Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private join forces with undercover organization The North Wind to stop the villainous Dr. Octavius Brine from destroying the world as we know it.
The holidays are upon us. You can take your niece and nephew to The Hunger Games and bore them with political theory about the value of propaganda, or you can go see Penguins of Madagascar and they can laugh and run around and make octopus noises. I know which I’d prefer.
Barely bothering to make sense, this is fast and furious but also flightless.
Much like Shrek's Puss in Boots spin-off, Penguins of Madagascar passes the time pleasantly without expanding the franchise's universe in a particularly imaginative or challenging way.
There aren’t many films as well-written as this: it’s a Christmas slam-dunk.
This ranks alongside The Lego Movie as one of the liveliest, wittiest animated features in recent years.
Passes the time well enough. Penguins are cute.
The gag rate really is something to behold, ensuring this has more in common with old Looney Tunes cartoons or the screwball sensibility of Tina Fey’s sitcom 30 Rock than its Pixar-chasing forebears.
The action is non-stop and quite fun but the plot’s a little simplistic and it’s too crowded with characters for us to overly care about anyone in particular.
The result remains oddly entertaining.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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