Thomas "Dylan" Popper Jr. (Jim Carrey) is a divorced realtor whose father traveled to many far places around the world during his childhood. When his father dies, a crate containing a gentoo penguin (Captain) shows up at his doorstep. Eventually, due to a miscommunication, more penguins arrive (Bitey, Stinky, Lovey, Nimrod, and Loudey), bringing the total to six. Popper initially intends to donate the penguins to a local zoo, but changes his mind when his children, Janie Popper (Madeline Carroll) and Billy Popper (Maxwell Perry Cotton), fall in love with the birds.
At the same time, Popper is given the task of buying Tavern on the Green, an old restaurant that he used to eat at with his father as a child, with the intent of tearing it down and building a new development in its place. However, its elderly owner, Selma Van Gundy (Angela Lansbury), will only sell it to someone who she deems a person of true value.
Having the penguins around helps Popper to become closer to his children and he begins dating their mother, Amanda Popper (Carla Gugino), again. The penguins eventually lay three eggs. Two of the eggs hatched and one doesn’t. Popper becomes obsessed with saving the last egg, losing his job in the process.
Upon realizing that the egg can’t be saved, Popper feels he is not capable of raising the penguins and donates them to the zoo. He then refocuses his attention on purchasing the Tavern on the Green. His children and ex-wife, however, are disappointed in his decision, seeing it as wrong. Popper then finds a lost letter from his father which had been delivered with the first penguin, Captain. In it, his father tells him to hold his children close and love them, just as this penguin would love him.
He becomes guilt-ridden over his decision to give away the penguins and is determined to go to the zoo to take them back. Along with his ex-wife and children, Popper rescues the penguins which were going to be separated and traded to other zoos. Upon seeing how Popper had reunited his family and rescued the penguins, the owner of Tavern on the Green, Selma Van Gundy, agrees to sell him the restaurant. But rather than tear it down as once planned, Popper renovates the restaurant and reopens it.
Nat Jones (Clark Gregg), the penguin expert of the New York Zoo on the other hand, is presumably arrested for trying to smuggle the penguins out of New York away from the Poppers.
At the end of the film, Popper and his family travel to Antarctica with the penguins, allowing them to live with their own kind. Popper's first penguin, Captain, is revealed to have laid another egg. Popper tells his children that they'll have to come back and visit when the baby, who he named Bald Eagle (after the code name he used for his father), is born.
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