What Made The Penguins of Madagascar So Cool?

[Music] a couple weeks ago you might have gotten the memo from me I like Madagascar none of the movies are full-on spectacular but as fun ROMs through the Wild and into bizarrely meaningful stories about the animal kingdom they do their jobs well but in case the film Trilogy wasn't enough DreamWorks were eager to make it a big media franchise with video games holiday specials and spin-off shows the first of which focused on the cute and cuddly Commander The Penguins of Madagascar there was a time not too long ago where a major computer animation studio making a weekly TV series was a novel concept CGI shows were Niche and experimental this wasn't dreamworks's first attempt but it was the first to not be an AB failure The Penguins of Madagascar was quite popular in its time I can attest I was there at the start and while I don't remember anything beyond the very start of season 2 I knew it at least started off quite well can it measure up to the movies that's what I want to know that's what you want to know and to know we must learn first like I said in my Madagascar review the first movie grew out of an abandoned Beatles parody featuring a quartet of penguins they were changed to a Commando unit and repurposed as comic relief for the Madagascar project but come on they were envisaged as stars they kept performing well with focus groups stardom was only a dream away their first starring role was as a short procceed eding dreamworks's following film Wallace and grommet the curse of the we rabbit that movie premiered in October so of course it was said on Christmas it just seems to come earlier every year this short was a hit and while a sequel to Madagascar was in development DreamWorks began devising a TV show about the Penguins and in October 2006 announced a multi-series partnership with Nickelodean debate time does this count as a nect tune the definition is flexible so it depends on how strict yours is if you mean any cartoon so much as co-produced by Nickelodeon then sure but if you mean a Caron created within the confines of Nick Animation Studios with characters initially devised for the purposes of representing Nickelodeon and Nic Tunes not so much I'll put it in the maybe pile but this isn't as important as who they got to run it in December 2007 it was announced that instead of the directors of Madagascar Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath that the executive producers were Bob shoy and Mark mccorkel having just finished work on Kim Possible they'd had a history of producing televised adaptations of Disney movies before then so this was a good call Darnell and McGrath would still provide creative consultation with mcreath reprising his role as Skipper and Andy RoR reprising his role as Mort sadly there wasn't any space for Dell's voices the Penguins of Madagascar named so even though they're from Antarctica don't fuss over over at Brand recognition premiered as a sneak peek on Nick on November 28th 2008 animation magazine claims that this was watched by 14 million people but TV by the Numbers listed the more modest rating of 4.2 million under a where it had no connection to escape to Africa which had already released earlier that month to avoid further confusion the rest of season 1 started on March 28th 2009 also drawing a massive audience of 6.1 million it wasn't just commercially successful but critically as well the show won 11 EMS I'm not making this up and I didn't miscount 11 emies including one for outstanding animated program in prime time one of the most prestigious Awards in the animation industry and Nickelodeon's only win pigeon man no thanks Band Geeks get out of here Tales of baring say you're kidding me the return of the Revenge of Dr low hole is where it's at according to the EMS the show ran for three seasons the first two being pretty long but the third prepped for Meandering it stopped airing on the main channel in November 2012 succumbing to the nek tunes treatment it's last seven segments airing there from February 2015 to January 4th of the year it all went wrong there's some confusion over whether the episodes aired on that date actually aired a lot earlier in 2013 but I'm going with the worst option Ergo most realistic for the next tons Network this is one of only a couple Nickelodeon cartoons from this era to have always been mostly well received and fondly remembered but was it just pop culture references and dancing animals with a fart joke once in a while or was it a legitimate extension of the Madagascar movies talk to M Kowalski these readings are off the charts we'll get bigger charts take it out a p cash while continuity with the movies is Slim to the point Tom McGrath considers it an alternate timeline it's implied later on that Skipper Kowalski Rico and private have gone on adventures well outside the Central Park Zoo before but they're back there now with new neighbors from Madagascar King Julian Maurice and Mort are also attractions now and Julian's going to party any chance he gets sometimes causing problems with the Penguins and their many outlandish plans interactions between the Penguins and lemas were rare in the movies so there was no harm in making this a big selling point for the show and them being so different and temp ments and objectives is a good reason to pair them up in a comedy show but this isn't just a comedy it's got a lot of action a lot of drama and A Touch of Romance once in a while are these birds up to it Skipper the leader is as psychotic as ever everything's some kind of conspiracy to him and he's always ready to take something down if it means a thrilling Mission but he's