The Penguins of Madagascar

The Penguins of Madagascar
File:Penguin of Madagascar.jpg Titlecard image used since late 2009.
Genre	Animated comedy
Directed by	Bret Haaland Nick Filippi
Starring	Tom McGrath Jeff Bennett John DiMaggio James Patrick Stuart Danny Jacobs Kevin Michael Richardson Andy Richter Matt Nolan Nicole Sullivan Conrad Vernon Mary Scheer Tara Strong
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	60 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Mark McCorkle Bob Schooley
Production locations	Nicktoons Network Burbank, California
Running time	approx. 22 minutes (2×11-minute episodes)
Original release
Network	Nickelodeon
Release	November 29, 2008 (2008-11-29) – present

The Penguins of Madagascar is an American CGI animated television series airing on Nickelodeon. It stars nine characters from the DreamWorks Animation animated film Madagascar: the penguins Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Jeff Bennett), Rico (John DiMaggio), and Private (James Patrick Stuart); the lemurs King Julien XIII (Danny Jacobs), Maurice (Kevin Michael Richardson), and Mort (Andy Richter and Matt Nolan); and Mason (Conrad Vernon) and Phil the chimpanzees. Characters new to the series include Marlene the otter (Nicole Sullivan) and a zookeeper named 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 (with elements from the Penguins' Christmas Caper intact, noticeably, Rico's scar and mohawk). Nickelodeon ordered 26 episodes for season 1 and in January 2009 ordered a second season of 26 episodes, bringing the total to 52. This is the first Nicktoon produced with DreamWorks Animation. The series premiere drew 6.1 million viewers, setting a new record as the most-watched premiere. The Penguins of Madagascar is Nickelodeon's second most popular show, behind SpongeBob SquarePants.

Plot

The Penguins of Madagascar is a spin-off of the Madagascar films. The series follows the adventures of the four penguin protagonists: Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private, who perform various paramilitary missions to protect their home in the Central Park Zoo. The penguins often have to deal with problems caused, or made worse, by King Julien XIII (a ring-tailed lemur), Maurice (an aye-aye), and Mort (a mouse lemur).

It is not known how the penguins and lemurs arrived at the zoo after their adventures in both "Madagascar" films. During the show's opening title, the penguins are also seen opening a crate that reads "Madagascar" and contains the three lemur characters. 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."

Characters

See also: List of characters in Madagascar (franchise)

The Penguins of Madagascar features the four penguin characters from the Madagascar franchise, the two chimpanzees, as well as the three lemur characters. Characters new to the franchise include Marlene the otter, and a zookeeper named Alice.

Main characters

• Skipper (Tom McGrath) is the leader of the penguins; he devises tactics and gives orders. He is usually cool-headed and calculating, and has exaggerated bravado. He usually views everything as some type of covert military operation. He is shown to have a secret fear of needles. For unknown reasons, he cannot travel to Denmark. Skipper can sometimes be seen with fish in a coffee cup. He has a nemesis named Dr. Blowhole.
• Kowalski (Jeff Bennett) acts as the group strategist and gadgeteer. Kowalski is highly intelligent, but tends to over-analyze situations.
• 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 is shown to be in love with a Barbie-like doll.
• 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 speaks with a British accent and is sometimes prone to accidents.

