Penguins of Madagascar

This review may contain spoilers!

The movie adaptation of the spin off tv show of the film franchise that has already suffered too many sequels. I would give Penguins of Madagascar a 3/10.

The Penguins film certainly had good pacing and moved along at a nice enough speed. I also felt that the music within the film was really quite good and classic to the franchise.

Tom McGrath, who voiced Skipper, really lead this film well; of all the main characters he certainly had the most consistent performance. Christopher Knights, who voiced Private, had some really good development within the film and I enjoyed the fact that the film almost seemed to revolve around that. Ken Jeong, who voiced Short Fuse, was one of the best examples of comedic relief out of all the characters within the film.

Yet it was Benedict Cumberbatch, who voiced Classified, that really owned the film. His strong acting talent effortlessly outshined the other actors within the film and he gave a genuine performance to a film that did not ask for much. The scene in which he explained his attack plan was one of the best of the film.

The film lacked an engaging plot, in fact the trivial predictability and the consistent tired puns and humour was depressing. Beyond that the animation within the film did not challenge itself; there was nothing new to it and as such Penguins became nothing more than a Dreamworks cash grab.

Chris Miller, who voiced Kowalski, was subject to a romance plot that lacked intrigue and his dialogue was considerably less than that of other major characters. Conrad Vernon, who voiced Rico, is a poor character; the consistent hisses and grumbles that he makes are just annoying and he adds nothing to the film. John Malkovich, who voiced Dave, is one of the weakest villains that Dreamworks has churned out; his humour was also scraping the bottom of the barrel. Annet Mahendru, who voiced Eva, was given the treatment of the sole female role being put into a romance subplot. Peter Stormare, who voiced Corporal, was just an over the top performance with no real attention to character. Andy Richter and Danny Jacobs, who voiced Mort and King Julien respectively, gave the cameo that no one asked for but helped clear up some major gaping plot holes that the film ended on.