Comic relief in animated movies typically don't translate well to starring roles in their own movie. Most of the time, a studio typically sees profit in some of their movies and try to take the funniest characters from their movie series and try to give them their own film, mostly to unsuccessful results. The most notable example was Pixar's disastrous "Cars 2" which ended up becoming one of my least favorite animated movies of the decade so far. With that said, I did go in nervous to "Penguins of Madagascar". I really liked the Madagascar series due to it's very funny humor with some good laughs coming from the penguins. Though I really think that they are good characters, I wasn't sure a movie about them would work out well. Luckily enough, it does have some very funny moments, yet I feel at times that the film is essentially two films combined into one which results in some unbalanced elements. What exactly do I mean, you may ask? Well I'll explain why.At first, the film actually did start off very promising. The Penguins, Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private (played by four of DreamWorks own employees, Tom McGarth, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights, and Conrad Vernon) decide to leave the circus behind, having being driven crazy by that Circus Afro song (which I will admit is some pretty fantastic writing) and break into Fort Knox for not gold or the governments top secrets, but Cheetos. It only gets more complex when they are kidnapped and taken to Venice where it's revealed that an octopus named Dave (John Malkovich) is planning revenge on the penguin race by turning them into horrible creatures due to him always being overlooked by the creatures in his zoos. The penguins escape leading to a thrilling chase with octopi minions only to be rescued by an elite Arctic group known as the North Wind led by a wolf known only as Classified (Benedict Cumberbatch). His agents include a seal named Short Fuse (Ken Jeong), a polar bear named Corporal (Peter Stormare) and a snow owl named Eva (Annet Mahendru). Knowing of the evil secret plan of Dave, the penguins decide to try to stop the plan in order to prevent the extermination of the penguin species.Right from that synopsis I can name by biggest problem with the movie. The plot. It's not a bad idea for a plot as I do like the idea of the penguins going up against an evil octopus as subplot in a fourth Madagascar movie, but it's a story that just doesn't seem suitable as a main plot. Most of the time I kept expecting Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman to pop up which wasn't a good sign. Speaking of which, let me explain why I think the movie was essentially two films as one. Throughout the movie I felt like the sections involving the Penguins and Dave was part of a failed TV movie and the North Wind aspects were part of a failed feature film idea and were unsuccessfully combined together. Had they had stayed separate, I feel that they would have been very successful on their own, yet put together makes them feel like a convoluted mess. With that said though, the movie is pretty funny at times which did redeem some of the movies weaker moments. As for the animation, it's decent. It's not as incredible as "How to Train Your Dragon 2" which came out the same year, though I do feel that it does stand out with some good cartoony moments. And now, let's talk about the characters. The North Wind characters are fantastic. I love how they take on a very cliched spy team which we have seen been done so many times and actually give it some life. Classified in particular was really funny mainly due to Cumberbatch's great performance. Dave also has some good moments as well and John Malkovich was really funny, though I will admit one aspect of him did drive me a little crazy. His running gag was telling his octopi minions and making some sort of actor pun out of it. Examples include, "Nicholas, cage them", "William, hurt them", "Halle, bury them" and "Elijah, would you hide the evidence". Every time he said something like that, I kept thinking to myself, "Yes, you took the actors names and made a pun out of it. Ha ha ha." It really did get on my nerves.In a whole, "Penguins of Madagascar" is not a perfect movie due to its story that feels like it should have been split in half and it's animation that's only decent at best, though it's redeem due to it's characters having some funny moments. I do feel like it's more for kids than it is for adults though I don't think it's bad at all.

Back when Dreamworks came out with SHREK, the studio was truly the equal to Pixar. Yet, sadly, over the years, Dreamworks has continued to make CGI films of diminishing quality...with a few exceptions, such as their brilliant HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON. Otherwise, it's been a long succession of films where mediocrity seems just fine with the studio...with films like MONSTERS VERSUS ALIENS, MADAGASCAR, THE BEE MOVIE and KUNG FU PANDA...pleasant but nothing more. And, sadly, it's also become the studio of sequels...and this one is a sequel to a TV show to a sequel...which has "direct to DVD and Neflix" written all over it! If I sound not particularly impressed by much of their work it's because that pretty much sums it up.So what you have with THE PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR is mediocre CGI compared to the competition, characters aimed strictly to the kids and a plot that seems like it was written by some folks who were under the influence! It's watchable but nothing more.Sadly, the film really starts off well...and it got my hopes up that it would be a cute little film. I loved having Werner Herzog doing the voice of the nature documentarian since Herzog has made a ton of wonderful documentaries. And, this initial portion, though funny, had nothing to do with the rest of the film...nothing!As to the actual story, it's just bizarro and kind of stupid...and if you haven't seen the film and are reading this part of my review, you'll think I am making this up because it makes no sense and seems to very random. The penguins break into Ft. Knox to get to a snack machine. But the snack machine is a trap and there's an evil octopus inside who somehow knows that the penguins are coming...and he wants to trap them in his bizarro plan of revenge. Dave the Octopus apparently hates these penguins because they got more love and attention when they all lived at the zoo. So, he disguised himself as a human, became a top genetic scientist and now is bent on destruction!! And, it only gets weirder from here....with even more villains, a trip back to Madagascar in a packing crate, mermaid penguins and more...none of which make sense...especially for penguins. There's much more...with some plot involving world travel and some other animals...but I really stopped paying close attention by this point. Who writes this sort of nonsense?! And, more importantly, do they get PAID to do this?!?! So much of the film just seems completely random...like they took plot ideas out of a hat and strung them all together.I really think the other reviewers are way too kind to this film. It has a current rating about 6.0...and I have no idea why. Perhaps they are judging strictly by how much kids enjoy the film--and that is fair. But even for a kids film, I think you could easily do better. Even one of the lesser Dreamworks films like MONSTERS VERSUS ALIENS or MR. PEABODY AND SHERMAN are a lot better than this bizarro film. Plus for adults, this film is insufferably boring and senseless.FYI--When I watched this with my daughter, she fell asleep in the middle of it.

I don't see the attacks Dreamworks has been getting for their movies for many years with the exception of Kung Fu Panda and How To Train Your Dragon. I liked HTTYD but haven't seen Kung Fu Panda. And I thought the sequel to HTTYD was meh... kind of boring... But I thought their movies such as this, Home and Mr. Peabody & Sherman were pretty good. I was skeptical about them because the trailers and the premises didn't look too interesting and I'm not a fan of the T.V. series this was based on but I kind of liked it, it was action-packed, suspenseful and comedic!I know that Dreamworks can be disgusting and silly with their movies, but it's not like they're Pixar and that they make movies with violence and sex in them. Nor do they make saccharine Disney movies. But there's not much wrong with their movies nor this one except that I thought the Chinese people were drawn pretty badly.The penguin that throws up is probably my least favorite. But overall, this was a unique film and makes it yet another pretty good film of Dreamworks but not up to standards of the likes of HTTYD and Shrek.It's just Dreamworks can't seem to make good T.V. series and sequels. But I suggest you to go watch this. I think that teenagers will enjoy it as will children.

If you love the Madagascar movies and likes the penguins, you're gonna love this one. I personally think that it was way better than the Madagascar 2 and 3. It is funny and everything that you expect it to be for a family movie. I liked the ignorance of the penguins, that is hilarious, and they're smart and resourcefully, which is entertaining. Kudos also for not mentioning the Madagascar heroes too much and there for making this movie watchable for those who haven't watched the other movies. Of course there are the clichés with the rescuing and the villain and the heart breaking family\team values, but, fortunately, that doesn't ruin the movie, so 5 out of 10 for the penguins.