Penguins Of Madagascar
Director: Eric Darnell
Starring: Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights
92 mins; Class U;
KRS Releasing Ltd

Penguins of Madagascar is a spin-off featuring the penguins from the Madagascar franchise.

Fancying themselves elite spies, the quartet Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private (voiced respectively by Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Conrad Vernon, Christopher Knights) aim to take down the villainous Dr Octavius Brine (John Malkovich), who seeks revenge against the penguin community for their cuteness by zapping them with green goo that will turn them into teenage mutant ninja penguins.

Or something. It’s a children’s film, don’t expect depth. Or logic.

Kudos to the voice providers

This film will, in all probability, appeal to the younger set, with its bright, colourful and attractive animation; non-stop manic action; engaging characters running the gamut from the cute and cuddly to evil and monstrous; and enough dollops of humour with the script by John Aboud, Michael Colton, and Brandon Sawyer hits the right buttons most of the time.

The film’s opening sequence is possibly its funniest, serving both as backstory and a sign of things to come. We witness the penguins in their impossibly cute youth as Skipper, Kowalski and Rico witness the birth of Private.

It is a hilarious scene, possibly the only slice of humour that will sail over the young ones’ heads, the rest of the funny coming from broader sources. Pun-lovers will chuckle at the endless jokes featuring celebrities’ names, “Nicholas! Cage him…” being a typical example.

The rest of the film features some fab set-pieces and, in the performance stakes, kudos must go to the leading quartet of voice-providers. McGrath, Miller, Vernon and Knights may not have famous names, yet they deserve to be on the strength of the work they do here. They really bring the characters to life with warmth and humour and the film really works thanks to them.