Celebrate World Oceans Day with My Penguin Friend

In May 2011, Brazilian fisherman João Pereira De Souza found a young Magellanic penguin caught in an oil spill on Ilha Grande beach near Rio de Janeiro. He took the bird home to clean its clogged feathers and nurse it back to health, nicknaming it DinDim (pronounced Jin-Jin) after a child’s mispronunciation of the Portuguese, “pinguim.” 

Once DinDim was clean, dry, healthy and well-fed, João took him back to the ocean. But later that day he heard a familiar squeak from his back garden. DinDim had waddled back. João had a house guest until DinDim felt that he was ready to leave – then off he went, most likely to his original penguin colony in Patagonia (pull up your world map and take a look at that distance). But the next summer, DimDim came back to João’s house. And for years afterwards, the 4.5kg little penguin continued his holiday visits with his favourite human in Brazil. 

Their story inspired Brazilian director David Schurmann’s new live-action film My Penguin Friend – with a flock of rescue penguins playing DinDim, and human actor Jean Reno (Mission: Impossible) playing João.

Stream My Penguin Friend from World Oceans Day, Sunday, 8 June, on Showmax.

Dive into a beautiful friendship

Director David Schurmann has spent his life at sea. When he was 10 years old, his family circumnavigated the earth by sailboat, visiting more than 60 countries in the course of 10 years at sea. Later, as an adult, he rejoined his family to retrace Ferdinand Magellan’s voyages in a 30-month sailing journey. 

“I related to what João goes through, in part because my parents lost a child, and I saw my grieving mother go through a similar process of closing herself off inside a shell,” reveals David, whose 2016 film Little Secret was inspired by his adopted sister’s struggle with, and eventual death from HIV. “I drew from that well to tell this story. Also, I’ve met many men like João while traveling through coastal villages – traditional fishermen leading tough, independent ways of life – and I could understand how hard it is for a man like this to reconcile with loss. DinDim cuts through all that because his need for help is so great. He reminds João that he is still able to impact the world around him, that he can save something. From that one feeling, more feelings return to him, a feeling of the beauty of life, of hope, a feeling he is able to share himself once again with his wife and his friends. All because he encountered this penguin.”

Our penguin friends

While Jean Reno is an acclaimed actor, casting DinDim meant turning to a complete unknown … or 10 unknown penguins from Brazil’s Ubatuba Aquarium, where they live year round because of injuries and disabilities that would not allow them to survive in the wild.

“I had the luck to find the best penguin trainer in the world, Fabian Gabelli, in Argentina,” reveals David. “Fabian is a professor of animal behaviour, with tremendous knowledge of anything to do with penguins. He’s like a penguin whisperer. To my complete surprise, it turned out that the penguins were one of the easiest elements of the movie. And what you see on screen is 80% live penguins. We did use wire-controlled dummies and digital effects, but I think people will be amazed at how much real penguins can do as actors.” 

Under Fabian’s guidance, each of the 10 DinDims was trained for the role so if one little diva wanted to stay in their trailer, another penguin was primed and paddling. One stood out as a star during training – Maui – but we also see Big Z, Teodora, Madalena, Capitao, Rosita, Fafa, Homer, Amelia, and Alcione. “We could often tell ahead of time which penguin would be best for which scene,” notes David. “Some were always good at being docile, others were best suited for running around. And Maui was the one who really got attached to Jean in a special way.” 

Jean Reno reveals, “You have to approach a penguin very slowly and carefully until they know you. What surprises you most at first when you touch them is they are so warm, almost like a human infant. You don’t expect that, I think, because they are birds, but you can’t help but respond to it.” A peck or two aside, he was soon fast friends with all 10 penguins. 

“I enjoyed them a lot. Of course, these were real wild animals, not storybook characters, so they do what they want to do, and you have to accept that. But there is much about penguins I admire. They are small but strong, tough, capable – and determined to protect their families,” Jean insists. “It felt almost like a fairytale that a penguin was able to evoke so much love from this lonely fisherman who had turned his face away from the world. It was beautiful and moving to read. And I feel that we really need more stories like this one today, stories that are touching, funny and very human.” 