absolutely competent in a lot of areas and really cares about his unit it's still fun to have this proud hardhead as as the leader as it fits the adventures they go on the youngest operative private is fittingly the most friendly and innocent he functions as the heart of the group and the one most willing to help others with more personal struggles with a group this kooky you need a guy like private to unwittingly keep them in check Kowalski was originally just the analyst of the group but Bob and Mark have morphed him into an inventor here obsessed with science and technology still the designated only smart one but I love the embellishments they made if I had to choose a favorite character it would be Kowalski and not just because his role brings the show closer to my beloved invention of the week formula Rico is the wild one who can barely speak and is always ready to blow something up a joy to have on any Mission and beyond that he has some more sensitive interests to give him a more layered personality there's many passing mentions of man Frey and Johnson former members who have mysteriously Fallen battle for most of the show it's a complete mystery how they left the team but you have to feel bad considering how much bad luck they got themselves into gin Julian is not the same as ever still a clueless and party loving lemur but there's a more bossy and selfish sidey to him making him considerably less likable here while he had a big head in the movies it was generally an earhead too but in this show he can be exhausting for many reasons as as if caging him up in a zoo wasn't doing wonders for his temperament he's not bad here but be prepared to love him a little less when you've really gotten to know him Maurice is still King Julian's right-hand man and given a fairer Shake is more to latch on to him as a TV show character and more chances to explore why he's so loyal to this guy sometimes it's because he has to be they've got a symbiotic relationship that's only ever broken up by Mort an absolute freak for King Julian by this point he's still funny when need be but they don't have to dedicate whole episodes to a subsession over the king's anatomical end points the monkeys Mason and Phil are also attractions again their Dynamic hasn't changed much but they're there when the writers have something new for them to do that rarely ever comes around there's more to the zoo than just these established figures the most prominent new regular is Marlene also known as holy smokes wikkipedia cool the braks an AER bread in captivity who's comfortable with within the confines of the zoo and nowhere else her interactions with the Penguins always lead to something interesting but the elephant is dumb and clumsy but that's John demaggio doing his Billy berford voice I was missing him Joey is a joey with a bad Australian accent that's always a fun accent to mangle but and Bing are gorillas who act like Mafia men find as once in a while characters outside the zoo you have Roger and elator who's much friendlier than he appears with dreams of making it to Broadway looks can be deceiving and Roger proves that by being one of the most Pleasant tertiary characters whenever they use him there's a squirrel in a neighboring Park called Fred who's just kind of dumb well he starts off as that but they ring bit comedy out of him with time there's a stray cat the Penguins bump into from time to time called Max poor guy's always in an unlucky situation but I'm there for another Wayne night performance among the antagonistic figures Our Heroes have to deal with is Alice The Zookeeper who's just kind of grumpy and bored with her job and has no tolerance for the animals planning anything her General lack of enthusiasm for her lot in life contrasts well with the Penguins but I prefer officer X as a villain he's a hyper competent Animal control officer who the Penguins continuously beat and continuously knock into worse jobs every time he appears he's incrementally more pitiful it's a feeling to watch transpire the vuia twins are just some rich twins who like to torture animals they're there for dark humor but are my least favorite recurring villains for there not being much levity to them animal foes include the Rat King a buff rat who lives in the sewers he's okay better than the vuia twins at least the pigeon Frankie has a strange backstory you see he always wanted to be a good feather but they couldn't let him in because he was a John Travolta impersonation and John Travolta didn't appear in Good Fellas so he's left all on his own causing trouble for New York and retaliation this back story is something I just made up completely who knows who Frankie is or how Jeff Bennett got so good at doing a jont trola voice head pinguin I guess I got the drop on you I'm walking here you got a problem with that skateboard boy you're look at my cop with tunnels acting up or it would be so on H is a puffen and one of Skipper's mortal enemies he's the reason Skipper no longer welcome in Denmark it's good to have a bird who's so comparable to Skipper and smarts in combat giving him a reason to be the way he is the red squirrel is one of the most mysterious villains they face because for a long time he's been so secretive that he's driven many good men to paranoia there's something about him that makes him more for boing than a lot of other villains most except for Dr blowhole Skipper's full-blown Nemesis a Super Genius dolphin who gets around with a scooter and lobster minions whoever decided Neil Patrick Harris should be a dolphin super villain who later gets his own song was possibly running a fever but we got a fitting main villain for the show out of