Penguins of Madagascar (2014) Review!!

Synopsis – Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private join forces with undercover organization The North Wind to stop the villainous Dr. Octavius Brine from destroying the world as we know it.

My Take – I am honestly surprised & disappointed to why DreamWorks Animated films are not doing well, yes they have the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, the completely sunk Shrek franchise & the Kungfu Panda franchise which is still up & running, their other better films like Rise of the Guardians (2012) & Mr Peabody & Sherman (2014) have instantly failed. anticipated. Penguins of Madagascar seemed like another one to add to the list. This film is just like what Puss in Boots (2011) is to the Shrek franchise, a spin off gasping straws of a dying franchise, in the case here is the pretty OK Madagascar series. The story follows the four scene stealer penguins – Skipper (Tom McGrath), their natural-born leader. Kowalski (Chris Miller), the brains of their hare-brained operations. Rico (Conrad Vernon), too honest with his words and too eager with his flippers. And the cute and cuddly Private (Christopher Knights), whose role in the team seems only to provide the occasional amusement for Skipper, despite his sincerest attempts at trying to convince the latter that he can do more. The penguins get caught up in an international conspiracy with a certain Dr Octavius Brine (John Malkovich). Turns out that the penguins and Dr Brine share some common history together at the New York Central Park Zoo – Dr Brine was the eight-legged centerpiece attraction at the Zoo named Dave until the penguins came along and stole all the limelight and attention. Faced with the same fate at every other zoo since, Dr Brine then hatched a plan to steal every single penguin from each of the zoos he’s been at and turn them into something else altogether using his ‘Medusa’ serum.

Enter the undercover task force dubbed ‘North Wind’ that also has the mission objective of stopping Dr Brine , led the headstrong wolf leader Agent Classified (Benedict Cumberbatch), the appropriately-named explosives specialist seal Short Fuse (Ken Jeong), the cool and beautiful owl Eva (Annet Mahendru) whom Kowalski has a crush on, or the brawny polar bear Corporal (Peter Stormare) who can’t resist hugging them penguins. Those expecting an origin story will realize soon after a hilarious prologue set in the Antarctica that this was never meant to be that. Instead, the opening is as much background to the penguins as you’ll get, beginning with a young Skipper inciting Kowalski and Rico to break away from their flock in order to find greater purpose in their lives than simply conforming to nature. So when an egg (which will eventually hatch to bear Private) rolls along their way, they decide to give chase, with a documentary crew in hot pursuit. A run-in with some leopard seals and an unintended explosion later, our heroes are set adrift on a bed of floating ice. Fast-forward to the point in ‘Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted’ where they separate from Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria by blasting off in a cannon at the circus (remember Marty’s ‘Afro Circus’ dance) and infiltrate a highly secured facility filled with gold bars in order to get at a different kind of gold – that is, a whole vending machine of golden- colored ‘Cheesy Dibbles’ just for Private on the occasion of his birthday. Their journey spans from Shanghai, Rio and finally to New York. Each destination is an opportunity for directors Eric Darnell (who co-directed each one of the ‘Madagascar’ films) and newcomer Simon J. Smith to stage a massive action setpiece that unfolds with the kind of unpredictability and inventiveness true to the penguins’ improvisational nature. There’s no point trying to describe any of them to you, because they really are meant to dazzle and astound on a visual level; and that they do with the sheer awesomeness.

It isn’t just the action that forces you to keep up; just as fast and furious are the witty one-liners that had us in stitches. Skipper is responsible for many of them (Dr Brine: “I see you’ve met my old zoo mates”; Skipper: “We were never mates. There was no mating.”), while Dr Brine gets most of the rest, most notably a recurring gag involving celebrity-name puns (“Nicolas, cage them!”, “Drew, Barry, more!”, “Charlize, they’re on the ray!”). Kudos to the writers for putting something in there for the adults, even though this is ostensibly a kids-driven animation. The frenetic pacing does come at the expense of characterization though, so besides Skipper coming into his own as a valued and significant member of the team, there isn’t much – or for that matter, anyone – else that you’ll identify with. That said, we hardly suspect that you or the kids will mind. ‘Penguins of Madagascar’ is made with but one intention, and that is as a fast-paced, quick-witted, high-energy action adventure to thrill, entertain and delight its audience. On each and every one of those counts, it succeeds tremendously, and we dare say that we had more outright fun in this movie than in any other animation we’ve seen this year. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from this solo outing, it’s that ‘Madagascar’ has gone the way of the penguins. Well, as the titular characters would say: “Mission Accomplished!”