The Penguins of Madagascar (November 26th, 2014)

[Chaotic]

A spinoff of DreamWorks Animation's Madagascar franchise, The Penguins of Madagascar has added Benedict Cumberbatch and John Malkovich to its voice cast.

Cumberbatch, who starred earlier this year in Star Trek Into Darkness, will voice an animal working for the CIA who is tracking the adventure's villain, to be voiced by Malkovich. Malkovich is in theaters now as part of the ensemble of RED 2.

To be directed by Simon J. Smith with a script by Michael Colton and John Aboud, The Penguins of Madagascar hits theaters March 27, 2015.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=107401

[jmb1381]

I've gotta say,I know their only suppose to be secondary characters but I'm looking forward to this.

[detective392]

Trailer has been released. Looks funny.

THE PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR - Official Trailer (2014) [HD] - YouTube

[Jasonic]

The penguins were the best part of the Madagascar movies, and I do look forward to this. However, I didn't much care for what I saw in the trailer. Still hope it ends up being good.

[rikraq]

I'm looking forward to seeing this this weekend. They were the best bits of Madagascar.

[Britnasty]

This was indeed hilarious. There's definitely a lot of adult jokes in this that will fly right over kids heads, but it was really great.

The 3D was largely ineffective but no real surprise there.

4/5 though for me. My two cousins (12 & 9) liked it, but didn't laugh much.

[assydingo]

Cute and funny. Pretty much what I was hoping it would be.

[RingOfHonor]

Has anyone seen this in 3D? Thoughts? Worth the extra money?

[Comicman494]

Originally Posted by RingOfHonor

Has anyone seen this in 3D? Thoughts? Worth the extra money?

I did. I had $15 in cash from buying some Dreamworks BDs so it came out to about $8 for two tickets. Worth it at that price but probably not much more.

[Hubunkey]

I saw it with the family yesterday, I would give it a 2/5. It was really boring and too much of a kiddy film, There was one moment where I chuckled (The coconut line) but other than that is was beyond dumb and if you have seen the Nickelodeon TV series than you know what to expect from this movie, which seemed more like a Made for TV film instead of a theatrical release.

On the plus side my son and wife enjoyed it and my daughter thought it was ok.

[RingOfHonor]

Originally Posted by Hubunkey

I saw it with the family yesterday, I would give it a 2/5. It was really boring and too much of a kiddy film, There was one moment where I chuckled (The coconut line) but other than that is was beyond dumb and if you have seen the Nickelodeon TV series than you know what to expect from this movie, which seemed more like a Made for TV film instead of a theatrical release.

On the plus side my son and wife enjoyed it and my daughter thought it was ok.

Went to see this today with movie cash and I'd say pretty much the same exact thing. Oh well at least it killed some time before the hobbit marathon.

[Terence23]

Wasn't really looking forward to this movie but had to go and watch it thanks to the kids at home (my own as well as their first cousins, who were visiting us for Thanksgiving) who literally went mad raving about both the Penguins of Madagascar movie as well as game. Must admit that the movie did elicit quite a lot of laughs, especially Skipper - who was touted to 'have the heart of an action hero and the swagger to match' - totally loved the way he was 100% confident that only his team was capable of finding out the truth!

It is quite surprising that filmmakers are coming out with full-fledged movies based not exactly on the protagonists of the story, like this Penguins of Madagascar flick after the success of the Madagascar film series. Have heard that a similar spin-off to Despicable Me called Minions is also on the cards, all set to release mid next year. That would be an interesting movie to watch as well, even more so than this penguins one.

[Spirit Zero]

Penguins of Madagascar (2014)

A fourth sequel in the Madagascar franchise technically but as you can see its a spin-off about those quirky penguins. I guess this was a logical move because lets be honest the main characters in that franchise were a bit annoying and had been milked pretty good. Using these little guys for an all out comedic adventure makes sense yet at the same time it does feel like a desperate move to me. Oddly enough this movie is apparently unrelated to the kids TV series of the same name, and that series was also unrelated to the movie franchise also, kinda makes me ask why and how!

There aren't too many directions this kids movie could of taken in all honesty. The main four characters are a sneaky highly organised team of espionage types...in a cute n funny way...so naturally this means another Bond-esque espionage type adventure (ugh!). Yes that's right, we haven't quite had enough of that genre so hey lets do it some more with penguins, hey how unoriginal could it possibly be??

So there's this octopus right, and he's been the centre of attention in his home zoo for a long time, that is until the penguins turn up and steal his thunder. All of a sudden everybody loves the penguins and Dave the octopus (yes that's right Dave) is kicked to the curb. He is sent off to other zoos where the same thing happens over and over. Eventually Dave gets fed up with this and decides he wants revenge on all penguin kind (in the zoos), so he disguises himself as a human (yes that's right) and sets to work on a secret formula that turns all penguins into green mutant zombie penguins. Only the main four hero penguins can stop him...with a little help from another highly organised team of animal espionage operatives that include a grey wolf, a snowy owl, a polar bear and a harp seal.

Yeah OK this is a kids movie and its complete fluff sure, but this plot is so utterly inane its...um laughable. Since when would an octopus be a zoos main attraction, and you're telling me all these zoos didn't have penguins for such long periods, one of the most common animals in a zoo along with elephants. The octopus is called Dave...Dave!! he disguises himself as a human and has an army of little octopi henchmen...really. What exactly is the point of his plan? to make all penguins ugly mutants and...? then maybe he'll be the centre of attention again...until another creature comes along and steals his thunder. Did there really need to be another group of animal spies? Because now you have the highly generic cliched idea of the penguins being the inefficient clumsy team that get by on pure luck alongside the really slick cool team that are a very professional no nonsense operation with real skills. Its a standard 101 comedy plot concept people! couldn't you stretch any further than that?!

Yes I know I'm being all kinds of a bad sport by ripping into this children's movie but it just bugs me. They churn out these cookie cutter animation flicks with little care or concern to actual quality, they literately seem to think that using an A-list cast of stars for the voices will somehow make things all better. Yes eggs Benedict Cumberland pie is in this because its the trendy thing to do right now, cast him in everything, who cares. What's that you say...John Malkovich is voicing the octopus villain Dave...well gee that makes all the difference doesn't it.

Everything about this movie is utterly bog standard with little to no imagination involved whatsoever. Yet another espionage parody with the same damn characters over and over, the same adventure, the same gadgets, the same thrills and spills, yet another hip hop music track over the end credits (facepalm!), the same everything!!! Its like they just thought to use the slightly more popular characters from the Madagascar franchise and try to milk them dry with their own franchise that's actually pretty much the same shit as the Madagascar films...oh wait, that's exactly what they've done. I admit the only thing that is remotely enjoyable here are the four penguins and their slapstick tomfoolery, albeit only two of them are actually any good. Tom McGrath as the leader Skipper is easily the best thing here with his Zapp Brannigan-like voice whilst the brains of team Kowalski comes in second.

Its all about on par with the other Madagascar movies and its annoying menagerie of characters, and just as daft. I have moaned about silly things yes and I know the movie is completely off the wall and isn't suppose to make a lick of sense, but I think that route can really be a mistake at times. I find it much funnier when you take a fantasy concept like this and merge it within grounded reality like 'Toy Story' so there are actual realistic laws to abide by. When its just a free fall of silliness it doesn't always work, some originality helps too of course. The bright colourful visuals will keep kids entertained I'm sure but the frantic lunacy and horribly overused cliched ideas will bore most adults I think, and no Benedict Cumberbatch doesn't make this any better.

4/10