Penguins of Madagascar (2014)
Certified: U
Duration: 92 minutes
Directed by: Simon J. Smith, Eric Darnell
Voices of: Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Conrad Vernon, Christopher Knights, Benedict Cumberbatch, John Malkovich, Ken Jeong, Annet Mahendru, Peter Stormare, Werner Herzog
KRS Releasing Ltd

It has been 10 years since Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller) and Rico (Conrad Vernon), three penguins, have saved an egg from the mouth of devouring seals. That egg led to the birth of Private (Christopher Knights) and from that time the four penguins have become a sort of military, undercover squad.

What they do not know is that the foursome has made an enemy in the form of Dave The Octopus (John Malkovich). Dave had been a zoo favourite and the cute penguins had taken the spotlight away from him.

His nefarious plan has led to him developing a master plan whereby all penguins, including the quartet, will be transformed to look and seem ugly to humans.

Help for the penguins arrives in the form of the rescue team known as North Wind.

These are led by a wolf called Classified (Benedict Cumberbatch), his assistant the bear Corporal (Peter Stormare), a short tempered seal known as Short Fuse (Ken Jeong) and also an owl Eva (Annet Mahendru).

Thus begins a race for the Penguins led by Skipper and North Wind led by Classified to stop Dave The Octopus and his plan.

The Madagascar movies have made a return to DreamWorks of about $1.8 billion and 2018 will see the fourth instalment roll out. Meanwhile, the loveable and hilarious penguins from the franchise spin-off now have their own movie after a totally successful run of three seasons of an animated series on Nickelodeon.

It is to the merit of the little critters and their excellent one-liners that they shoot off so joyfully that they manage to translate well into the feature film format and it ends up being a colourful piece of animated eye candy that has ‘oomph’ enough to win over young and old alike with its mix of charm, silliness and old-style caper comedy.

John Malkovich as Dave the Octopus is an inspired voicing choice. This is an evil lord who has a nefarious plan that is very much moulded in the style of the best James Bond villain, even better as he has eight hands to be even more evil! Annet Mahendru gives the character of Eva the owl real subtlety.

The film makes the best use of how the penguins get into trouble and in how – they extricate themselves out of it

The film is really fun as the young tykes will be engrossed watching the penguin and North Wind teams trying to outdo each other.

Under the skilled hands of Eric Darnell, who had been co-helmer of the other Madagascar

features, and Simon J. Smith who had helmed Bee Movie, Penguins takes on a new life.

It becomes both an original story and also a rousing adventure. The central theme here is to push forward with the silliness and yet make its characters very likeable.

I am sure that the result will ensure that DreamWorks will sell lots of penguin merchandise.

The film makes the best use of how the penguins get into trouble and in how – by hook or by crook – they extricate themselves out of it.

The animation in itself is top-notch, colourful, characterful and very well paced and meshed.

The animation is fluid and adds to the film’s overall sense of achievement.

By the end one feels that this is a well rounded movie, one that does best whenever the penguins are on screen and also shows that, most of all, this is an animated feature that achieves what it sets out to be: fun.

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