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The Penguins of Madagascar
Titlecard image used since late 2009.
Genre	Animated comedy
Created by	Tom McGrath Eric Darnell[citation needed]
Directed by	Bret Haaland Nick Filippi
Starring	Tom McGrath Jeff Glen Bennett James Patrick Stuart John DiMaggio Danny Jacobs Kevin Michael Richardson Andy Richter Nicole Sullivan Conrad Vernon Mary Scheer Tara Strong[1]
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	52 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Mark McCorkle Bob Schooley[2]
Location(s)	Nicktoons Network Burbank, California
Running time	12 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Nickelodeon
Picture format	480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV)
First shown in	United States
Original run	November 29, 2008 (2008-11-29) – present
Chronology
Preceded by	Madagascar (2005) Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008)
Followed by	Merry Madagascar (2009) Madagascar 3 (proposed)
External links
Official website

The Penguins of Madagascar is an American CGI animated television series airing on Nickelodeon, starring Tom McGrath (as Skipper), Jeff Glen Bennett (as Kowalski), James Patrick Stuart (as Private), John DiMaggio (as Rico), and Danny Jacobs (as King Julien). It also co-stars Julien's subjects Maurice (Kevin Michael Richardson) and Mort (Andy Richter), along with some other zoo animals, like Marlene (Nicole Sullivan), Mason (Conrad Vernon) and Phil (unvoiced), as well as the zookeeper, Alice (Mary Scheer).

A pilot episode, "Gone in a Flash", aired as part of "Superstuffed Nicktoons Weekend" on November 29, 2008 before a new episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, and The Penguins of Madagascar became a regular series on March 28, 2009. The series takes place after the events of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Nickelodeon ordered 26 episodes for season 1 and in January 2009 ordered a second season of 26 episodes, bringing the total to 52.^[3] This is the first Nicktoon produced with DreamWorks Animation. The series premiere drew 6.1 million viewers.^[4]

Plot

The Penguins of Madagascar is a spin-off of the "Madagascar" films, which takes place after the second movie. The series follows the adventures of four penguins: Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private who perform various paramilitary missions to protect their home in the Central Park Zoo. The penguins are constantly opposed by the lemurs King Julien XIII, Maurice, and Mort.

While it is not known how the penguins and lemurs arrived at the zoo after their adventures in both "Madagascar" films, the show's opening features the penguins opening a crate which reads "Madagascar" and contains the three lemur characters. Also, at the end of the second movie, it shows the lemurs and the penguins flying somewhere in the repaired airplane. DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg has stated that "there is at least one more chapter. We ultimately want to see the characters make it back to New York."^[5]

Characters

The Penguins of Madagascar features the four penguin characters from the Madagascar franchise, as well as the chimpanzees and the three lemurs. New to the series is Marlene, a female otter, and Alice, a zookeeper.

Main characters

• Skipper (Tom McGrath) is the leader of the penguins, who forms tactics and gives orders. He is usually cool-headed and calculating with exaggerated bravado. He usually views everything as some type of covert military operation. He is shown to have a secret fear of needles. He can't step foot in Denmark for unknown reasons. Sometimes in the series, we see Skipper have a coffee cup with a fish in it. He has a nemesis named Dr. Blowhole.
• Kowalski (Jeff Glen Bennett) acts as the group strategist and gadgeteer. Kowalski is highly intelligent, but tends to over-analyze situations.
• Private (James Patrick Stuart) is the emotionally sensitive rookie of the group, who has a knack for cracking codes. Though less experienced than the other penguins, he is shown to be the most down-to-earth of the four penguins. He has a British accent and is sometimes prone to accidents.
• Rico (John DiMaggio) is the team's weapons and explosives specialist, who mainly communicates through grunts and squeals. Rico swallows useful tools, such as dynamite, and regurgitates them when needed. He has a scar on his left cheek, and he is also shown to be in love with a Barbie-like doll.
• King Julien (Danny Jacobs) is a fun loving ring-tailed lemur, the self-proclaimed lemur king and usually competes with Skipper and had a physical fight with him in "Assault and Batteries", but he is not considered an antagonist as he has proven quite useful sometimes. Julien is a comically conceited character who has little regard for his "subjects", Maurice and Mort. He has a tendency to use malapropisms and misinterpret figures of speech.
• Maurice (Kevin Michael Richardson) is an aye-aye who is one of Julien's subjects. While Maurice accepts his life as a servant, he often shows disdain towards Julien and his hare-brained ideas. He has a crush on the baboon named Darla who stole Julian's groove.
• Mort (Andy Richter) is an accident-prone mouse lemur. Unlike Maurice, Mort is fiercely devoted to Julien, even displaying an obsession with the lemur king's feet. Julien, however, treats him with contempt. It is revealed in "Truth Ache" that he loves King Julien just for his feet, which he sadly admits is true.
• Marlene (Nicole Sullivan) is a female otter who was transferred to the Central Park Zoo from an aquarium in California.^[6] She is close friends with Skipper and sometimes tags along on his missions, but she is often a neutral character who does not take sides between the penguins and the lemurs.^[7] By being a levelheaded, feminine voice of reason, she is a counterpoint to Skipper's masculine, covert ops character.