it something mad but threatening this is a big cast one I've been assessing for a lot longer than I thought I would where am I relative to the Madagascar review what made Madagascar a little revolutionary in its day was its animation yeah that's how long but there's still a few minor characters I had to gloss over to save time if there's one subtraction from the movies it's that some of the regulars are no longer voiced by their theatrical voice actors only Skipper Mort and Mason are voiced by the same people as in the first movie and Rico had already been taken over by John dagio early on to great effect that's the thing they're nearly all portrayed by seasoned voice actors now which is its own benefit as it allows them to put their own spin on them and make them more suited for the spin-off I just want to slap a Hipp you key to making the show work was differentiating the Penguins and giving them their own types of stories skipp has got the intense and confrontational ones Kowalski is in the invention of the week routine private has given more sensitive matters to attend to and you never know what to expect from Rico I wasn't expecting Bob and Mark to sneak this in dude seriously nice touch but there all still one cohesive unit that would fall apart if one of the pieces was taken out given that in the Madagascar movies Skipper in private were the only ones with particularly noteworthy personality traits this was warranted those 11 emies don't win themselves most of the other characters get introductory episodes with follow-ups that acknowledge what happened before it's light continuity but most of the episodes are watchable in any order with the villains you can still see the Star Command and Kim Possible people were behind it and how they're handled they don't always get stronger every time they're seen but their arcs are played around with more it's mostly about making something thrilling and entertaining not always super mature but like the movies it's for kids and I'm not saying that is an excuse just that they knew the demographic of grown-ups would be much smaller until they grow up and review them and I don't know what it is with CGI cartoons CGI Nickelodeon cartoons in particular but this show feels super strange whenever it gets kind of strange like in 2D there's a barrier to how realistic everything can feel while in a 3D space seeing stuff like this is considerably more surreal I have to make a video on this phenomenon and what exactly makes cartoony Shenanigans list natural in CGI cartoons but it's generally well done in this show it's not overbearing like you could accuse something like back at the bard of being with it it helps that the animation is good it's one of the bit looking computer anim made shows of the era by 2008 it wasn't the pioneering days anymore it depended on if the characters moved well the visual effects worked and if they could get them finished in the much stricter TV production pipeline considering the Madagascar movies were technically impressive for converting more classical character animation into three dimensions this proved to be a challenge DreamWorks modeled everything but they were then rigged and animated at Nick using Maya detail is down and the movement isn't as extravagant after the first few episodes but as a weekly series it works as well as you'd expect it worked well for the emies anyway give to me your peanuts in the early episodes the absence of the New York Giants is felt Echoes of Alex and Mary were left in as the flags but it's not enough to hide that something is missing from the series they plugged that hole before too long by gradually introducing most of the new characters I went over the possibilities have a limit as the main sets are the zoo park city and sewer system they cram a lot into these places and set up that heading out any further means it's a special occasion the later continuity elements unfold naturally Skipper will bring up his past with the Danes and Dr blo hole with both getting more light shed on them by season's end it's still mostly set up Holding Out for the later episodes to pay things off there's nothing there nothing but pretzel salt evening boys this is where our rub some salt into the wound season 2 was originally a 26 episode order like season 1 but got a 13 episode extension somewhere along the way bringing it up to 39 well this is the same length as Phineas and verb second season and that's bursting with gem after gem I don't think the Penguins of Madagascar were given the time to make every episode Special within the time they were given the good ones are A Cut Above season 1 so there is some progress being made with the world and the crew's comfort with it but I think there are more misfires here than season 1 more episodes that feel like a rough pitch stretched out for 11 minutes with no goal in sight it doesn't get too consistently lackluster which puts it above a lush of Nickelodeon cartoons from around this time but I wish it were more consistently good because when season 2 is good it's really really good for what they have the specials are getting very big now and always give you something more elaborate dramatic and off the wall to look forward to you got to be alert look alive be prepared for anything if you notice anything off tilt good for you thanks for paying attention sounds like the kind of job we can sink our teeth into huh huh Beaver humor boys get used to it it's a Pity The Season's a lot shorter than the rest and didn't all lay on neck because I think it's the best well the first season was focused on setup and the second on payoff three wanted to conclude things finish up Mar's difficulties in