THE PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR

As seen in

www.camrosecanadian.com

Skipper, Rico, Kowalski, and Private are back! Dreamworks property The Penguins of Madagascar have finally stolen the feature-length limelight to themselves, in the aptly (yet horribly unoriginal) titled “Penguins of Madagascar”. The penguins, if you recall, have already went solo on a weekly basis in the televised spinoff of Madagascar, also called The Penguins of Madagascar.  And you wonder why I called it unoriginal.

This flick goes back to the origin story of our penguins in Antarctica. It shows how they got together, and how they learned they were a force to be reckoned with.  The tale takes us through until the end of Madagascar 3, and their next big move – breaking into Fort Knox!  However, it is during this daring crime (committed only to obtain some tasty Cheezy Dibbles) that they encounter a very angry octopus in the evil Dr. Octavius Brine (voiced by the legendary John Malkovich).  They find out Brine has a grudge with the adorable trio and the rest of their penguin kind.  After escaping his clutches they are chased by Brine (also known Dale…I mean Dave) and his fellow eight-legged henchmen.  During a chase, they run into another group of heroes called the North Wind.  These animals, voiced by a powerful cast, have been chasing Brine for a while and will do anything to capture him – even if the penguins are collateral damage.  Now the reluctant groups must join forces to stop these evil octopi from transforming the world’s adorable penguins into hideous creatures and changing the world as we know it!

Overall, the best and worst part was the simplicity of the story.  There is not much else going on, but that lets the penguins steal the show.  The inept yet fearless leader in Skipper (still Tom McGrath) stays true to form the full 92 minutes, which is usually a challenge in characters known mainly for limited screen-time. Kowalski, Private, and Rico provide the support required from them, and are voiced by returning Chris Miller, Christopher Knights and character newcomer Conrad Vernon (replacing the incomparable Diedrich Bader).  The North Wind’s vocal cast was superb, led by (Star Trek: Into the Darkness baddie) Benedict Cumberpatch, and joined by Ken Jeong (The Hangover trilogy), Peter Stormare (2005’s Constantine, among others) and relative unknown Annet Mahendru.  This film won’t get much critical acclaim.  Dreamworks is kind of known as always the bridesmaid never the bride of Best Animated Feature hardware.  Part of the reason may be the aforementioned lack of detailed/deep stories (like Toy Story 3 and the likes) that Disney tends to churn out.  However, if you just can’t help but to love those silly penguins (as I do), this flick will be just the right dose of cute and fun for all!