My Review of Penguins of Madagascar · 9:05pm Aug 9th, 2021
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
Greetings, my excellent viewers! This is Mr. J back with another movie review for today! This afternoon, I will be talking about what I think of the 2014 DreamWorks film called Penguins of Madagascar, the second of the two films requested by A Man Undercover. Now, I remember watching a Nickelodeon show with the same name while growing up and enjoying nearly every episode from seasons 1-2 if memory serves. I was actually surprised to find out the show got its own movie; since I always enjoyed the series, I figured it would be a good idea to check this out. I watched this for the first time around last winter or so. And boy, it was really entertaining to watch!
This is basically an origin movie for our beloved penguins who grew up together and went through an adventurous journey that would change their lives forever and become the unstoppable penguins we all know and love. We are re-introduced to Skipper (voiced by Tom McGrath), Kowalski (voiced by Chris Miller), Private (voiced by Christopher Knights), and Rico (voiced by Conrad Vernon). I love each of them as they are all my favorites since childhood. They were the same penguins I remember from both the original Madagascar films and series who were as hilarious and entertaining as ever.
Even more interesting is the fact that this film even focused on Private as he is obviously the youngest and most overlooked of the team. He is often treated as too cute and less useful than the other members which created a conflict between him and Skipper. I thought it was a brilliant move on the part of the filmmakers and screenwriters to give more character development for Private and make him more as a character as opposed to just being a slapstick punching bag. Props to Eric Darnell and Simon J. Smith for making such a direction for the characters and the film as a whole.
I even enjoyed the new characters this movie introduced in this film, namely Agent Classified (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) and Short Fuse (voiced by Ken Jeong). The dynamic relationship they started with our penguins was well-established, and every comedic moment both sides had was well-timed and executed perfectly. Although certain scenes with other supporting characters were a hit and miss, they were still okay.
Another character I likewise enjoyed watching was the main antagonist, Dave (also known as Dr. Octavius Brine when disguised as a human). That vengeful octopus was really interesting as a villain and as a character. His backstory was both sad and really sensible as he was previously a zoo animal who attracted many people for all the wonderful tricks he did until many penguins arrived and unintentionally stole all the love and praise away from him. Rejected, ignored, and neglected in every zoo he was taken to, he sought revenge against all the penguins by creating devices with a dangerous serum to mutate them into mentally disfigured monsters so that people will shun them out of fear and take them out.
That just makes him a compelling villain with strong intellect and with logical motivations. John Malkovich did a great performance as Dave by giving him a relatable yet cunning voice to make him so evil. Honestly, I feel really bad for him for the way he grew up. In fact, a part of me wishes to give him a hug out of compassion. But then again, thirsting for attention can really change people even in reality. Jealousy can transform a man into a monster especially when he’s deprived of all attention and praise he lusts after.
Overall, this movie was immensely enjoyable and entertaining for its wonderful animation, great voice acting, and for the intriguing story. For that, I give it a 10/10!
Smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave. 😎
This is a great review, as always. Though, do you think you could review something like The Amazing World of Gumball? Sorry.
That plane scene was funny.
I’m glad you enjoyed this movie. Your review was worth the wait.
I analyzed the film myself one time and openly gave it four and a half out of five stars.
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I hate that show with a passion, so I won’t give it a review especially since I didn’t watch all the episodes. Good thing too.
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Oh. Sorry about that.
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It’s alright. Thanks for asking though.
Whether it’s just me is something I don’t know, but the one reason as to why I awarded the film four and a half stars instead of five was because of this:
The penguins are amazing at being commandos, and they’re capable of taking on any mission that gets presented to them. However, whenever they were in the presence of the North Wind, they suddenly got dumbed down to where they were unexpectedly out of character, constantly looking incompetent and messing things up in front of the North Wind. The only time it didn’t happen was starting from when Private rescued the North Wind from Dave’s doom machine onwards.
Was that something you yourself noticed?
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Not really.
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I was just wondering. It just seemed strange that the penguins went through those unexpected shifts in character.