‘Penguins of Madagascar’ is a
movie adaptation of a TV show which was a character spin-off of a sequel to the
sequel of ‘Madagascar’. In it, Madagascar’s side characters travel to every
part of the world except Madagascar to go on a mission with an inter-species
task force called the North Wind to stop a villain from taking away the
cuteness of all penguins.
Dreamworks Animation has been
in a little bit of a rut. With Mr Peabody & Sherman, Turbo and Rise of the
Guardians all financially underperforming, it was clear that Dreamworks’
strategy of making 3 films a year was failing greatly and despite The Croods
and How to Train Your Dragon 2 performing decently, they have not done enough
to cover up financially for the others. Ever since the Shrek franchise, in
fact, there has only ever been one Dreamworks Animation franchise that has
given them similar financial success, and that is their Madagascar trilogy. So,
instead of making a sequel for actually good films like Megamind, Dreamworks has
decided to forward production on a Madagascar spin-off. In fact,
Dreamworks was so desperate that CEO, Jeff Katzenberg, decided in the last
minute, to push this Penguins film from a 2015 release to this November 2014 release
date which was initially scheduled for their new film, ‘Home’. Can the Penguins
not only save the other penguins of the world but also save Dreamworks
Animation?
Originally envisioned and
planned to be a direct-to-video release, the Penguins of Madagascar was never
supposed to be on the big screen and it shows. With one of the worse scripts
and character developments of any film I have seen all year, the whole film
felt like a long episode of the now cancelled TV show with a villain-of-the-day
type scenario. The addition of the North Wind, though adding some much needed
star-power, took so much screen time away from the Penguins that the Penguins
at one point began to feel like side characters in their own film. Because of
the amount of characters on screen, none, except maybe Private, were given any
sort of opportunity to have a proper arc, therefore leading to them becoming
boring stereotypes and causing the characters to end up being nothing more than
pixels on screen to the audience.
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| The only positives of the film. |
In terms of voice acting,
Benedict Cumberbatch and John Malkovich provide their voices for this film. Both
of them do an amazing job and are the only real positives of the film.
Cumberbatch shows that he can do an all out comedy and brings so much to the
table that his character nearly became interesting at times. Malkovich shines
as the voice of the villain and along with the interesting animation of how the
octopus villain stretches like the 2D cartoons of old, really creates a decent
villain which I almost ended up routing for since he was the only character
with any sort of personality. Other than these two, however, the voice acting
is abysmal in every way. At times, it felt like the actors were just reading off
the page with no proper direction as to what is going on on-screen. The other
members of the North Wind probably have less than 10 lines each in the film
while each of the Penguins sound the same whether they are in an action scene
or just talking privately with each other.
Despite the quality of
Cumberbatch’s performance, his character as a whole is pointless in all
regards. Despite being such a major part of the film, his character brings
nothing interesting to the film other than his voice and was so inconsequential
that he was nearly annoying at times. Every other character was the same in
most aspects and even though the film could not have lasted for more than an
hour and a half, I found myself wishing for it to end half way through as I was
stuck watching these annoying characters laugh at their own jokes, give each
other unfunny high ones and pat themselves on the back thinking they are doing
such a good job.
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| If we move the tall guy to the left, no one will notice it's the same thing! |
As for the premise and story
of the film, Penguins of Madagascar is a espionage film and it shows you
that it is by hitting every single predictable note any typical espionage film
hits. I felt like I could hear the director shouting at the audience things
like, “Now it’s time for the scene where the bad guy captures the main
character and reveals his plan,” and, “Now the Penguins will be kicked off the
mission but don’t worry, they’ll be back to save the day!” and “Now it’s time
for the emotional scene which we so blatantly set up in the first 10 minutes of
the film!” Within 15 minutes of the film, one can easily figure out how the
film is going to end. In fact, if you at anytime feel like you have seen this
film before, it is because you have. In fact, I can tell you when you did. Just
last year. In Despicable Me 2. That villain also had a giant ray that turns all
the cute minions into crazy monsterous things. In fact, the films were so
similar that at one moment I thought that Penguins would be the origin story of
the minions. So if there was ever any doubt that this film was a sloppily put
together and rushed out product with the sole intention of capitalising on the similarly
undeserved success of the minions last year, it would be clear by the end of the film.
However, amidst all the
unfunny and sometimes creepy subtle jokes involving animal abuse, child abuse,
cross dressing, cultural-stereotyping and cannibalism, there was one
long running joke that did have me laughing. It was the only joke I laughed at
and most people in the audience didn’t even catch it because it didn’t have the
pause that many people need these days to tell them it is a joke and they
should laugh. It was the joke involving celebrity names like Nicholas Cage and
Drew Barrymore. It was the only thing that I felt was creative in the film and
was a small ray of light in the horrible filth Dreamworks has put out this
time.
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| Did I also mention one of the worse female characters ever put on film? |
And then there is the moral.
Spoilers ahead but, honestly, if you are worried about spoilers for Penguins of
Madagascar, I don’t know what to say to you. At the end, because the film
thinks you may be too stupid to understand the message they are trying to
convey, the Penguins actually tell you straight up that it is about outward
appearance not being important and it is what is on the inside that counts.
Now, in case I accidentally watched an entirely different film, that is not
what was being conveyed in the film at all. In fact, it is the exact opposite.
The villain became evil because everyone loved the penguins’ outward cuteness
more than his own talent and inside qualities. He then plans to turn all
penguins into ugly monsters so people will hate them. It worked and people
hated them and tried to exterminate them. And then the penguins had to use Private’s outer cuteness to defeat the inner
and outer ugliness of the monster penguins. The villain also gets hit with the
cute ray and becomes outwardly cute despite being inwardly evil but a little
girl seeing his outer beauty finally shows him love. So the film is about fighting
to be outwardly beautiful so people will love us. So how in the world did they
conclude that it was the other way around?
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| What Dreamworks thinks of us. |
Boring, lazy, unfocused and
stupid are words to describe this film when I’m feeling nice as this is one of
the worst animations I have ever seen in a theatre. I don’t even think it is a
good film for children. The film refuses to focus on any one character and
though most may say that it is focused on Private, it only did so at the start
and at the end. In between, there was an unnecessary change of focus to Skipper
which led to an ‘emotional scene’ that just felt like things happening on
screen with deafening “you’re supposed to be sad now” music playing. I actually
feel like I’ve become more stupid after watching this film. The good news is
that the film is so forgettable that I have actually already forgotten
everything about it except the end of the movie. At the end of the film, I felt
like part of that Simpsons Movie scene. I can’t believe I just paid for something I can get for free on TV.
Am I being too harsh on the
film? In fact, I think I was being quite withdrawn. I did not even mention the
blatantly displayed Madagascar signs just to remind you of the franchise, or the
overly long climax, or the inconsistencies of the film to the world they set out
in the original Madagascar, or how they made some scenes for no reason other
than to make one stupid joke. If this film
had come out on TV and I had watched it, then I would have been kinder to it.
But as Dreamworks Animation has felt the need to want people to give them money
to watch it in a theatre, the film has to reach a certain standard, and it does
not. Not by a long shot. Because of Cumberbatch and Malkovich’s performances
and that celebrity-naming joke, the film is not completely negative and can
therefore qualify for a rating that is a little better than my original rating
when I came out of the theatre, not that it makes much of a difference.
Animated Movie Rating: 3/10
Movie Rating for Kids: 4/10
After Credits Movie Rating: 2/10
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| The new video from the FineBros channel on YouTube sums it all up. |
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