I didn't think I would like this as much or that it would be and feel as good as it did. It's not easy with spin-offs, the characters are there, but can you make a movie with them that can hold up? Obviously you can, which is something I expected (and expect) from the Minions movie, but not really from the Penguins.

While it's a kids movie, it also has a lot to offer for adults to. Which every good kids movie is doing nowadays of course. The story is pretty thin, but we get a couple of new people involved and of course an "enemy" we have to engage with. The ending might feel like a letdown for some (to some more than to others),but overall the movie did achieve what it set out to do.

Back when Dreamworks came out with SHREK, the studio was truly the equal to Pixar. Yet, sadly, over the years, Dreamworks has continued to make CGI films of diminishing quality...with a few exceptions, such as their brilliant HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON. Otherwise, it's been a long succession of films where mediocrity seems just fine with the studio...with films like MONSTERS VERSUS ALIENS, MADAGASCAR, THE BEE MOVIE and KUNG FU PANDA...pleasant but nothing more. And, sadly, it's also become the studio of sequels...and this one is a sequel to a TV show to a sequel...which has "direct to DVD and Neflix" written all over it! If I sound not particularly impressed by much of their work it's because that pretty much sums it up.

So what you have with THE PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR is mediocre CGI compared to the competition, characters aimed strictly to the kids and a plot that seems like it was written by some folks who were under the influence! It's watchable but nothing more.

Sadly, the film really starts off well...and it got my hopes up that it would be a cute little film. I loved having Werner Herzog doing the voice of the nature documentarian since Herzog has made a ton of wonderful documentaries. And, this initial portion, though funny, had nothing to do with the rest of the film...nothing!

As to the actual story, it's just bizarro and kind of stupid...and if you haven't seen the film and are reading this part of my review, you'll think I am making this up because it makes no sense and seems to very random. The penguins break into Ft. Knox to get to a snack machine. But the snack machine is a trap and there's an evil octopus inside who somehow knows that the penguins are coming...and he wants to trap them in his bizarro plan of revenge. Dave the Octopus apparently hates these penguins because they got more love and attention when they all lived at the zoo. So, he disguised himself as a human, became a top genetic scientist and now is bent on destruction!! And, it only gets weirder from here....with even more villains, a trip back to Madagascar in a packing crate, mermaid penguins and more...none of which make sense...especially for penguins. There's much more...with some plot involving world travel and some other animals...but I really stopped paying close attention by this point. Who writes this sort of nonsense?! And, more importantly, do they get PAID to do this?!?! So much of the film just seems completely random...like they took plot ideas out of a hat and strung them all together.

I really think the other reviewers are way too kind to this film. It has a current rating about 6.0...and I have no idea why. Perhaps they are judging strictly by how much kids enjoy the film--and that is fair. But even for a kids film, I think you could easily do better. Even one of the lesser Dreamworks films like MONSTERS VERSUS ALIENS or MR. PEABODY AND SHERMAN are a lot better than this bizarro film. Plus for adults, this film is insufferably boring and senseless.

FYI--When I watched this with my daughter, she fell asleep in the middle of it.

Penguins of Madagascar may be one of Dreamworks' weakest(Prince of Egypt, How to Train Your Dragon and Shrek it's not, it's better than Bee Movie and Shark Tale though) and is nowhere near as good as the wonderful TV series, but from the reviews here I was expecting it to be a waste of time but instead(personal opinion) got a very uneven but entertaining film. It is badly let down by the story, it started off delightfully but much of it was rather tired, formulaic and over-stretched(like an extended episode from the series),especially in the third act which was draggy and clichéd at points. It also tries to incorporate a lot of story strands other than being just an origin story which is commendable but it did make the film a little over-stuffed and lacking in focus. Pacing was an issue here, Penguins of Madagascar wasn't ever dull, in fact the problem was the opposite in that everything was so frantic that there were frequent points where it felt incredibly rushed and in serious need of a slowing down. Because the humour and storytelling came by so fast, you have little time to breathe and you are likely to find that you don't catch every gag and bit of dialogue or follow the story entirely.

The animation is very good this said, not the best there's ever been but the colours are bright and colourful, the backgrounds are detailed and smooth, the editing is tight and the characters move easily. The music score is very catchy and most of the voice acting is superb. Tom McGrath and Christopher Knights are excellent as Skipper and Private and provide the emotional heart that the film has, Peter Stormare is fun and Benedict Cumberbatch- as ever showing showing an ability to turn not so strong material to something more- brings distinguished class and witty comic timing to Classified. But it is John Malkovich who is especially good, he's brilliantly off the wall as the villain, being both hilarious and sinister, and has some of the best lines. Werner Herzog is also very entertaining as a documentary narrator sort of character. Two of the voice actors don't come off so well, Ken Jeong has very little to do and his voice doesn't really fit his character- I couldn't help being reminded of the voice he used to voice Kim-Ly in Turbo and it was jarring- and Chris Miller did sound bored and rather arrogant sounding as Kowalski.

In terms of characters, the penguins are entertaining enough but they do fare better as scene stealing supporting characters than the lead characters in a feature film and their personalities have been far more individual before, Private is very relatable actually but Kowalski comes across as an arrogant douche which was a turn off and Rico is bland. Of the rest of the characters, the most interesting of them is Dave/Dr. Brine, part of it is to do with Malkovich's voice acting, part of it is the clever character design and part of it is the writing. The rest however are one-dimensional and lacking in individuality, if I were to be asked which characters I would remember most it would be Private and Dave/Dr. Brine, but the others not so much. The script has a lot of parts where it works wonderfully but others where it falls flat, there are some smart wordplay, witty dialogue that would make one smile and some hilarious celebrity puns that adults will love(they will go over the heads of children however) but there are some jokes that do come over as contrived and like they were recycled from somewhere else. For instance Dave's name keeps getting forgotten, a running gag that was funny that was funny the first few times but got stale for the rest of them. The action comes by thick and fast and is enormous fun to watch, the pratfalls are very silly but look good and do amuse at all(children will enjoy them),particularly fun were the chase sequence in Venice and the final showdown.

All in all, could have been much better, Penguins of Madagascar is a very uneven film and is one of Dreamworks' weakest but it was an entertaining watch. 6/10 Bethany Cox