venturing outside the zoo show who Doris the dolphin is and how Kowalski could have had a relationship with her put officer X in his place a few more times they got to make a show that felt like a cohesive set of stories while succeeding in the silly episodic format too by the end there were 80 half hours which is a number any animated series should be lucky to get to no matter the network this is a show I'd say is rewarding to sit through the entirety of or at least the major event there really needs to be one of those anime Cannon list websites but for Weston shows so you know which Penguins episodes are appointment TV or you could listen to me a visit from Uncle Nigel is about private introducing the gang to his dsy uncle who actually has a smart interior when no one but him and private is around there's a lot of private being Tethered to odd characters across the show and this is one of my favorite attempts at that while unveiling an enemy long thought dead Littlefoot closes the book on marleene turning into a gremlin when she leaves captivity the demons taken out of her and then put back in easier to control well there isn't much more they do with her after this it's good to see the issue get resolved before time ran out the secret treasure of the golden squirrel is a half hour but more on the simple and effective end there's this treasure that turns the group against each other by showing them their deepest desires that's interesting and how they get there and get over it is meaty enough it's about time yes another one of these is a little time travel altercation not as elaborate as it could have been but it's fun to see Kowalski unintentionally Miss with private and Skipper and make the timeline more broken the return of the Revenge of Dr bloo is where New York is taken over by a dolphin and forced karaoke but what's more interesting is Dr bloo wiping Skipper's memory and leaving him to die but he's able to get his mojo back with the help of a guiding Spirit Alex the Lion what the heck are you doing doing in my spin-off wishful thinking proves that this zoo is haunted the wishing fountain actually makes people's wishes come true on the spot no matter how extreme and what comes out of that is something chaotic and captivating our man and gerer jigle stand brings us back to Buck rockgut the least put together of the Penguins allies who seeds discontent among them by claiming one of them is a sleeper agent for the red squirrel if you haven't seen the episode yet and you can accurately Guess Who The Sleeper Agent is include the word monkey in your comment not saying it being predictable is bad makes it funnier actually mental hin gives us the silliest foe in the city a chicken that's very good at sport bits the conclusion is simple but a new romantic subplot opens up at the oddest possible time this is followed through on in Pelt where the mental hin tricks Skipper into thinking he's losing his agility she's got a freeze ray now cool it's better for being more of a character story at first then hitting you with the funny hello dollface introduces private's love for the lunacorns a franchise starring a purple unicorn voiced by Tara Strong it's good living in October 9th 2010 and knowing that such a franchise is well out of anyone's understanding much less in a state where it can be enjoyed by older men best part for me is Rico's Dole getting a lunacorn voice box which turns him into a hiie what a stable relationship command crisis has Skipper turning into a news reporter making a mission more difficult for his associates if Tom McGrath's voice wasn't made for barking orders it was made for barking friendly misinformation F to print is one big comedy of errors as every attempt the Penguins make to suppress their secret that's been caught on camera for zuis ends up backfiring but the ending puts a more colorful spin on the tail showing that sometimes an artpiece can be just as good of a marketing tool operation Luna corn apocalypse is another fun combination of a very nut premise with a strong execution an ancient Spirit played by Conan O'Brien is trapped inside private's toy unicorn but still waks as much Havoc as it can and that's a lot is there anything else you want is there anything else you expect can't you see how does show one of emies operation Antarctica gets back to the roots of the Madagascar franchise animals devouring each other private meets a young seal named Hunter who doesn't want to eat him until she seems to develop the urge to perhaps it isn't as serious as marasca one in a f but they still got an emotionally powerful story out of it same can be said for my favorite episode The Penguin Who Loved Me Doris had been an off-handed joke for the whole series but near the very end they explained why she and Kowalski were incompatible and if this is the ultimate ultimate sendoff for Dr blo Hall on top of that then they had to pull out all the stops but if there are any episodes you should be cautious of it's the selection operation Big Blue Marble is not how to do an environmental episode Kowalski creates a new invention that produces the best snack ever but its emissions prove to be dangerous it's not a fun feeling to be preached to no matter how cool the intentions are Rocka by birdie is the baby episode where Skipper becomes baby cute but big plot hole is finishing move on the Rat King is a poot but they're in a sewer the Rat King can't be that stunned by bad smells feels like they forgot where they were for a moment knce of the vvus is about the ttty twins getting the zoo to themselves somehow and a flaw attempt to turn them good it's a vuia Twins episode next happy King Julian day was a bad