Penguins of Madagascar - And yes, I saw this movie by myself, by the way

From the title, I admit that was the situation going into the theater this week. I hadn't gone in a while since Nightcrawler and Birdman no longer being in the theater meant that there really wasn't anything I wanted to watch aside from Interstellar again (maybe Big Hero 6), which I had planned to see but missed a reasonable screening time so my mind came back to a recent midnight screening episode on thecinemasnob.com where Brad saw the movie by himself as well and enjoyed it. He also talked about how ridiculous the first two thirds was and how schizophrenic the story was in that period of time, which sometimes would not work but from what was going on I thought it would be nice to give it a shot. I mean he had me sold at animated Werner Herzog, so how was I not going to see this movie?

Another point I should bring up is that the movie series that Penguins of Madagascar comes from is one that I think is kind of okay, but not really worth watching multiple times. Then again, I have only seen the first and third one all of the way through. I'm not sure why I haven't seen the second one all the way yet but it just hasn't happened. It's not like there isn't anything good in those movies, since there really is some good things in them, mainly the penguins. I have also had no exposure to the show The Penguins of Madagascar but from what I've heard, the movie doesn't take place in the same continuity and is pretty much a direct sequel to the third film. That sequence when the penguins decide to leave the circus due to the constant listening of that fucking annoying as hell Circus Afro song (which I can relate to obviously) was a good sign that this movie was going to be a lot of fun. That came after the origin opening sequence, which is where the Werner Herzog thing comes into play. It has the first three penguins, Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico as young penguins going to rescue a lone egg, that ends up becoming their fourth member Private, that strayed from the pack, which has them planning their rescue at the edge of the cliff, where Herzog is watching them with a documentary crew, and Herzog has the guy with the boom mic push the penguins off the cliff for dramatic effect. That had me sold on the movie right then and there.

The plot is rather simple with the penguins having to stop the nefarious scheme of the octopus Dave, voiced by John Malkovich, who you can tell from the way he delivers most of his lines that he is having so much fun in the role. Dave is a really fun villain right from the introduction when he kidnaps the penguins with the help of a vending machine and his plan is to turn all of the penguins in the world into monsters after being outshined by them at the zoo for years. The plot itself is rather simple but it goes into a lot of tangents, which can come off as stupid and pointless in other movies but this one seems to at least keep some form of stability with the off the wall stuff as well, such as the penguins breaking into Fort Knox, the whole North Wind task force that they always run into with Skipper and Agent Classified always at odd with one another, and Private being the cutest one of them all plays into the ending. My favorite part though mainly just for one line being really hilarious is when the penguins end up in Shanghai and end up mistaking it for Dublin, which in itself is a rather amusing scene, and they realize that they have to go to Shanghai since that's where Dave is going, so they ship themselves there and I wish I could remember the line exactly after Skipper pops out and remarks but it has the phrase Shanghai's little Dublin district in it which for some reason made me laugh a lot.

It can be weird to be at a movie aimed at kids by yourself just because it was the only thing there that sounded fine, but to be honest I think this is a really fun movie that a lot of people can enjoy. Is every adult going to like it? No. I liked it though even though it was more amusing that laugh out loud funny. I had a laugh out loud time watching The Wolf of Wall Street yesterday and I knew that I was never going to get that with Penguins of Madagascar. It's a movie that is a spinoff with a group of secondary characters and usually, movies like that don't work all that well but the penguins are entertaining and this one is worth seeing at a matinee or with kids if you have them. It's worth a rental for sure when it comes to digital. I'll probably give this a second thought if I catch Big Hero 6 next Tuesday since I think if it's there, I'll see that or I'll go see The Hobbit film that's coming out.