The movie’s titular penguins (voiced by Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Conrad Vernon, and Christopher Knights) are a quartet of self-styled Mission: Impossible-like agents who open the film by infiltrating Fort Knox on a whim. This is a kids’ movie that is content to remain a kids’ movie, in contrast to the somewhat grander aspirations of, say, Big Hero 6.
Seeing it with my children, I was modestly diverted, and they somewhat more so. So I came to the first feature-film spinoff, Penguins of Madagascar, with an open mind. I dimly recall the first installment in the franchise, but if I ever saw either of the two sequels (to date), it left no meaningful imprint on my hippocampus. Full disclosure: I’m not a Madagascar guy.
