The first trailer arrived a couple of months ago, but here comes the new promo for DreamWorks’ flippered forces, The Penguins Of Madagascar. This one dips into their history and also has more about the movie’s big villain, an octopus named Dave played by John Malkovich. As you do…
In this spin-off from DreamWorks Animation’s Madagascar franchise, Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller), Rico (John DiMaggio) and Private (Christopher Knights) join forces with a super-secret animal organization called North Wind to fight the many-tentacled menace. North Wind's leader, meanwhile, is a wolf known only as Classified, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch. Oh, and there’s even a new penguin in the mix, Corporal, bearing Peter Stomare’s distinctive tones.
If you know and like what the Penguins got up to in the Madagascar films, you’re in for more of the same here. The big challenge will be taking popular comic relief characters – who don’t usually do the heavy lifting for the plot or emotional arcs – and putting them centre stage. But given that they’ve already anchored their own TV series and that there are a lot of layers to the madcap birds, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
With Ken Jeong, Annet Mahendru and Werner Herzog as new voices joining the regulars, **The Penguins Of Madagascar **lands here on December 5.