- “The movie event that will blow their cover.”
- ―Tagline
Penguins of Madagascar is a 2014 American 3D computer-animated spy action-adventure comedy film, directed and produced by DreamWorks Animation, distributed by 20th Century Fox. Based on The Penguins of Madagascar, the film premiered on November 26th, 2014. It is DreamWorks Animation's 30th movie. And It's also the final DreamWorks Animation film to be produced by Pacific Data Images until it shut down on January 22, 2015.
Despite positive reviews, the film underperformed at the box office, only making $83 million domestically and $373 million worldwide. The film's performance forced another write-down for the studio.
Plot[]
In Antarctica three young penguins; Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico defy the laws of nature to save an egg the other penguins believe to be doomed. After saving it from a pack of leopard seals and accidentally setting themselves adrift on an iceberg, the egg hatches into Private.
Ten years later, after the events of the previous film, the penguins decide to leave the circus to celebrate Private's birthday by breaking into Fort Knox in order to treat him to a discontinued snack in the vending machine of their break room. Despite this, Private begins to feel out of place with the team; as Skipper is the leader, Kowalski is the strategist and Rico is the arsenal. Suddenly, they are abducted into the machine and sent to Venice, Italy by Doctor Octavius Brine a known scientist who removes his human disguise and reveals he is actually an octopus named Dave, who has grown jealous of penguins, after their nature of cuteness had shunned him out of every major zoo in the world. Rico devours Dave's collection of snowglobes along with a canister of a green substance called the Medusa Serum before the four escape and are chased through the streets of Venice. When cornered, they are rescued by a group of animals from a spy agency called North Wind and consisting of their leader, a wolf who is introduced as "Classified" (although that's his description, not his name); a harp seal demolitionist named Short Fuse; Corporal, a polar bear; and Eva, an intelligent snow owl with whom Kowalski is instantly smitten. Their mission; to protect the animals of the world who cannot protect themselves.
At their hideout, their communication systems are hacked by Dave, who reveals that he has an enormous supply of the Medusa Serum and that he intends to capture the penguins out of every zoo he was kicked out of. Not wanting the penguins' help, "classified" sends the group to their most remote base, but the penguins awaken midflight and crash land in the Sahara Desert before making their way to Shanghai, which they mistake for Dublin, Ireland. Discovering Dave's next target in Shanghai, the penguins ship themselves to their current location and make their way to the zoo. Disguising himself as a mermaid-tailed penguin to distract Dave from his real target, Private himself is captured along with the Shanghai penguins after the North Wind arrives to put a stop to Dave's plan. The penguins take the North Wind's high-tech plane to give chase but accidentally self-destruct the machine. They manage to track Private to an island, though, using a device planted on him when "classified" tranquilized them. Meanwhile, on the island, Dave demonstrates his way to genetically mutate the penguins into hideous monsters to make humans disgusted with them as revenge.
Skipper and "classified" argue on the best means to rescue the captives and stop Dave, settling on "classified" 's plan of a frontal assault; however also hurting Kowalski and Rico’s feelings. However, they are quickly captured, and the other penguins are also when North Wind does not return. Dave demonstrates his ray at full power on Private, apparently disintegrating him with the beam, but unbeknownst to them, he has escaped. Private rescues "classified" and the others who want to regroup but Private, not wanting to leave anyone behind, goes to stop Dave. As Dave's submarine docks at New York with the promise of returning the penguins he found to the zoo, he turns the ray on the rest of the penguins, mutating them all into hideous monsters. The city erupts into chaos as the uncontrolled, mutated penguins run amok on the terrified human crowd. Getting the senses back into Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico, they decide to connect the cute Private into the machine to return them to normal. Dave jumps into the path of the machine and is turned into a baby-like version of himself while the others attach his snowglobes to the machine, returning all the penguins back to normal in one shot.
Private is left mutated from the machine while the rest of the penguins are restored to normal. Private has been tinted pink and grown antlers. Despite his strange new look, the Penguins show their gratitude and a newfound respect for Private. Dave has also been made cute by the ray and stuck in a snow globe where he is admired by a little girl. Finally, seeing one another as equals, "classified" promises to grant the Penguins anything they want. The Penguins are given their own jetpacks and fly off above the clouds, looking for their next adventure.
