcastle. This is by far not the only film on film from him, not even the only one spoofing "The Thing". He mixes it up with the harmless television show Pingu this time and the pole connection could have made for a pretty funny and absurd movie, but it basically went all wrong here. The plot is a mess, the audio side is really weak and the claymation approach did not impress me either, which admittedly also may have to do with me not being too big on claymation in general. Anyway, all the hopes I had for this one were disappointed. I would not recommend the watch to anybody, not even those who love Pingu, The Thing and claymation. No idea what Carpenter saw in this. I definitely think the best decision is to skip the watch as even at slightly over 2 minutes, this one drags quite a bit and it cannot get me curious about Hardcastle's other stuff at all. Looks like quantity over quality for me perhaps and it definitely cannot mean positive if this one is among his most known. Watch something else instead.