Penguins of Madagascar: A madcap fun ride!

This was long overdue. The most enjoyable characters of the Madagascar franchise deserved a movie of their own. We love all the guys from Madagascar, especially King Julian and his sidekick. But, the penguins are by far the most witty geniuses of the whole gang, and no one can come up with one-liners like they do. So, ye, this was long overdue, but better late than never and here we are, the exclusive Penguins of Madagascar movie.

It starts off with the penguins blasting off because they can no longer stand the ‘I like to movie it’ song. And guess what their mission is, Fort Knox and the most ‘precious’ stash in there. There begins the adventure, but it is quite an unexpected beginning as we are introduced to someone who we have not yet met. This must be the Madagascar franchise’s first ever real ‘villain’, if you count out the granny from Escape to Africa. But this villain takes the villainy to a whole new level.

Honestly though, the story this time is a bit weak considering the movies we have got from the Madagascar franchise so far. But, the characterization of the penguin gang, Skipper, Kowalsky, Rico and Private, saves almost every single scene of the movie. The lines written for them are absolutely hilarious, especially Kowalsky’s ‘true but unhelpful comments’ as Skipper likes to put it. Add to it the pretty serious looking outfit that calls themselves North Wind, which seems to be a very deep dig at the SWAT teams that feature in countless Hollywood movies, one franchise in particular, the movie becomes one fun ride.

Each scene is very well visualized, be it the chase through the canals of Venice, the confrontation at the Shanghai zoo or the final confrontation in New York. There is direct and implied humor in every scene and the dialogues are pretty hilarious at many points. You will want to keep your ears wide open to catch all those instances. Don’t think that all the humor in an animation movie has to be loud and in the face. You will especially enjoy the word play that Skipper indulges in with the names of Hollywood stars, like ‘Nicholas, cage them’, and many other such instances. Besides the dialogues, there is plenty of slapstick fun. You will especially enjoy the penguins’ strategy to fly the North Wind aircraft, the heights of lunacy! And, you will enjoy Private’s penchant for pressing at all buttons that he comes across.

Penguins of Madagascar has got a pretty average story, no doubt. But the Penguins lead by Skipper, with their outrageously funny one liners and some very well written situations make this a very enjoyable fun ride. Personally, Escape to Africa still remains my favorite Madagascar movie, but you got to love one where all the spotlight is on the Penguins. Its 2 hours of madcap fun, go have your fun time over the weekend. And, the way they end the movie gives hope that we may get an exclusive movie for King Julian…. I’ll be waiting.

Madcap fun ride-very enjoyable 2.5/5