Secondary characters

• Mason (Conrad Vernon) and Phil are two intelligent chimpanzees. Mason can speak but cannot read; Phil is mute but is an avid reader, and communicates through sign language which is interpreted by Mason.
• Alice (Mary Scheer) is a surly zookeeper. Though another worker (John DiMaggio) can be heard on her walkie-talkie, she is the only one ever seen.
• The Rat King (Diedrich Bader) is a genetically enhanced, muscular lab rat who resides in the sewer. He is the secondary antagonist of the penguins. He constantly torments the penguins and never learns his lesson when he's defeated each time. He even tries to take over their home, but he is defeated by King Julien in an ice hockey game.
• Roger the Alligator (Richard Kind) is the penguins' alligator friend who lives in the sewer. They meet him in the episode "Haunted Habitat" when Skipper and Marlene go to investigate in the sewer under Marlene's habitat because of a strange sound. Roger tells the penguins that he is from Florida. He appears again in "Roger Dodger" when the sewer rats terrorize him.
• Max the Cat (Wayne Knight) is the penguins' stray cat friend. He first meets the four penguins in the episode "Launchtime" when the penguins end up on a rooftop across the street from the zoo instead of on the moon. At first, the penguins thought he was a "moon-cat," but at the end they figure out he was a stray cat. Max is skinny and hopes to catch a bird in his life. He at first wanted to eat the penguins, but was so touched that he was given a can of fish by them that he became their friend instead.
• Joey The Kangaroo (James Patrick Stuart) is a bad attitude kangaroo with an Australian accent. His favorite food is shrub and loves beating people up even wanting to take on a human named Officer X as seen in "Cat's Cradle". He even beat up Julien when Julien was cleaning out his pouch.
• Bada and Bing the Gorillas (John DiMaggio and Kevin Michael Richardson) are two giant gorillas who just like Joey like beating up people but they are nicer more often. They once beat up Mort which led to Mort growing and they then got beat up by Mort to get a mango. Julien once gave them lots of bananas but it is possible that they beat him up due to him giving too much to them.
• Fred the Squirrel (Fred Stoller) is a squirrel that takes everything said literally and has a slow monotone speech pattern. Fred lives in a park near the zoo. He dated Marlene in "Otter Things Have Happened," but she broke up with him because he's 'dumb as a sack of hammers'.
• Officer X (Cedric Yarbrough) is a man part of animal control and the third antagonist of the show. He is obsessed with catching stray animals. He has a stronger grudge against the penguins than Alice and is shown to be a good match-up. His first appearance is when he is searching for Max and the second appearance is when he was tracking down the penguins when they escaped the zoo. He is a very strong human and can take down even the strongest of animals, like Joey the Kangaroo. Officer X is very cocky and seems to have hunted many other animals before. In his second appearance he was arrested for going on a rampage after losing the penguins.
• Dr. Blowhole (Neil Patrick Harris) is Skipper's archenemy. He is a bottlenose dolphin who has red lobsters as servants. He was mentioned in episodes "Eclipsed" and Roomies, but he makes a full appearance in the special "Dr. Blowhole's Revenge", where he captures Julien. According to Skipper, he has the power to make the weather strange. He rides on a Segway-type vehicle as his means of transportation on land. Three running gags are that his skin is "surprisingly pleasant to the touch," that he constantly mispronounces "penguins" as "pain-gu-ins," and that he constantly rubs-in the fact that he has far superior technology than the penguins do.
• Burt the Elephant (John DiMaggio) was just one of the extra animals during the beginning of the series, but then he evolved into a character later on and even got a central episode in An Elephant Never Forgets. He is shown to be obsessed with peanuts and when he doesn't eat them he goes insane shown in Jungle Law. He nearly eats Julien when he mistakes him for a peanut. He hates kazoo sounds and steals it from the kid who used it to torment him. Out of guilt, he gave it back years later.

