Absurdly Chaotic Penguins a Lackluster Spinoff
From the time they were freshly hatched, penguins Skipper (voiced by Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller), Rico (Conrad Vernon) and Private (Christopher Knights) knew they were destined for more than a life shuffling back and forth across a frozen arctic tundra. From their journey to New York’s Central Park Zoo, to heading to Madagascar with a ragtag group of escaped animals, to becoming circus stars with a penchant for high explosives, this particular quartet has never been happy sitting on their laurels or staying in one place for a very long time.
On the move again, they find themselves the focus of evil genius Dr. Octavius ‘Dave’ Brine’s (John Malkovich) evil plans. See, he’s of the opinion their extreme cuteness destroyed his life, so the dastardly octopus-slash-geneticist-slash-world-renowned-scientist (with a talent for pretending to be human) has concocted a secret plan to ruin the penguin image forever. It’s up to Skipper et al, along with a healthy assistant from a covert arctic agency known as The North Wind, to stop him, their brotherly bonds, not any complex planning, key to the foursome finding success.
Little kids are going to adore Penguins of Madagascar, this quickly paced, unabashedly absurdist spinoff from the Madagascar trilogy owing more to vintage Saturday morning cartoons than it does anything else. The film doesn’t try to make sense of all that’s going on or make the world in which it exists feel even passingly authentic, things moving with a slapdash enthusiasm that’s so chaotic the overall effect is moderately mind-blowing. This is a silly movie that never apologizes for being so, going for the joke at every opportunity offering up verbal and visual sight gags galore never slowing down as it speeds towards its rambunctiously colorful conclusion.
All of which is fine if you’re under the age of 12. For everyone else, watching this animated merry-go-round can be a little bit of a tough slog. While there are more than few brightly virtuoso bits of creative inspiration, overall the movie is an overly frenetic jumble of sound and fury that does a better job of inducing headaches than it does laughter or smiles. The whole thing is so rambunctiously in the viewer’s face that stomaching the film start to finish isn’t easy, the only solace being that at barely 90 minutes it’s thankfully all over almost as swiftly as it began.
Not that little kids are going to care. The penguins are as rowdy as ever, all doing crazy bizarre things while snapping off one-liners and creating all sorts of havoc with every step they take. They’re always moving, always pushing forward, never taking a break for introspection or thought just leaping into the fray with no concern to the consequences. They’re pipsqueak creations who’d be right at home mixing it up with Tom and Jerry, solving crimes with Scooby-Doo or composing merry melodies with Bugs Bunny and his loony friends, and as such youngsters are going to delight in their misadventures no matter how convoluted they might ultimately prove to be.
For my part, as someone who kind of enjoys the Madagascar films, and also one who extolled the virtues of these penguins from the jump, I can’t say I was totally displeased. The vocal work is strong thanks to the core trio of McGrath, Miller and Knights, while the interplay between all four characters remains inspired. I also felt a few of the supporting turns were terrific, most notably Malkovich as the eight-legged baddie and Benedict Cumberbatch as the wolfy leader of the North Wind (erroneously given the moniker ‘Agent Classified’ by Skipper), both getting me to giggle appreciatively more than once. Best of all is the opening sequence featuring Werner Herzog in full authoritative know-it-all documentarian glory, lampooning modern penguin hysteria with loving cleverness.
At the same time, I can’t say Penguins of Madagascar is animated effort I’m going to be returning to anytime soon. The movie basically proves these crazy feathered hellions are better as sidekicks and secondary characters than they are as leads, designing an entire motion picture around their misadventures not one of the better ideas DreamWorks has had of late. It wasn’t made for me, and while parents aren’t going to be upset if their kids end up watching it they’ll certainly feel better if they don’t have to do so as well.
Review reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle
Film Rating: 2 out of 4