How do you shoot a penguin? 10 fun facts

1. While shooting My Penguin Friend, temperature and lighting design were set around the penguins’ preferences. All noise was kept to an absolute bare minimum, and bright lights of all kinds were strictly forbidden. Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle explains, “As on any Hollywood set, the announcement would come from the AD that the actor (penguin) is travelling to set, and we all had to be ready and completely silent and make no further adjustment so as not to disturb their concentration.” 
2. Production built a 360-degree water tank with rocks and water movement, giving them a controlled environment in which they could shoot oceanic scenes without endangering their penguin cast.
3. Ubatuba Aquarium oceanologist Hugo Gallo Neto oversaw the penguins’ transport to the set, where they were kept in a specially built “penguin hotel” that the production team built according to the aquarium’s specifications.
4. The penguin hotel offered amenities like 24/7 air conditioning, penguin-friendly sleeping quarters with mosquito netting, multiple pools for swimming and diving, and freezers full of their favourite sardines.
5. Their care on set was handled by the same veterinarian who has taken care of them all their lives at Ubatuba Aquarium. Careful notes were kept on each penguin, what they ate, and when they trained, to ensure all were thriving. 
6. Fabian Gabelli and his team trained each of the 10 penguins three times a day in quick, 30-minute sessions to keep things playful and motivating. There were no punishments, only delicious, fishy rewards and fun games.
7. It took about two weeks of daily practice to train the penguins in each “trick” they needed to learn, or for them to associate specific cues with actions. 
8. “Penguins only work until 3pm, that is in their contract,” laughs David Schurmann. “Penguins are morning birds, most lively early in the day, so we set our schedules around their biorhythms.”
9. David Schurmann really had to study penguins to find a way to make DinDim seem expressive onscreen. “There is a lot of expressiveness in a penguin’s neck. We catalogued 21 different neck positions that we then used to convey different feelings,” he reveals. 
10. Magellanic penguins like DinDim are listed as a near threatened species. Around 42,000 die each year because of oil spills. They are also threatened by ocean plastics, guano mining, climate and sea temperature change, human-driven habitat loss, and overfishing. David Schurmann is the CEO of Voice of the Oceans, a foundation dedicated to fighting marine plastic pollution, so the fate of penguins is close to his heart. 

Stream My Penguin Friend from World Oceans Day, Sunday, 8 June, on Showmax.

World Oceans Day watchlist

United Nations World Oceans Day 2025 is centred around the theme of wonder: sustaining what sustains us. So whether you want to feel the power and beauty of the ocean and its animals, or you want inspiration for how you can make a difference, or you just want to embrace the fun and fantasy in the stories we tell about the lands beneath the waves, we have a watchlist for you, with 25 movies and series for the whole family.

Quick list

Documentaries

Aquarium: An Aquatic Life

By Die Soutwater

Wild and Alive

Arctic from Above

100 Foot Wave Season 1-3

The Earthshot Prize: Top 15 Finalists

The Earthshot Report 2024

The Earthot Prize

Ice on Fire

Brandy Hellville

Kids

Penguins of Madagascar

Shark Tale

Dolphin Tale

Dolphin Tale 2

Dolphin Boy

Katak the Brave Beluga

The Snail and the Whale

Happy Feet (from 9 June)

Happy Feet 2 (from 9 June)

Just for fun!

Summertide

The Meg

Deep Blue Sea

Aquaman

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

The Black Demon

Dive into our World Ocean’s Day collection

Documentaries

Aquarium: An Aquatic Life: Staff at Cape Town’s Two Oceans Aquarium take us behind the scenes in this five-episode series. Find out how the scientists and caretakers cater for hundreds of different specialised appetites, meet some of the institution’s strangest creatures, take a plunge with the penguins and turtles, and witness the work that went into building a new, giant tank.

By Die Soutwater: Marguerite Venter and the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation join forces to explore the wilder side of the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. This short film highlights the work of wildlife rescuers around the coast, and the threat to marine life posed by plastic pollution. 

Wild and Alive: Four-episode documentary series about hope, struggle and survival in the wild, narrated by Vuli Mthethwa. Visit the Western Cape’s De Hoop coastal nature reserve, and in episode 3, plunge beneath the waves to swim with humpback and Southern right whales. Learn more about their migration patterns, and why protected South African waters are essential for their survival. 

Arctic from Above: Wildlife biologist Liz Bonnin takes us along for a scientific expedition to study Arctic wildlife using drones, satellites and helicopters, as well as on-ground surveying in this three-episode documentary series. Find out how to give the great polar bear a biopsy, fit a satellite tracker to a bowhead whale, and catch Svalbard’s seals. And learn more about how plastic pollution and climate change are impacting their Arctic home on land and at sea.

100 Foot Wave Season 1-3: Feel the staggering power of the oceans in your bones in this documentary series about big wave surfing at Nazaré in Portugal. See inside the lives of big wave surfing legend Garrett McNamara, his wife Nicole, and their friends and fellow surfers, join them on the Cortez Bank, and travel further afield in Season 3 for the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational. 100 Foot Wave has won the Outstanding Cinematography Emmy for two years in a row. 

The Earthshot Prize: Top 15 Finalists (2024), The Earthshot Report 2024, and The Eartshot Prize (2024): Explore the creative solutions and projects that prove everyone can take a role in safeguarding our planet. Episode 3 looks at how indigenous nations in the The Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance are protecting forests and saving waterways, episode 9 spotlights circular waste management across Africa, and episode 11 shows how African fishermen are using sustainable refrigeration to prevent waste, and much more. 

Ice on Fire: Like Earthshot, this movie-length HBO documentary, narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, focuses on solutions to the global environmental crisis. It clearly explains how the retreat of Arctic ice is part of the cycle of global warming, then explores what scientists and civilians are doing to make a difference – from accurately documenting and reporting on planetary changes, to developing carbon capture technology and more.

