Madagascar Penguins

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

The group's dynamic is built around a strict chain of command led by Skipper, the leader of the Adélie penguins. Kowalski serves as the dedicated status reporter, constantly providing updates and analysis. Rico is the "special" penguin in the group that is creepily obsessed with big booms, and Private is the mild-mannered eager rookie. Their origin story begins in Antarctica, where penguin chicks Skipper, Rico, and Kowalski rescue an egg from leopard seals on an abandoned whaling ship. When the egg hatches, the trio adopt the chick as their brother, Private. Ten years later, the penguins are part of Circus Zaragoza continuing their American tour in Kentucky. They leave to celebrate Private's birthday by breaking into Fort Knox to get Cheesy Dibbles from a vending machine, despite Private's wish of being recognized as a meaningful and valued team member. The penguins are subsequently kidnapped and taken to a submarine in Venice, where they meet Dave, a Giant Pacific octopus who was once an attraction at the Central Park Zoo until they upstaged him when they arrived. After being repeatedly transferred between numerous zoos and aquariums around the world, continuously upstaged by penguins, Dave disguised himself as a human scientist named Dr. Octavius Brine to enact his revenge.

In Their Own Story

The penguins escape from Dave's submarine in Venice after Rico swallows a vial of Dave's snow globe collection and his chemical, the Medusa Serum. Fleeing through Venice while pursued by Dave's octopus henchmen, the penguins are rescued by the North Wind, an inter-species intelligence agency consisting of a Eurasian wolf leader whose name is classified (Skipper calls him "Classified"), polar bear muscle Corporal, harp seal demolitionist Short Fuse, and snowy owl intelligence analyst Eva. The penguins show the North Wind the Medusa Serum, but Dave calls to reveal he actually has much more serum. The North Wind gets alerts of Dave kidnapping captive penguins around the world. Deeming Skipper's team a liability to the mission, Classified tranquilizes them and puts them on a plane bound for a North Wind safe house in Madagascar. The penguins escape the plane and, using Dave's snow globes, realize Dave targets every zoo and aquarium he was kicked out of, with the Shanghai Zoo as his next target. The penguins form a plan to stop Dave, and Private reluctantly agrees to be the bait. They manage to trap Dave with a dinosaur skeleton just as the North Wind shows up. Dave escapes through a drain and captures the Shanghai penguins along with Private. At Dave's lair, Private learns that Dave plans to use the Medusa Serum to turn penguins into monsters for the public to hate and exterminate. Upon reaching Dave's hideout, the penguins and the North Wind clash over their different plans to infiltrate the submarine, before Skipper relents and goes with the North Wind's plan. Both teams are captured. Dave tests the Medusa Serum on Private, but he escapes using a paper clip he swallowed earlier, unbeknownst to everyone present, who believe Private has been vaporized. Private finds and frees the North Wind, but they refuse to help without their equipment, so Private goes alone. As Dr. Brine, Dave unleashes the mutated penguins on New York City. Private obtains Dave's ray, finds Skipper, Rico, and Kowalski, and restores their sanity. As the penguins and the North Wind battle Dave and his henchmen, Private inserts himself into Dave's ray, using the power of his cuteness to restore the other penguins. This causes Private to gain a magenta purple hue, as well as spots and antlers, and Dave is now shrunken and trapped inside one of his snow globes, which Skipper gives to a little girl. Skipper deems Private the most meaningful and valued member of the team, to the approval of the North Wind, who give the penguins jetpacks. Later, the penguins return to the circus and use Dave's machine to return Private to normal, using Mort as the power source.

Reader's Guide

The penguins are Adélie penguins, as indicated by the source. Their leader is Skipper, voiced by Tom McGrath. Kowalski is voiced by Chris Miller, Rico by Conrad Vernon (replacing John DiMaggio), and Private by Christopher Knights. The film features the voices of Benedict Cumberbatch as Agent Classified, a Eurasian wolf and the North Wind's team leader; Ken Jeong as Short Fuse, a Belgian white-furred harp seal; Annet Mahendru as Eva, a Russian snowy owl; Peter Stormare as Corporal, a Norwegian polar bear; and John Malkovich as Dr. David Octavius Brine, a giant Pacific octopus. The score was composed by Lorne Balfe. The film was released theatrically in the United States on November 26, 2014, by 20th Century Fox. It grossed $374 million on a $132 million budget, but was a box-office disappointment, losing the studio $57 million along with *Mr. Peabody & Sherman* earlier that year. It was the last feature film to be produced by Pacific Data Images before its closure on January 22, 2015.

Did You Know?

• The film takes place after the events of *Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted* (2012).
• The penguins' origin in the film begins in Antarctica, where Skipper, Rico, and Kowalski rescue an egg from leopard seals and adopt the chick as their brother, Private.
• The villain Dr. Octavius Brine is a Giant Pacific octopus who was once an attraction at the Central Park Zoo until the penguins upstaged him.
• The film was the last feature film produced by Pacific Data Images before its closure on January 22, 2015.
• Private uses a paper clip he swallowed earlier to escape after being tested with the Medusa Serum, unbeknownst to everyone who believed he was vaporized.