Director: Eric DarnellGenre(s): Adventure, Comedy, Animation,Family
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights, Conrad Vernon, Tom McGrath
Summary: Discover the secrets of the most entertaining and mysterious birds in the global espionage game: Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private now must join forces with the chic spy organization, the North Wind, led by Agent Classified (we could tell you his name, but then … you know) to stop the villainous Dr. Octavius Brine from taking over the world. [Dreamworks]
Review: DreamWorks Animation made a legitimate creative move when it spun off its espionage-obsessed “Madagascar” penguins into their own TV show several years back. It was shrewd, brand-leveraging business, sure, but the silly birds had grabbed audiences’ attention for a reason, so watching them bumble through some new mission each week has been agreeably dependable viewing. Now comes the feature “Penguins of Madagascar,” the animators’ bid to promote them to multiplex-marquee status (and, you’d guess, to give the franchise a placeholder while a story is hammered out for 2018’s “Madagascar 4”). It’s a movie content to stay within the show’s comfort zone, changing things up mainly with flashier, 3-D visuals, a couple of which are dazzlers, and a theme that doesn’t connect in any notable way.
The film’s cleverest element by far is its prologue, which flashes back to these unlikely adventurers’ pint-size origins down in Antarctica, complete with Werner Herzog (!) popping up as a ’toon documentarian. I’ll confess, with the zippy pacing, I’ve always had trouble keeping these birds straight — not as much as the Ninja Turtles, but the only one who ever really stood out was snappy-pattering Skipper (Tom McGrath). The opener helps to rectify that, efficiently reintroducing Kowalski (Chris Miller), Skipper’s right, um, flipper; the silently gonzo Rico (Conrad Vernon); and British-accented, put-upon newbie Private (Christopher Knights).
Fast forward to the move-it-move-it era, where the group is targeted for revenge by Dr. Octavius Brine (John Malkovich), an octopus maniacally bitter toward all penguin-kind. Penguins’ cuteness might be a slight handicap for, say, spy-game credibility, but that appeal has also consistently bumped our villain to the aquarium’s afterthought tank, and he’s itching to make them pay. If only Malkovich had lines as outlandish as his motivation; the best he gets is an OK recurring gag about his henchmen having names that work as celebrity puns. (“Nicolas — cage them!”) The interplay is sharper between Skipper and Agent Classified (Benedict Cumberbatch), wolf leader of a slick rival squad that keeps sniffing about how the penguins should leave heroism to the professionals.
Still, it feels like more of this movie’s story depends on frenzied action than it has in the other “Madagascar” installments. A visually swirling high-altitude free-fall sequence delivers, and so does an imaginatively choreographed Venice gondola chase. But beyond some imagery, we don’t get much that’s bigger or better than on TV. Nothing narratively richer, certainly. We can almost hear Skipper’s signature, sotto voce “Just smile and wave, boys” as they furtively waddle away.
Penguins of Madagascar movie trailer
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Source: Boston Globe
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