Butler's Cinema Scene

“MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS” My rating: C  (Opens wide on June 17)

95 minutes | MPAA rating: PG

Jim Carrey used to be dangerous.

You wouldn’t know that from “Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” a soft-hearted comedy that has “cute” scrawled all over it.

Carrey plays a ruthless NYC real estate dealmaker whose world-traveling father has died and left him with a half-dozen penguins. These waddling wonders take over his Manhattan high rise, which with its balcony doors open to the winter weather is soon a snow-packed playground.

Popper reluctantly finds himself falling for his feathered visitors; not coincidentally, his two kids and divorced wife (Carla Gugino) find themselves re-falling for Popper once his avian paternal side gets tapped.

There’s a subplot about a zoo official who wants to seize the penguins and some business with nosy neighbors who are sure Popper is violating the building’s no-pet rule. Angela Lansbury shows up as the owner of Tavern on the Green, which Popper is trying to buy for his development-mad bosses.

The computer-animated penguins (at least I assume they’re computer animated…maybe there’s a real bird in there somewhere) are absolutely convincing.

Aside from that this is strictly for the elementary school set.

| Robert W. Butler