Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Fantastic!

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

The Penguins of Madagascar movie finally seems real.Anyway, I remember that the script of Merry Madagascar was leaked before this short.Santa crashes on Madagascar, and he can't remember he is Santa.It's like Muppets Takes Manhattan where Kermit can't remember who he was after being ran Down by a car.The penguins including Alex and his friends must go out to save Christmas.Travelling from Greenland to New York City.Later on are Alex having a foresight of the fourth movie.The middle of last decade had rows of animated movies with crude jokes, cute animals and pop culture references.Shrek and Madagascar was some of those that survived it.I recommend animation fans to find this movie somewhere.9/10

I have to say I'm usually not too big on these animated half-hour short films which are often spin-offs from feature films serving as a bridge until the next sequel and quite a few of these come out for the holidays and usually convey a message of what Christmas really is about. Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special didn't wow me, the Prep&Landing films I found rather underwhelming too, but Madagascar's take on the matter is really well done and makes for a pretty good watch. It runs for 28 minutes, but a huge part of that is the exaggeratedly long credits, but at least we get a famous song sung from one of the characters.There's some smart writing included, like the Cold War reference between reindeer and penguins and resulting thereof the Romeo-and-Juliet story featuring Natalie Wood's famous Latino accent for the female reindeer. In general, it's packed with film references (Casablanca etc.), which definitely elevated the material for me. The animation is as good as the one from the feature films and it may have been a good decision by the makers to not get too Christmas-y. Others have tried and failed, but this approach turned out successful and also has the effect that it can be watched pretty much anytime of the year without feeling inappropriate. However, that does not mean it does not have a couple holiday-relevant scenes that touch the heart, like the lion's comment on how he just wants to see snow, the penguins leading the sleigh like reindeer or the little girl being so filled with joy that she's hugging everybody from the gang. Definitely recommended.

I watched this short film at Christmas this year along with countless other films and programmes that feel like they have been made because they have to be for the festive season rather than being a case of someone having a great idea and everyone wanting to do it. The plot is simple – calling him the "Red Goblin", King Julian succeeds in shooting down Santa Claus, meaning that the New Yorkers have to leave the island on Santa's sledge and, with the help of the penguins, make sure that all the presents are delivered and that Christmas is saved. Meanwhile, on the island, an amnesiac Santa joins in the annual celebrations of Julianuary – a festive period where everyone gives the King presents.This TV special is quite amusing but it is not as funny or as clever as the recent Penguins spin-off show and part of the problem is the same problem I have with the films. This is that the main characters are actually not that good as characters. OK, they are almost a necessary evil in terms of the narrative but really time spent with them makes you think you're missing out on something better with the other side characters. The global sleigh ride is amusing but seems a bit cloying and obvious and the film is at its best where we are back on the island with King Julian. These sections have their own "message" but Julian is a great character and these bits are well written with his usual selfish self-importance and produces plenty of good laughs (such as the carol singing bit). The Penguins produce a few good laughs as well but their role doesn't give them much to do and I didn't think they worked as well as they have done elsewhere. Likewise Mort can be relied upon for easy laughs.These good bits do well to carry the film while the main animals go around the world – these bits are quite funny but just not as good as the rest. Ironic then that all the stars are back for these main animals while Cohen didn't do Julian. This is not a problem though because, as with the TV show, Jacobs does a very good job of making the character his own and delivering with timing. Overall Merry Madagascar is an enjoyable little festive offering but this is almost despite of itself. It has the feel of something that was a business decision rather than something everyone wanted to do and, while funny, the presence of the four main characters repeats the problem in the films – the strongest material lies with the supporting characters, not the New Yorkers.

I'm not a big fan of Dreamworks movies (the poor man's Pixar) but nevertheless I love the Madagascar work. I bought this from my local supermarket (exclusively they claimed) expecting it to be a poor quality version of the movies, probably with bad animation and replacement voice talent. Hey, I thought, my 12 year old will still like it. I was wrong: this is beautifully animated to the quality of the movies, has all the original actors and is FUNNIER than the movies too. There's a joke involving penguins and reindeer that had we three in hysterics, perfect! This is only 26 minutes long but well worth it and a valid addition to the Madagascar movies. It could in fact be Madagascar 3 such is the quality.