Secondary characters

• King Julien XIII (Danny Jacobs), normally shortened to King Julien, is a fun-loving, conceited ring-tailed lemur and the series' main antagonist. The self-proclaimed lemur king often competes with Skipper and even had a physical fight with him in "Assault and Batteries", but he is usually not considered an antagonist as he has proven quite useful at times. King 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 King Julien's subjects. While Maurice accepts his life as a servant, he often shows disdain towards King Julien and his hare-brained ideas.
• Mort (Andy Richter and Matt Nolan) is an accident-prone, dim-witted, cute and cuddly mouse lemur. Unlike Maurice, Mort is fiercely devoted to Julien, even displaying an obsession with the lemur king's feet. King 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. 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. By being a levelheaded, feminine voice of reason, she is a counterpoint to Skipper's masculine, covert-ops character.
• 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 sometimes 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 sewers. He is a secondary antagonist to the penguins. He constantly torments the penguins and never learns his lesson when he is defeated each time. He even tries to take over their home, but is beaten 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 an ill-tempered kangaroo with an Australian accent. He has fought other characters on the show.
• Bada and Bing the Gorillas (John DiMaggio and Kevin Michael Richardson) are two gorillas who also enjoy fighting. 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.
• Officer X (Cedric Yarbrough) is a man part of animal control. He is obsessed with catching stray animals. He has a stronger grudge against the penguins than Alice. 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) was Skipper's archenemy. He was a bottlenose dolphin who had red lobsters as his henchmen. He was mentioned in episodes, "Eclipsed", and "Roomies", but he made a full appearance in the special, "Dr. Blowhole's Revenge", where he captured King Julien and served as the main villain of the episode. According to Skipper, he had the power to make the weather strange. He rode on a Segway-type vehicle as his means of transportation on land. Three running gags were that his skin was "surprisingly pleasant to the touch," that he constantly mispronounced "penguins" as "pain-gu-ins," and that he constantly rubbed-in the fact that he had 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.

Episodes

Main article: List of The Penguins of Madagascar episodes

Season	Episodes		Originally aired
			First aired	Last aired	Network
1	48		November 28, 2008 (2008-11-28)	February 15, 2010 (2010-02-15)	Nickelodeon
2	68		March 13, 2010 (2010-03-13)	March 31, 2012 (2012-03-31)
3	33	26	April 16, 2012 (2012-04-16)	November 10, 2012 (2012-11-10)
		7	December 24, 2013 (2013-12-24)	December 19, 2015 (2015-12-19)	Nicktoons

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 was confirmed on what the series would be 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 advertised many events that were going to premiere in 2008 (The Mighty B!, Fairly OddBaby, The Penguins of Madagascar, KCA 2008, Sidekicks, and "Pest of the West"). Since then, The Penguins of Madagascar was 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 voice actors who voiced the characters in the films were unable to reprise their roles for the series. Chris Miller, who had voiced Kowalski, was replaced by Jeff Bennett, while 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, Cedric the Entertainer's character, Maurice, is now voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson, and Andy Richter is sometimes replaced by Matt Nolan. Other characters are voiced by the same actors who had voiced them in the films, while some characters, like 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 and Taiwan. Both Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation were planning on a 26 episode season. The Penguins of Madagascar aired after the 2009 Kids' Choice Awards on March 28, 2009 at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT.

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
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") March 28, 2009 (Official launch)	Nickelodeon	Gone in a Flash Launchtime, Haunted Habitat
Canada	September 12, 2009	YTV/ Nickelodeon Canada	Episodes 1-22, 24-28, 30 (As of Jan 22/10)
Hong Kong Malaysia Singapore Philippines	September 10, 2009	Nickelodeon Southeast Asia	Launchtime, Haunted Habitat
Italy	November 2009	Italia 1/Nickelodeon Italy
Spain	October 2009	Nickelodeon Spain
Portugal	October 2009	Nickelodeon Portugal
Indonesia	May 15, 2010	Nickelodeon Indonesia
Turkey	April 15 2010	CNBC-e

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. 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.

Brian Lowry of Variety described the show as "loud, exuberant and colorful" and praised its animation quality, but he did not think that it was funny and said that the show seemed more like a "merchandising bonanza."

Awards and recognition

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

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.

It was also nominated for Favorite Cartoon at the 2010 Kids' Choice Awards, but lost to SpongeBob SquarePants.

In May 2010, it was announced that the series had been nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in three categories: Outstanding Special Class Animated Program, Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition, and Outstanding Writing in Animation. The winners of the 2010 Daytime Emmys will be announced on June 27 in Las Vegas.

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. 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. In February 2010, McDonald’s began their “Mission: Play” Happy Meal toy campaign, which featured eight toys based on the penguins in the series.

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.

External links

• The Penguins of Madagascar at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com