If you're looking for a sweet family film to entertain the younger kids these holidays, Oddball will do the trick.
Unlike most animations featuring animals, Oddball is a gloriously old-fashioned live action film, set on the stunning West Coast of Australia. Oddball calls itself a "fairy tale that really happened", and tells the true story of a chicken farmer and his unruly dog, Oddball, who saved a penguin colony on an island off Warrnambool.
Oddball is a maremma sheepdog, an Italian dog breed that's big, fluffy and Labrador-like. In Tuscany they protect sheep from wolves, but in Australia they're used by chicken farmers to keep foxes out of their hen houses. Allan "Swampy" Marsh discovers some dogs are better at this than others; Oddball is more interested in snuggling up with his owner than prowling for foxes. That is until Swampy takes in an injured fairy penguin from the local colony on Middle Island and finds Oddball has an instinct to protect penguins.
This comes at the right time: Swampy's daughter Emily (Sarah Snook) is a wildlife ranger fighting for the future of the penguin colony.
Once home to thousands of birds, now only 20 call the colony home, after foxes found a swim to the island made for an easy dinner.