Plus here are the Sindy pages from the 1999 Argos catalogue:

It's Penguin Day! Here are ten penguin-tastic properties you could enjoy while celebrating...

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Happy Feet

This cute 2006 movie follows tap dancing penguin Mumble (Elijah Wood) who has to be banished from home to find somewhere he truly belongs. Voice acting credits for the film and its inevitable sequel boast the likes of Robin Williams, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon - but that still wasn't enough to stop Happy Feet Two becoming a box office bomb.

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The Adventures of Scamper the Penguin

The Adventures of Lolo the Penguin, to give the film its proper title, was a co-production between Japan and the Soviet Union, completed in 1986. Lolo (Scamper) and his best friend Pépé get lost and have to find their way back home, with the help of the usual menagerie of animal characters, only to find that poachers have captured all the baby penguins to sell to zoos. Lolo and friends save the day - with the number of fatalities accrued along the way depending on whether you're watching the original version or the edited English language dub.

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Avenger Penguins

Cosgrave Hall Films - the studio behind the likes of Danger Mouse and Count Duckula - produced 26 episodes of these biker penguins for CITV between 1993 and 1994.

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Pingu

Pingu - a cute if mischievous penguin with a little sister named Pinga - was created by Otmar Gutmann for Swiss TV way back in 1986. 104 episodes were made before production moved to the UK with the backing of the BBC in 2003. Another 52 episodes followed but Pingu didn't have to rely solely on repeats for long: Japan took up the baton with new series Pingu in the City in 2017.

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Chilly Willy

Part of the Lantz studio line-up, Chilly - a penguin who doesn't like the cold - soon became their second most popular character, just behind Woody Woodpecker. He appeared in over 50 cartoons between 1953 and 1972, and remains a supporting character in updated Lantz/Universal offerings like The New Woody Woodpecker Show. Pictured above is his very own Funko Pop.

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It's the halfway point and the perfect time for a little Sanrio interlude. Alongside more famous stablemate Hello Kitty, there are two adorable penguin characters: the ever grumpy Badtz-Maru (debuted 1993) and my all time favourite, Tuxedo Sam (debuted 1979), who is known for his great fashion sense and his collection of 365 bow ties. :)

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The Pebble and the Penguin

Hubie is a nice guy who seems doomed to lose his lady love, Marina, to bad guy Drake. But will he be able to win her over with his very special pebble? Major problems between MGM and Sullivan Bluth Studios lead to this being a box office disaster in 1995. And, yeah, if you shelled out to see this at the cinema you'd probably be disappointed. As background fare for the kids on a quiet afternoon however, it can hold its own just fine.

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Feathers McGraw

Having the reputation of being cute and cuddly, it's rare to see penguins cast as the baddies of the piece. Feathers McGraw proves that to be an oversight in 1993's Wallace and Gromit offering 'The Wrong Trousers'. It's won piles of awards, including an oscar, so if you haven't seen it already you're in for a real treat!

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Pororo

Pororo the Little Penguin is a Korean pre-school show that won over audiences around the world. As of 2019 there are over 50 episodes, plus metric tons of merchandise. In 2014 Pororo was chosen as the transport mascot for Seoul and in summer 2016 he even had his own mini theme park open at Seoul COEX Mall.

Penguins - being cute and easily recognisable - also feature in such other inoffensive preschool fare as 3-2-1 Penguins!, The Paz Show, Pecola, and The Octonauts.

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Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales

Produced by Total Television for CBS between 1963 and 1966, the character made a comeback for a series of Youtube shorts in 2014. Tennessee Tuxedo and his friend Chumley the Walrus get into all manner of scrapes and escapades, all while learning how lights work or what space is, to prove to Newton N. Minnow, former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission, that television was not an educational 'wasteland'.

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Penguins of Madagascar

I totally saved the best 'til last! Skipper, Rico, Kowalski and Private were the real stars of the original Madagascar movie, and they soon had their own spin-off TV series, film, and a generally enlarged role in the rest of the Madagascar franchise. Deservedly so, too!

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I've always had a soft spot for public information films - they appeal to me as both a useful means of disseminating important information, and the ease with which they can be spoofed. Plus there's the fact that so many of them are absolutely terrifying.

Nothing says success like ensuring entire generations have nightmares...

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#5. Green Cross Code

There have been so many different iterations of the green cross code campaign, from Batman teaching London kids kerb drill in the 1940s right through to the 'staying alive' hedgehogs of my own childhood. My favourite, however, has to be 1983's Close To The Edge which uses Grandmaster Flash's The Message to teach us that Johnny was a fool who didn't act cool. He walked on out, he broke every rule. He should have checked it out, he should have used his head - if he don't watch out he's gonna wind up dead!

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#4. THINK!

The mark of a good public information campaign is that those who see it absorb the information and act upon it. The 'it's 30 for a reason' ad first aired in 2006 but I still know that if you hit her at 40 mph there's an 80% chance she'll die - and I don't even drive.

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#3. Lonely Water

1973's The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water is a masterpiece of the genre. Not only did the children who saw it never want to go swimming in lonely water, they would have preferred to stay well away from water, full stop.

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#2. Protect and Survive

The Cold War was all but over by the time I was born and I was lucky enough to never experience the Protect and Survive campaign firsthand. That hardly diluted the powerful effect it had on me. Patrick Allen's voice still sends shivers down my spine, and Threads will forever top my scariest horror films list.

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#1. Scarfolk Council

Scarfolk Council - the local authority I've always imagined to cover 'local place for local people' Royston Vasey - is the brainchild of writer and designer Richard Littler. Forever locked in the 1970s, Scarfolk uses the public information campaign to instil the fear of God into its residents... and the rest of us!

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Do you have a favourite public information film / campaign? Let me know in the comments! :)

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