Review of Penguins of Madagascar (2014) by Georgian S — 11 Mar 2015

Over the past four decades, "Saturday Night Live" has taken characters that played a small role in the show's success and given them movies of their own - with very mixed results. For every "Blues Brothers" and "Wayne's World", there's "The Ladies Man" or "It's Pat". A concept that works well as part of a larger production, or a character or group of characters that are very enjoyable in small doses, aren't always as entertaining when carrying an entire feature film. The idea in question can buckle under the weight of that responsibility. Such is the case with "Penguins of Madagascar" (PG, 1:32). This movie takes the four penguins that appeared in the highly successful "Madagascar" films and expects them to fly solo. The problem is that penguins are incapable of flying. Much like their movie.

This film serves as a sort of origin story for the four tight-knit, military-minded penguins. As the film opens, Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller), and Rico (Conrad Vernon) are fighting to save themselves - and a rolling penguin egg - from an obnoxious documentary film crew, the dangers of an abandoned ship and a group of hungry leopard seals. The three penguins survive (obviously, or this would have been a VERY short movie) and they save the egg, from which emerges an apparently orphaned baby penguin whom they name Private (voiced by Christopher Knights) and adopt as one of their own.

The four penguins are eventually performing together in a circus (an overlap with part of the story from the third "Madagascar" movie), but they go on an excursion to celebrate Private's 10th birthday, an excursion which ends up taking them around the world. First, they break into Fort Knox to get... snacks... from a break room vending machine. Something inside the snack machine pulls all four of the penguins inside. Then, the machine breaks through the building's ceiling and is hauled by a helicopter to a submarine base in Venice, Italy. (If you're struggling to make sense out of all this, you're not alone.).

In Venice, they meet the mastermind of their kidnapping, and the movie's villain - Dave. No, not Dave the Minion (I wish!) - Dave the Octopus. He masquerades as a human, Dr. Octavius Brine, and is voiced by John Malkovich. It seems that Dave is upset with the penguins for something that really isn't their fault, but he has a diabolical plan to even the score. It's too bad that this little para-military group of flightless birds has more gumption than brains. Even the penguins of Madagascar need help against this villain.

Enter the North Wind. They're a multi-species group of secret operatives who travel the world helping animals in distress. They've been onto Dr. Brine / Dave for some time, but when they rescue the four penguins, North Wind gets additional intel and more help in their mission. But the penguins aren't sure how much they need the help of a grey wolf whom they call "Classified" (Benedict Cumberbatch), a polar bear named Corporal (Peter Stormare), a seal named Short Fuse (Ken Jeong) and an owl named Eva (Annet Mahendru). And North Wind is not sure how useful the penguins are going to be to them, but they better all figure it out and get past their differences - for the sake of penguins everywhere!

"Penguins of Madagascar" doesn't work well because the penguin characters aren't compelling enough to carry a film of their own and, within the film, there's just too much going on - much of it coming off, as the teenagers might say, as very random. Oh, I hear what you're thinking: "It's a cartoon - and it's for kids! It's supposed to be over-the-top!" Agreed, but what's wrong with making enough sense for older kids and parents to enjoy it too? I mean, come on! A character named "Skipper" who calls his team's youngest member by an Army rank - and himself is drawn as a penguin with a flat head just so it looks like he has a flat top hair cut? And All the way to Fort Knox - for THEIR VENDING MACHINE? Where an unknown enemy just HAPPENS to be waiting for them? Then to Venice? And then to China? Why??? Hey, I like indulging my inner child from time to time. I enjoy a good family movie as much as the next movie fan. It's just that this one was distractingly dumb.

Maybe it was because this movie had a different creative team than the "Madagascar" films from which it is derived. This movie's directors are Eric Darnell and Simon J. Smith. The directors of all three "Madagascar" films were Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath. In addition, one or both "Madagascar" directors helped write each of those films, but neither was involved in writing this film's screenplay, which came from three writers who are all new to the "Madagascar" franchise.

And I don't think I'm alone in my opinions, if the dearth of laughter and other expressions of approval from the kids around me is any indication. As for the presentation, the animation wasn't spectacular or unique, but it was nevertheless as impressive as other recent computer-animated features. And the film does have a good sense of fun about it and a few funny moments, but it was just not funny enough - or fun enough - to make "Penguins of Madagascar" your best choice for an animated family film. "C+".