The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The penguins of the three Madagascar movies very often stole the scenes that they appeared in, so it was almost inevitable that they would be given their own spin-off movie, they did have some straight-to-DVD stuff, but this was am official cinema release. Basically in Antarctica, penguin brothers Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller) and Rico (Conrad Vernon) save an unhatched penguin egg from a pack of leopard seals, the egg hatches, and they name their member Private (Christopher Knights), they also accidentally send themselves adrift on an iceberg. Ten years later, after the events of Europe's Most Wanted, the penguins decide to leave the circus to celebrate Private's birthday, but Private has recently started to feel out of place with the team. Suddenly, the penguins are abducted by a machine and sent to Venice, Italy by renowned geneticist Dr. Octavius Brine. The doctor reveals his true identity, he is actually an octopus named Dave (John Malkovich), who has grown resentful of penguins, because of their cuteness it caused him to become shunned in every zoo and aquarium he was taken to across the world. Rico swallows Dave's collection of snow globes, and a canister of a green substance called the Medusa Serum, before the penguins escape and are chased by henchmen. When cornered, they are rescued by a group of Arctic animals, an undercover task force agency called "The North Wind", led by a gray wolf whose name is Classified (Benedict Cumberbatch), along with demolitionist harp seal Short Fuse (Ken Jeong), polar bear Corporal (Peter Stormare), and intelligent snowy owl Eva (Annet Mahendru). Dave manages to hack their hideout communication systems, he reveals he has a large supply of Medusa Serum and intends to capture all penguins across the world at the places he was kicked out. Seeing the penguins as a hindrance to their mission, the North Wind tranquilise the penguins and send them to the most remote location possible, which happens to be Madagascar. But the penguins wake up mid-flight and crash land in the Sahara Desert, they manage to make their way to Shanghai, China, which they mistake for Dublin, Ireland. Using the collection of snow globes swallowed by Rico, they determine the order of locations Dave plans to travel to, they ship themselves to their current location and make their way to the zoo. Once there, Private winds up captured with the Shanghai penguins, the North Wind try to put a stop to the villain's plan, but the penguins intervene, allowing Dave to escape, but Private has a tracking device planted by Classified. On the island, Dave demonstrates his way to mutate penguins into hideous monsters, causing humans to be disgusted by them, part of his plan of revenge. Skipper and Classified argue about the best way to rescue the captives and stop Dave, they eventually settle on Classified's plan, a frontal assault, with Skipper and the others acting as a diversion. After escaping apparent disintegration from a faulty mutation ray demonstration by Dave, Private rescues the captured North Wind members, meanwhile Dave turns on his ray and mutates all penguins into hideous monsters, the brainwashed penguins run amok on terrified humans. Private finds Skipper, Kowalski and Rico mutated, he decides to connect himself to the ray to return them to normal, and they manage to turn all penguins back to normal with one giant blast. Private has been left partially mutated (he is turned back later), while Dave has been turned into a pipsqueak version of himself trapped inside a snow globe. In the end, Classified respects the penguins as equals and promises them anything they want, they get their own jet packs and fly off to their next adventure. Also starring Andy Richter as Mort the mouse lemur, Danny Jacobs as King Julien XIII the ring-tailed lemur and Werner Herzog as the Documentary Filmmaker. The leading characters we know are guaranteed to bring a smile to your face, the new additions to the cast are good as well, obviously the animation is fantastic, and to be fair there were some amusing jokes, even the name puns ("Nicolas! Cage them!" and "Charlize, they're on the ray!"), but as with Madagascar they do not have quite enough charm, an average animated family comedy adventure. Okay!

Penguins of Madagascar is my best movie. It is one of the movies who makes you laugh from beginning till end. Apart from Skipper and Private,Classified and rest of the characters are really good. This is my first review to anything because of this movie ,I got bound to write a comment for this movie. I really appreciate work of all cast to put such a good movie.

Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private join forces with undercover organization The North Wind to stop the villainous Dr. Octavius Brine from destroying the world as we know it. Penguins of Madagascar is a spin-off of the Madagascar Trilogy and although none of the main protagonists appear the movie works on it's own thanks to a great use of humor but also some pretty cool action sequences Benedict Cumberbatch as Classified does a really great job and i loved that scene with him and Skipper when he started eating and he always interrupted him that was a hilarious scene and a lot of stuff happen like the Penguins turn into something else that i don't wanna spoil if you haven't seen the film and unlike the horrible Minions film this is an actual spin-off that works because all 4 of this characters are both interesting and funny and not some yellow short annoying things that make sounds for the whole movie.

In 2005, DreamWorks Animation released Madagascar, a film about four zoo animals who get caught by the police and get sent into crates. Then, they escaped from the ship and ended up in Madagascar where they meet three lemurs named Mort, Maurice, and King Julien, thus starting their very first adventure. It became a success at the box office and spawned two sequels. Then, in 2014, two years after Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, DreamWorks Animation released "Penguins of Madagascar", a cinematic spin-off to the television show that stars our favorite characters of the franchise, "The Penguins of Madagascar.The story takes place in Antarctica where three penguins named Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico, who find an egg and when it hatches, another penguin arrives and they named him Private. Several years later, it takes place after Madagascar 3 where the penguins go off on a mission where they bump into an octopus named Dave (John Malkovich), one of the aquatic animals in the Zoo who is unloved by everyone and wants revenge on the four penguins. Then, after escaping, they meet up with the North Wind Elite led by Classified (Benedict Cumberbatch) who team up to save the world from Dave before it's too late.When the film came out in theaters, it underperformed at the box office due to tough competition against The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, although it did much better in the other countries. But honestly, I think that this is very underrated. OK, it's not awesome, but I really enjoyed this spin-off.However, there are two things that bugged me. First, there's the humor. Don't get me wrong. Some of it's very witty and got a few chuckles out of me including the scene where Skipper eats a few cheese puffs while Classified explains what the North Wind is and he gets interrupted every time, but on the other hand, some of it's a little bit silly. I'm not going to spoil some of it and I'm not going to spoil the ending to those who haven't seen it. I just thought there could have been some improvement in the humor.Also, there's the story and let's say it's a mixed bag. The relationship between Skipper and Private is the heart of the film and it works really well, but on the other hand it's a bit formulaic on some parts, but to be fair, it does give some energy and for the most part, it usually works to it's advantage.That's it for the problems. Now to the good stuff. The characters are likable especially the Penguins who continue to steal the show each time they're on screen. Classified is a decent enough character who gives a few witty lines and such and Benedict Cumberbatch's voice work is really entertaining while John Malkovich does a superb job giving a funny, but creepy personality to Dave. The animation is gorgeous and it fits well with the action sequences, which is another highlight of the film. The pacing, while a bit wild and crazy, is very brisk and the music score from Lorne Balfe satisfies with a score that resembles spy action music, but also gives some comedic stuff as well and mixes them perfectly.Seriously, I would've loved to see more adventures of the Penguins had it done so well at the box office. But as a stand-alone spin-off it's energetic and very entertaining. It may not be as excellent as say the sequels to How To Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda 2, but I'm glad I had to see it in theaters a year ago during Christmas break. Give this a shot and you won't be disappointed.