Penguins of Madagascar: The Movie is a 2014 American 3D computer-animated spy action comedy film, produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It's based on the famous Nickelodeon series of the same name, also serving as a spin-off of the Madagascar film series, and takes place right after the events of Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and before the events of the series itself, following the penguins Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private in their own adventure. It is DreamWorks Animation's 30th feature film.
The film was directed by Simon J. Smith and Eric Darnell, and written by Michael Colton, John Aboud, and Brandon Sawyer. It stars the voices of Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Conrad Vernon, Christopher Knights, Benedict Cumberbatch, John Malkovich, and Ken Jeong. The film was released on November 26, 2014. It is the only film in the Madagascar franchise that was distributed by 20th Century Fox and was the final film produced by Pacific Data Images before its closure on January 22, 2015. Despite earning $373 million on a $132 million budget, the film forced a write-down for the studio. The film, however, did receive a positive reception from the audience, praising the action, humor, heart, cast, and animation.
Trivia[]
- The main portion of the events of the movie take place shortly after the end of Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and two months before the events of the show.
- The first film with the DreamWorks logo under the movie title.
- During the interview on The Graham Norton Show in early November 2014, a clip was played of Benedict Cumberbatch mis-pronouncing "penguins" as "peng-wings" and "peng-lings" during the narration of an episode of Wild Pacific (season 1, episode 5: "Strange Islands"). Throughout the movie, Classified calls the penguins "pen-wins" and "peng-wings".
- When Classified released one of the suspects he had been holding for questioning, it's a sheep from the How to Train Your Dragon series.
- This is the first time Lorne Balfe has composed a music score for a DreamWorks Animation film without any assistance with Madagascar composer Hans Zimmer, as they both previously scored the music score for Megamind as well as two short films Megamind: The Button of Doom and the Kung Fu Panda short Secrets of the Masters (with John Powell helping with the score for that short).
- The movie was originally going to be released on March 27, 2015. On May 20, 2014, the film's release date was moved up to November 26, 2014, from its initial March 27, 2015 bow, switching places with DreamWorks Animation's other film, Home.
- Madagascar is the second DreamWorks Animation film to have a spin-off, after Puss in Boots.
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