To most people, Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private are just four cute penguins living in the Central Park Zoo. And that's exactly what they want people to think. Why? Because these placid-looking penguins are actually an elite strike force with unmatched commando skills and a secret headquarters. Their mission? To maintain order in the zoo. Their nemesis? Their obnoxious new neighbour, King Julien. This party animal and self proclaimed "King of the Lemurs" is new to the zoo...and he's looking to shake things up.
It was true to say of the both of the Madagascar films that the "main" characters were easily the least interesting of those in the film. OK so they provided a loose narrative frame to make the film work as a story but everyone's favourite scenes tended to involve the military penguins, the outrageous lemur and the posh monkeys. Wisely then for this TV show, the focus is squarely on the penguins, King Julien, Maurice and Mort, with the monkeys in an occasional supporting appearance and the addition of new character Marlene. Each episode is about 10 minutes long and I am almost positive that no child below the age of 15 will struggle to enjoy them and I say this as a grown man who made the effort to get them off a kid's network.
It was worth it though because the writers for the TV show have captured and expanded upon what made all these characters funny in the sub-plot asides in the main films. The plots for each episode are normally pretty solid, whether it is an adventure of some sort, a conflict or some other event that causes the penguins to do their thing while Julien is his usual arrogant, demanding self along with his ever suffering subjects. This is the formula but it never feels repetitive because the writing makes the plotting secondary to how funny it is. And it is pretty funny. I wasn't rolling in the aisles but each short episode had me laughing out loud at least a handful of times and generally amused by the rest of it. This comes from having great little characters and making them do their thing each week. Although there are one or two more childish, "toilet-humour" type laughs in here, they are in the minority. Likewise, although there are some references for adults, they do not dominate either. Instead what the writers have mostly managed to nail is material that will appeal to a very broad audience indeed as it is never too childish or too grown-up. This is quite a feat and it is what makes the show worth seeing.
Of the penguins, Skipper's rigid leadership sets the tone and makes the group such a delight when they bounce around to their theme music and respond to anything with superficial precision and training. Rico has become my favourite with his uncanny ability to pull anything out of his stomach at the right moment, although Private's more timid character also provides good laughs and asides with his reactions. Kowalski is best in small doses as he has less to offer in terms of laughs but he is good when used as part of the group. The voice work from the three actors doing these characters are always good – keeping character well from the films. Speaking of which, kudos to Jacobs for replacing Cohen but doing just as good a job with Julien. He is a great character and provides plenty of laughs as well as being a good plot device for many of the episodes. Richardson's Maurice and Richter's Mort are also funny in small asides – Mort in particular being a source of regular laughs just by doing the same things in different ways. The animation is not quite up to the standards of the films but it does not feel a million miles away and it certainly does enough to stand out as a quality bit of animation – even if the appeal of it is very much in the writing rather than the technical aspects.
Penguins of Madagascar is not an awesome thing to be heralded as the second coming but it is certainly a very consistent and very enjoyable product. Everyone's favourite characters from Madagascar are here and are used well with solid plots and all of them getting frequent laughs from viewers of all ages. At some point the zoo-bound plots will run out and the pressure will be on to mess with the formula but for now season 1 was more than fun enough to justify me keeping an ear to the ground for future seasons.
