“My Penguin Friend” tells such a family friendly story it would seem to have sprung from a Disney brainstorming session.

But this tale of a penguin’s 3,000 mile swim to bond with a distant fisherman year after year is as incredible as it is true.

The fisherman João Pereira De Souza (France’s Jean Reno) happened upon a lone young penguin stranded on the beach of Ilha Grande near Rio de Janeiro.

The waddling animal was caught in an oil spill while likely headed 3,000 miles away to Patagonia where Magellanic penguins raise their families at the tip of Argentina. The penguin, named DinDim, was nursed back to health in Brazil and stayed for months.  Then one day he was gone – but not forever. He returned the following year, the first of many returns.

“I was happy to be in that story and to speak about the relationship that we can have with animals and with nature,” Reno, 76, said in a Zoom interview. At film’s end, we see footage of João, the fisherman, with DinDim. Did they meet?

“No. Because when I do characters that can be alive, I’m not trying to see them. I’m afraid if I see them, I can have the tendency of imitating them. So I didn’t see João. I saw photos.

“Because it is a fiction out of a real story. I mean, a true story, but still, it is a fiction, and I like to be free in my mind to interpret the character.”

It took 10 10-pound penguins to play DinDim, all hailing from Brazil’s Ubatuba Aquarium.

It took Reno a while to work with them.

“First you have to get used to be by the side of the animal. To have him wandering around you, so you can ‘talk’ to him. Patience is the basic.

“And you must be good in every take — because they will always choose takes where the animal is good!

“They have a big personality,” Reno learned. “They do. They do not like to be with us. They like to be among them.

“At the beginning, I was a little bit fast. And sometimes they can catch you with their beak. A beak like a knife, a razor. Very quickly they can cut you a little bit, just to to say, ‘Careful. Don’t be so rude. Be gentle.’

“At the beginning, before the shooting, I was very fast and trying to take them in. Like a dog. And they told me, ‘We’re not a dog. You have to be very patient and careful with us.’”

“My Penguin Friend” opens in theaters Friday