Omen coming quite early and revealing that they were not going to get King Julian's characterization all that right very much there was a sinking feeling that's set in here pits peeved as a vuia Twins episode them torturing Skipper and Julian is less amusing than what happened in Rome on that day in 79 ad kga management puts the koala and Joey together and the results are as Australian as possible I like my neighbors but like in the episode being next to them is kind of embarrassing vline further is about Julian getting mistakenly adopted as a cat and trying to woo over this Zoey fella it's really hard to top his fling with Sonia which proves that most of the time this version of Julian lacks the Charisma needed to make an Eng engaging story The utom is a dumb one and it knows that it's dumb marene gets bleached white and everyone mistakes her for a completely different animal this goes nowhere it's just an idiot plot in case you thought the characters were too smart stop bugging me is one of the grosser episodes I'm thankful they didn't go as hard with it as other Nickelodeon cartoons however this whole scheme of private needing to cover himself in roaches shows us the upper limit of what they could do the worst episode for me has to be roomies marene gets a new buddy for her enclosure but it turns out to be a rude walrus who makes her life miserable this is all the zoo's fault for putting an OTA and a walrus in the same enclosure and expecting nothing bad to happen but when Ronda here gets sent to Hoboken by the Penguins she proves herself to be a competent spy for Dr bloo out of nowhere and this isn't followed up on the second time she appears in the Hoboken surprise if they didn't make this episode I think they would have gotten at least at least 12 mes I'm just spitballing so now with this whole show done and dusted what else is there to talk about other than the movie in November 2014 DreamWorks released Penguins of Madagascar no the in the title that's important it lets you know this has no connection to the show most of the movie cast is back of course and the events pick up right where Europe's Most Wanted left off making this a little less of a spin-off and more of an honorary Madagascar 4 it took a long time for this movie to get finished the franchise's whole existence if you want to get technical it was originally meant to be a director video movie but eventually went theatrical and got a new set of writers and directors I wonder if the head of stories done anything I'd like and despite the popularity of the TV series the movie underperformed when it finally released sitting DreamWorks back a bit financially this was their last movie to be animated by Pacific data images so while the end of an era I don't want to give the impression the era ended on a downer note this will be brief because the impression I want to leave is my verdict this is a very good movie not much for adults even compared to the prior Madagascar movies but it ties the second as being the strongest and I think beats it in being a consistently fun experience there's this feeling they're using the movie to just do whatever they want a thrill is in the air at all times they wanted to do another cutesy backstory where our heroes are taken away from their home so it's in the film they wanted them infiltrating Fort Knox meeting Benedict Cumberbatch as a wolf traveling the world falling out of a plane having a John movich octopus rival whose backstory is he was never seen as cute enough by Zoo goers dressing up in lerosen it's like the filmmakers are nutty kids who were given complete control of their own film restraint is minimal in how big the story is and how far the animation goes since Europe's Most Wanted Hollywood had grown out of their 3D Revival phase of the early 2010s but there was still an incentive to keep the series Grand and make the visuals pop it's a very bouncy and colorful movie up to in including the big mutant crisis that private has to avert yep private's given the character Arc here he's the one whose skills and experience are tested the most by the film not just in the climax but in how the others especially Skipper see him as a docile little brother figure his heart tucked into the script but if that doesn't get heart pumping there's romance too with Kowalski hooking up with this owl Eva who works with their competing North Wind organization even in the prime continuity Kowalski is still a chick magnet good way to end it and very good that the last time we saw these guys they were as cute and cuddly as possible if DreamWorks ever wants to bring them back for another movie they have my support but as for the show it's good we have it as a special Diversion the penguins are characters people were clamoring to see more of and only an 80 episod series like this could quench The public's thirst I'm not saying it's one of my new favorite Nickelodean cartoons but it's not bad and not among the Alysa efforts I've covered sometimes it can get wrapped up in this idea that only kids are paying attention to them but I can see why they thought that the Madagascar movies were made with kids in mind first not that adults couldn't enjoy them and most of the time on this show there is a sense that they're just doing what they found funny and weird there's a lot you can do with these little guys and I'm happy that what they did was produce a funny and memorable show [Music]

Channel: EmployeeAMillion

Views: 1,950

Keywords: Madagascar, The Penguins of Madagascar, Penguins of Madagascar, DreamWorks, Nickelodeon, 2000s, 2010s

Id: u0ly8t4EnTE

Length: 28min 46sec (1726 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 29 2024