Brandy Hellville: HBO documentary on the global impact of fast fashion. Director Eva Orner spotlights the owners who reap profits and dodge the consequences, and the Ghanaian recyclers at the end of the line who get dumped with over 7.5 million pounds (around 3,4 million kgs) of “donated” fast fashion from the US every week, most of which ends up choking the oceans around Ghana’s coast. 

For the kids

Penguins of Madagascar: Animated comedy. An all-star voice cast, including Benedict Cumberbatch and John Malkovich, voice some familiar penguin pals from the original Madagascar movie. The penguins get kidnapped by mad genius Pacific Octopus Dave, who has disguised himself as human scientist Dr Octavius Brine after being trafficked as one of the attractions at zoos and aquariums around the world. 

Shark Tale: The mobster threat “sleep with the fishes” gets a whole new twist in this animated comedy. A clout-chasing fish named Oscar (Will Smith) boasts that he killed the son of local shark mob boss Don Lino (Robert De Niro) after an anchor falls on him, and he teams up with the mobster’s disgraced younger son Lenny (Jack Black), a vegetarian, to build his reputation as a “sharkslayer”.

Dolphin Tale: Family drama inspired by the true story of Winter, a bottlenose dolphin rescued by the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Lonely 11-year-old Sawyer (Nathan Gamble) is failing school when he discovers a passion for wildlife after getting tangled up in the drama surrounding the rescue of a dolphin, and meets the biologists at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. With Morgan Freeman. 

Dolphin Tale 2: In this family adventure tale, the team from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium search for a new companion for their dolphin Winter after his surrogate mother dies of old age. With Ashley Judd, Harry Connick Jr and Nathan Gamble. The film features dolphins from the real-life Clearwater Aquarium, and Winter really does have a prosthetic tail!

Dolphin Boy: A young dolphin named Snowball rescues a baby from drowning after he falls out of an aeroplane, and raises him to childhood with the help of the rest of the pod in this animated adventure movie. But once the boy learns that he’s human, he uses a locket found in the aeroplane wreckage to go in search of his human mother. 

Katak the Brave Beluga: Beluga whale Katak is lagging behind his peers physically, so he embarks on a dangerous journey (made even more dangerous by humans’ impact on the environment) to the Great North to prove that he’s more grown up than he seems. 

The Snail and the Whale: Animated movie based on the 2003 picture book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. A tiny snail who longs to see the world hitches a ride with a friendly humpback whale and discovers that no matter how small you are, you can make a big difference. 

Happy Feet (from 9 June): Animated musical adventure. A baby emperor penguin who can’t sing his Heart Song to find a mate finds out that he can dance, and his “happy feet” are going to make him not only famous, but also call out to his one true love as he goes from confused hatchling to “the dancing king of emperor penguins”. With the voices of Elijah Wood and the late Robin Williams.

Happy Feet 2 (from 9 June): Animated musical adventure. Mumble and Gloria’s son Erik becomes an outcast when he can’t dance like the other emperor penguins, and he runs away from home with Mumble’s friend Ramón, falling in with a band of rebels, like Sven the flying penguin con artist.

Just for fun!

Summertide: Widowed marine biologist Martin Field (Frank Rautenbach) relocates from Italy to Cape Town’s False Bay with his two teenagers, Lucy (Evangelina Hallock) and Tristan (Jan Combrink) in this drama series about love, hope and family. The series highlights ocean conservation messages and how these impact the local fishing community, as Martin launches a trust in his late wife’s memory and sets out starting a penguin rehabilitation centre in Simon’s Town.

The Meg: Sci-fi action film. Disgraced search and rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) has a shot at redemption when billionaire Jack Morris (Rainn Wilson) and the researchers at the underwater research facility Mana One, under Dr Minway Zhang (Winston Chao), run into trouble while exploring a hidden section of the Mariana Trench. It turns out the megaladon shark isn’t extinct, it’s just hiding, hungry, and territorial. 

Deep Blue Sea: Sci-fi action film. In an underwater ocean facility that would have a James Bond villain waving fistfulls of cash, a team of scientists is conducting research by experimenting on mako sharks. But scientist Dr McCallister (Saffron Burrows) has made them super-smart, and when one escapes, everyone must fight for their lives as the facility becomes a watery death maze.

Aquaman: Half-human/Atlantean superhero Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) returns to his undersea home to defend the kingdom of Atlantis when his power-hungry half-brother King Orm (Patrick Wilson) sets his sights on world domination, starting with the ocean peoples.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom: Pirate King David Kane, aka Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), is determined to defeat Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa) so he can use his blood to perform a blood ritual that will free an evil ancient entity. Conquering Atlantis will also give him access to fuel to power ancient Atlantean machines. 

The Black Demon: Nixon Oil company inspector Paul Sturges (Josh Lucas) takes his family along when he’s sent to inspect the Diamante offshore oil rig. But their fun getaway gets off to a bad start when a massive megalodon that rig workers have nicknamed the Black Demon shows up and destroys their boat, stranding them on the rig with the environmental catastrophe that Nixon Oil has created.