In a mid-credits scene, the Penguins return to the circus and plug Mort into the ray and use him to revert Private back to normal. Mort doesn't appear to show any side effects from the ray until he manages to swallow King Julien whole.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Tom McGrath as Skipper
- Christopher Knights as Private
- Conrad Vernon as Rico
- Chris Miller as Kowalski
- John Malkovich as Dr. Octavius Brine/Dave, an evil octopus
Supporting Cast[]
- Ken Jeong as Short Fuse, a harp seal with a Belgian accent. He is an explosive expert for the North Wind.
- Benedict Cumberbatch as Classified, a wolf with a British accent. He is the North Wind's leader.
- Peter Stormare as Corporal, a polar bear with a Norwegian accent. He is the muscular North Wind agent.
- Annet Mahendru as Eva, a snow owl with a Russian accent. She is an analyst for the North Wind.
- Danny Jacobs as King Julien
- Andy Richter as Mort
Production[]
Production for a spin-off films starring the NYC Adelie penguin spies originally began in 2005, shortly after the release of the first Madagascar film. it was to be called The Penguins Of Madagascar, and be released in 2009 as a TV special, until it was officially announced in 2011 as a theatrical feature film to be entitled Penguins of Madagascar. Bob Schooley said that the film's plot was not currently to have any connection to the TV series but that it could change. it was later announced that Benedict Cumberbatch (making his second time doing the voice of an animated character after his role of Smaug in The Hobbit) and John Malkovich (who had experience playing a spy villain after his role of Pascal Sauvage in Johnny English) would star in the movie. Malkovich said he thought it was "a funny idea" to use his voice for an octopus. the lighting for the film was to distinguish the villains from the heroes, via making the penguins' scenes white, blue and orange and Dave's scenes purple and green.
Soundtrack[]
Main article: Penguins of Madagascar Soundtrack
Home Media[]
- Main article: Penguins of Madagascar (Home Video)
Penguins of Madagascar was released on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D on March 17, 2015. It topped the home video sales chart in its first week.
Trivia[]
- This is the last DreamWorks Animation film to be produced by Pacific Data Images (aka PDI/DreamWorks) before shutting down on January 22 2015, as DreamWorks is no longer active as a distributor, and remains solely as a production company.
- This is also the 10th DreamWorks Animation film to be Co-Produced with Pacific Data Images (aka PDI/DreamWorks), the first nine being Antz, Shrek, Shrek 2, Madagascar, Shrek the Third, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Megamind, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, and Mr. Peabody & Sherman.
- In this film, it is revealed that Private is 10 years old.
- This is the only film by DreamWorks Animation to be produced at their Glendale studio and PDI/DreamWorks respectively.
- This is also 14th computer-animated film by DreamWorks Animation to be produced at their Glendale studio, along with Shark Tale, Over the Hedge, Bee Movie, Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs. Aliens, How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek Forever After, Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots, Rise of the Guardians, The Croods, Turbo, and How to Train Your Dragon 2.
- This is the final Madagascar film to be co-produced by Pacific Data Images before their closures in January 2015.
- This is the first Madagascar film by DreamWorks Animation to be produced at their Glendale studio.
- This is the only film in the Madagascar franchise not composed by Hans Zimmer, as it is instead composed by Lorne Balfe (who previously composed additional music for the second and third films, which were composed by Zimmer), making it Balfe's first solo score in a feature-length animated film, followed by Warner Animation Group's The Lego Batman Movie.
- It's also the second DreamWorks Animation film composed by Lorne Balfe, after Megamind, which also featured Madagascar director Tom McGrath and composer Hans Zimmer, and before Home (which would feature music group Stargate as its co-composer).
- It is the first DreamWorks Animation sequel not composed by the same score composer as its predecessor followed by Trolls World Tour (composed by Theodore Shapiro instead of Christophe Beck), The Croods: A New Age (composed by Mark Mothersbaugh instead of Alan Silvestri) and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (composed by Heitor Pereira instead of Henry Jackman).
- This film along with Mr. Peabody & Sherman are the only DreamWorks Animation films co-produced with Pacific Data Images to be released in the same year.
- This is DreamWorks Animation's third spin-off film after Joseph: King of Dreams and Puss in Boots, as well as it's second theatrical spin-off film after Puss in Boots
- Thus, it is also the first DreamWorks Animation spin-off film to take place after the events of its predecessor.
- According to the film's soundtrack, the songs composed by Lorne Balfe are the film's title, the place where the penguins live, Latin words for animals and penguins stages, which makes this film an instrumental musical movie.
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