Episodes

Production

In mid 2006, Nickelodeon and Dreamworks Animation announced that they would collaborate to create a Nicktoon based on the Madagascar films. The new series would star the Penguins from the film series. Nothing had been confirmed on what the series is about, until November 2007.

At first, in November 2007, Nickelodeon advertised a sneak peek of three new Nicktoons coming to Nickelodeon, The Mighty B!, Making Fiends, and The Penguins of Madagascar all on November 25, 2007 part of Superstuffed Nicktoons Weekend. Then, in December 2007, Nickelodeon had advertised many events that were going to premiere on Nickelodeon in 2008 (The Mighty B!, Fairly OddBaby, The Penguins of Madagascar, KCA 2008, Sidekicks, and "Pest of the West").^[9] Since then, The Penguins of Madagascar had been delayed at least twice in 2008, and saw a debut in March 2009, most likely due to Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa being delayed to November 7, 2008. On November 28, 2008, Nickelodeon aired an episode from the series as a sneak peek. The Double DVD Pack of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa includes an early DVD of the show.

Casting

Some of the actors who voiced characters in the films were not available to reprise their roles for the series. Chris Miller, who had voiced Kowalski, was replaced by Jeff Bennett, Christopher Knights was replaced by James Patrick Stuart for the voice of Private, Danny Jacobs took over from Sacha Baron Cohen as the voice of King Julien and Cedric the Entertainer's character, Maurice, is voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson. Other characters are voiced by the same actors who voiced them in the films, or in the case of Marlene and Alice the Zookeeper, are new characters created especially for the series.

Nickelodeon debut

After some delays of the series to air, The Penguins of Madagascar debuted on Nickelodeon in 2009. The series is produced at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio in Burbank, California, with animation carried out in India^[6] and Taiwan. Both Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation were planning on a 26 episode season.^[2] The Penguins of Madagascar aired after the 2009 Kids' Choice Awards on March 28, 2009 at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT.^[10]

International release

Country / Region	Series premiere	Network	Episodes aired
Australia	April 18, 2009	Nickelodeon Australia	Popcorn Panic, Gone in a Flash
Belgium The Netherlands	April 12, 2009	Nickelodeon Netherlands	Gone in a Flash
Austria Germany Switzerland	April 10, 2009 (Preview) September 12, 2009 (Official launch)	Nickelodeon Germany	Popcorn Panic, Gone in a Flash, Launchtime, Haunted Habitat, Tangled in the Web, Crown Fools
Argentina  Brazil  Chile  Paraguay  Colombia  Costa Rica  Mexico  Peru  Uruguay  Venezuela	March 2, 2009 (preview) June 5, 2009 (official launch)	Nickelodeon Latin America	Popcorn Panic, Gone in a Flash
Bulgaria	March 7, 2010	Nova Television
Ireland United Kingdom	April 12, 2009	Nickelodeon UK Nickelodeon Ireland CITV	Episodes mainly aired on Nickelodeon. Most episodes in series 1 have aired in the UK.
United States	November 29, 2008 ("Sneak Peek")[8] March 28, 2009 (Official launch)	Nickelodeon	Gone in a Flash Launchtime, Haunted Habitat
Canada	September 12, 2009[11]	YTV/ Nickelodeon Canada	Episodes 1-22, 24-28, 30 (As of Jan 22/10)
Malaysia Singapore	September 10, 2009[11]	Nickelodeon Southeast Asia	Launchtime, Haunted Habitat
Italy	November 2009	Italia 1/Nickelodeon Italy
Turkey	February-May 2010	CNBC-E, Nickelodeon Turkey
Spain	October 2009	Nickelodeon Spain
Portugal	October 2009	Nickelodeon Portugal

Critical reception

The Penguins of Madagascar has been given mixed to positive critical reviews. Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times gave the show a favorable review. She said that the show had strong comedic timing and action scenes, saying that it recalled both Wile E. Coyote cartoons and 1940s gangster movies. McNamara also noted that the replacements for the celebrity voice actors did their jobs well.^[12] Tim Goodman's review in the San Francisco Chronicle is also favorable. He said that he considered the penguins and Julien as having the most comedic potential from the movies, with his review focusing on the voice actors' comedic timing, and said that the show also contained several jokes which would make it appealing to adults.^[13]

After admitting that Madagascar "...is hardly my favorite recent animated movie," Brian Lowry of Variety, said that although he thought the show was "loud, exuberant and colorful", he did not think that it was funny and said that the show seemed more like a "merchandising bonanza". He did, however, say that the show's CGI animation was high in quality.^[14]

Awards and recognition

In November 2009, The Penguins of Madagascar won a BAFTA award in the category for international children’s programming.^[15]

On February 6, 2010, the series won the Best Animated Television Production for Children award at the 37th annual Annie Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, California.^[16]

It was also nominated for Favorite Cartoon at the 2010 Kids' Choice Awards.

