The Pebble and the Penguin (soundtrack)
Critical reception
The album was given a rating of 2 and a half stars at Allmusic.com. Reviewer Peter Fawthrop wrote: "Barry Manilow's soundtrack would have upped the mediocrity on a better project, but The Pebble and the Penguin as a film was conceived with such dismal effort from the then struggling Don Bluth studio that the songs and score work on a somewhat passing level". It said that Martin Short stutters through "Sometimes I Wonder", Tim Curry belches out "Don't Make Me Laugh", and James Belushi "squeezes in some very minor singing talent" in "Looks Like I Got Me a Friend." It said "Now and Forever" is a "sweeping opener", but suggested it was an "attempt to borrow from the lyrical format of "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast", and therefore added "it does not match up to its grand ambition". It continued this comparison to the Disney film, stating that "The penguins are not as interesting as the characters in Beauty and segmenting the song's music with their speaking voices results in distracting a pretty good melody with meaningless dialogue". It found it odd that Sheena Easton and Barry Manilow's duet of "Now and Forever", which had the most "marketing value" and therefore "might have boosted the soundtrack" was surprisingly missing.<ref name="allmusic" />
The album was given a rating of 2 and a half stars at Allmusic.com. Reviewer Peter Fawthrop wrote: "Barry Manilow's soundtrack would have upped the mediocrity on a better project, but The Pebble and the Penguin as a film was conceived with such dismal effort from the then struggling Don Bluth studio that the songs and score work on a somewhat passing level". It said that Martin Short stutters through "Sometimes I Wonder", Tim Curry belches out "Don't Make Me Laugh", and James Belushi "squeezes in some very minor singing talent" in "Looks Like I Got Me a Friend." It said "Now and Forever" is a "sweeping opener", but suggested it was an "attempt to borrow from the lyrical format of "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast", and therefore added "it does not match up to its grand ambition". It continued this comparison to the Disney film, stating that "The penguins are not as interesting as the characters in Beauty and segmenting the song's music with their speaking voices results in distracting a pretty good melody with meaningless dialogue". It found it odd that Sheena Easton and Barry Manilow's duet of "Now and Forever", which had the most "marketing value" and therefore "might have boosted the soundtrack" was surprisingly missing.<ref name="allmusic" />
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