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.[4] 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.[5][6][7]
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."[8]
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. Calculating and nearly unflappable, Skipper's paranoia combined with his experience in covert ops has driven him to prepare for nearly any situation, no matter how bizarre or unlikely.
Kowalski (Jeff 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. Though younger and less experienced than the other penguins, he is the most down to earth; Private tends to offer simpler, more commonsense solutions in response to Skipper and Kowalski's complex strategies.
Rico (John DiMaggio) is the team's weapons and explosives specialist, who mainly communicates through grunts and squeals. Slightly unhinged, Rico swallows useful tools, such as dynamite, and regurgitates them when needed.
King Julien XIII (Danny Jacobs), normally shortened to King Julien, is a fun loving ring-tailed lemur. The self-proclaimed King of the Lemurs is a comically conceited character who has little regard for others, even his subjects. He has a tendency to use malapropisms and misinterpret figures of speech.
Maurice (Kevin Michael Richardson), an aye-aye, is one of King Julien's subjects. Maurice accepts his life as a servant, but he often shows disdain towards King Julien and his inconsiderate attitude.
Mort (Andy Richter) is an excitable, accident-prone 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.
Marlene (Nicole Sullivan) is a female otter who was transferred to the Central Park Zoo from an aquarium in California.[9] 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.[10] 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.
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.
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) 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 and served as the primary antagonist of the episode. 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. Four running gags are that his skin is "surprisingly pleasant to the touch," that he constantly mispronounces "penguins" as "pain-gu-ins," that he calls the penguins "flightless," 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.
Manfredi and Johnson These unseen recruits, referenced by Skipper, suffered horrible fates in previous Penguins missions. Their fates include: attacked by flying piranhas (their remains ladled into their graves with a teaspoon); short one escape tunnel (their remains sent back in a manila envelope, from Manila); mistaking the business end of a whale for an escape tunnel (they couldn't speak for months); and falling for the exploding-elephant-foot-trick. When they fell for the chinstrap sisters they lost a heart, a lung and 15 feet of intestine. (NOTE: Manfredi and Johnson were the names of two POW soldiers killed at the beginning of Billy Wilder's 1953 film Stalag 17.)
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").[13] 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, and Cedric the Entertainer's character, Maurice, is now voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson. 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[9] 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.[14]
This section needs expansion with: more critical reception from reliable sources. You can help by adding to it. (April 2009)
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.[17] 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.[18]
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."[19]
Awards and recognition
In November 2009, The Penguins of Madagascar won a BAFTA award in the category for international children’s programming.[20]
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. Director Bret Haaland also won an Annie for Best Directing in a Television Production for his work on the "Launchtime" episode.[21]
In May 2010, it was announced that the series had been nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in four categories: Outstanding Special Class Animated Program, Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition, Outstanding Writing in Animation, and Outstanding Directing in an Animated Program.[23][24] Winners in these categories were announced on June 25, two days ahead of the formal Daytime Emmy Awards in Las Vegas. The Penguins of Madagascar won in the Outstanding Special Class Animated Program category,[25] an honor it shared with SpongeBob SquarePants.
Toys
DreamWorks has 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 entirely 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.[26] 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 line of toys 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.[27][28] In February 2010, McDonald’s began their “Mission: Play” Happy Meal toy campaign, which featured eight toys based on the penguins in the series.[29]