Toys

DreamWorks licensed to a number of manufacturers, including Hooga Loo Toys, who had a successful run creating a line of plush toys associated with the second Madagascar movie. Based on its success, Hooga Loo was granted a license to create an entire new toy line for the new series. Hooga Loo recruited the creative development team, Pangea Corporation, the company who assisted Playmates Toys in the development of the phenomenally successful "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," to work systemically with DreamWorks and develop toys inspired by and for the series.^[17] The toy line included a full range of unique and funny feature plush characters, as well as clever collectible figures and wacky vehicles. Fast food restaurants courted DreamWorks to glean the rights for a QSR deal, which finally materialized in late 2009. McDonald's had produced a collector's dream line based on the second film. This relationship forged a new deal with McDonald's.

Licensed merchandise based on the show began debuting in January 2010.^[18][19] In February 2010, McDonald’s began their “Mission: Play” Happy Meal toy campaign, which featured eight toys based on the penguins in the series.^[20]

NBC holiday special

A primetime TV special which featured the penguins, as well as the other main characters from the “Madagascar” franchise, “Merry Madagascar,” aired on November 17, 2009 on NBC stations in the United States. It was re-aired November 28.

DVD release

The Penguins of Madagascar, a 24-minute long "sneak peak" of the series, was released as part of the double DVD pack of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. It included two episodes: "Popcorn Panic" and "Gone in a Flash."

The Penguins of Madagascar: Operation: DVD Premiere, a 130-minute-long, direct-to-DVD release which featured both all-new missions and TV-aired episodes, was released on February 9, 2010.^[19]

References

External links

• The Penguins of Madagascar at the Internet Movie Database
• The Penguins of Madagascar at TV.com

From Wikiquote

Wikipedia has an article about:

The Penguins of Madagascar

The Penguins of Madagascar is an American CGI animated television series broadcast on Nickelodeon, starring the penguins from the 2005 film Madagascar. A pilot episode, Gone in a Flash, aired as part of Super Stuffed Nicktoons Weekend on November 28, 2008 before a new episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, and The Penguins of Madagascar became a regular series on March 28, 2009.

Quotes

Episode 1: Gone in a Flash

(Maurice is making a sundae)
Maurice (Singing):
Making my ice cream,
Oh, sprinkle it on,
(Julien grabs the sundae while Maurice is not looking)
Now we add a cherry on top!
(Julien grabs the cherry)
Julien: Uh, less sprinkles next time, okay Maurice?

Maurice: I just can't take this!
Julien: Rule number one: Do not question the king. Rule number two--
(Camera falls into Maurice's arms)
(They begin to fight)
Later...
Julien:I said gimme! What part of Give or Me do you not understand?
Maurice: I understood the me part, like, this was caught by ME!

Episode 12: The Hidden

Skipper: Pop quiz, troops. What can't we trust?

Kowalski: (flipping through his notebook) Three-day-old stir-fry mung beans.

Skipper: Right. What else can't we trust?

Private: (holding up a book on badgers) Badgers!

Skipper: (gives Private a questionable look)

Private:...Maybe that's just me.

Episode 18: Miracle On Ice

After the rat king jumps on him while playing hockey:

Skipper (concerned): "Kowalski, speak to me man!"

(Kowalski lying on ground twitching: "Just a knock on the old monkey bus..."

Skipper (confused): "Kowalski?"

Kowalski (stumbling on ice): "No need to paint. I'm as flopsy-faced as ever."

Skipper (after Kowalski gets up and picks up hockey stick): " I...don't think you're fit for duty."

Kowalski (continuing to stumble): "Flibberty-jibbet man! I'm as juxtaposed as the next hamburger!" (slips and falls on

his belly)

Private (after he and Skipper also get hurt): "Skipper, maybe it's time to admit we've lost."

Kowalski (stumbling in the backgound): "The moo-cow may have a chocolate marshmallow!"

(Julian wins the hocky game, defeating the sewer rats, Rico, Private and Skipper looked shocked; Kowalski stumbles

past them) Kowalski: "Well, I'll be a bicycle cream cone!"