Review of Penguins of Madagascar (2014) by Patrick L — 01 Apr 2015

"Penguins of Madagascar is a fast and funny animated adventure".

Movie Review: Penguins of Madagascar.

Date Viewed: November 29 2014.

Directed By Eric Darnell (Madagascar) and Simon J. Smith (Bee Movie).

Screenplay By Michael Colton, John Aboud and Brandon Sawyer, Story By Alan J. Schoolcraft, Brent Simons, Michael Colton and John Aboud, Based on characters created by Tom McGrath and Eric Darnell.

Featuring the voices of Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Conrad Vernon, Christopher Knights,.

Benedict Cumberbatch, John Malkovich, Annet Mahendru, Ken Jeong and Peter Stormare.

Those penguins from "Madagascar" are back but this time they star in their own movie. "Penguins of Madagascar" is a fun animated spy movie with funny jokes and good voice work from Benedict Cumberbatch and John Malkovich. Sure, this movie is silly but it will keep you and your little ones entertained over the holidays.

After the events of "Madagascar 3", Skipper (voiced by Tom McGrath), Kowalski (voiced by Chris Miller), Rico (voiced by Conrad Vernon) and Private (voiced by Christopher Knights) depart from the circus and break into Fort Knox just to buy some Cheesy Dibbles for Private's birthday. Soon, the four penguins get kidnapped by an evil octopus named Dave (voiced by John Malkovich). Dave (who disguises himself as Dr. Octavius Brine) wants revenge on the penguins for stealing away his zoo fame. His plan is to capture all the penguins in the world and transform them into ugly monsters.

Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private are later saved by the "North Wind", an elite undercover inter-species task force. The group's leader is a wolf named Agent Classified (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) and he wants the penguins to stay out of his mission but they go after Dave anyway because well, those penguins were born to be spies. One joke and one action sequence comes right at you after another like a golf ball. Sometimes the ball hits a hole in one, sometimes the ball misses the hole.

These covert penguins have their usual positions, Skipper is the leader and strategist of the team, Kowalski is the genius, Rico is the weapons specialist and Private is the cute penguin who doesn't have any skills. Sure, it is not one of Dreamworks Animation's strongest efforts but "Penguins of Madagascar" is a pleasant and funny movie.