YMMV / Penguins of Madagascar

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Depending on how you see him, Dave can be a Tragic Villain, a case of Evil Is Petty, or perhaps even both.
  • Is Classified a suave cool agent intent on stopping Dave and saving the penguins? Or a selfish arrogant jerk that constantly demeans and dismisses the penguins as ‘weak and helpless’, and is mostly focused on proving that his team is better than theirs?
  • When Classified guilt trips Skipper to choose North Wind's plan over the Penguins plan, was Classified used a regular guilt tripping onto Skipper or he also lost a agent in the past and has been projecting his own painful memories onto penguin?
• Awesome Music: Lorne Balfe delievers a rather excellent score for the film. Examples include "He is Dave" and The Penguin's Main Theme. You can hear the full score here.
• Badass Decay:
  • The Penguins themselves. In the last three movies, they were the only ones who could take on the Fossa, Nana, and Captain DuBois. While understandable that they could not win every battle now that they are focus characters, they do look like idiots that do not know what they are doing by comparison. Even weirder, is a plot point that the Penguins are unable to think in a elaborate plan, despite the fact that their complicated plans are what has being moving the events of the films since the beginning.
  • The North Wind is introduced giving a Curb-Stomp Battle to several mooks that had been giving the penguins trouble. They never do anything equally impressive after that. Though this can be partially attributed to their rivalry with the penguins impeding their effectiveness, even after they decide to cooperate with the penguins, they are quickly taken out of the fight in the final battle.
  • Interviews state that the North Wind really does overestimate their abilities sometimes (like the penguins do) and while a great team, has come to rely too much on their tech.
• Base-Breaking Character: Agent Classified is arguably the most popular member of the North Wind for being a smooth and confident wolf agent (plus it doesn't hurt that his voice actor is Benedict Cumberbatch), but there are also those who thinks he's just a snobby Jerkass (like how he just HAD to rub it in that Private was captured, even after it was noticeably heartbreaking for Skipper. Even the biggest Classified fans thought that was an incredibly low blow.)
• Broken Aesop: The "looks don't matter" aesop is a bit broken in many ways:
  • First, the mutated Private isn't nearly as unattractive as all the other mutant penguins - he still looks mostly like his adorable self, despite having allegedly taken on all of the other penguins' disfigurements.
  • In The Stinger, the penguins go through the trouble of changing him back to normal, at his request.
  • The sheer fact Dave's plan counted on the humans trying to kill the penguins simply because they were hideous and scary-looking (but still affectionate). Since nearly every human there calls for the exterminators in droves, the climax revolved around the penguins having to change back to being cute.
• Broken Base:
  • Just like the divisive opinions around the trilogy it originates from, fans and casual viewers are heavily split between those who regard it as one of the best (if not the best) installments of the Madagascar series for finally focusing on, what many regard as the funniest characters of the franchise, or one of the worst (if not the worst) movies in the series that makes the Penguins overstay their welcome.
  • Fans of the Penguins are split around whether this movie being in the main continuity of the movies was the right call or would have been better if it was a direct adaptation of the Nickelodeon cartoon, which happens in an Alternate Universe. Fans on the latter side argue that the Penguins were more fleshed out in the series and had a stronger supporting cast, so a stronger story could have been made if the movie had been based on the cartoon. With that said, some felt this would have caused an unnecessary Continuity Lockout, for those who watched the movies but had never heard of the show and argue that the show was never canonical in the first place, so it was a justified decision.
• Crack Pairing: Corporal/Classified is probably the strangest shipping you will ever find in the Madagascar fandom. Which is even weirder when you realize it kinda works... arguably, of course. Especially considering Classified clinging onto Corporal as they're forced to go through Dave's death trap and their dynamic. ^note Classified is the workaholic leader while Corporal is the laid-back sweetheart.
• Crazy Is Cool: The first thing the Penguins do in the movie (after the flashback). Successfully breaking into Fort Knox is awesome enough, it's the fact that they did it to get to a vending machine and buy some Cheesy Dibbles that cements this as crazy.
• Cult Classic: Did not do all that well at the box office, but those who have seen it generally consider it to be a hilarious and lighthearted adventure worth seeing if you're a fan of the Penguins from the other movies or the TV show.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • How would interactions between Dave and Dr. Blowhole could look like?
  • Does King Julien would be annoying to North Wind in the same way as he's to the Penguins?
• Fan Nickname:
  • Classified has been called Classy by many fans.
  • Corp for Corporal. It isn't as popular as many other nicknames, but it still counts.
• Genius Bonus: Dave's Medusa serum turns the cute penguins into hideous monsters. In Greek mythology, Medusa was a beautiful woman who was cursed to have the appearance of a monster.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In the movie, the fate of Dave the Octopus is that he gets trapped inside a snow globe. In the first two Splatoon games, after you defeat DJ Octavio, also an octopus, your militia imprisons him in a giant snow globe.
  • Mort becoming an Animalistic Abomination that devours King Julien in The Stinger thanks to Dave's ray, becomes this when one remembers Mort's characterization in All Hail King Julien
• Ho Yay: Taking a cue from his cartoon counterpart, Rico shows moments of attraction to the other penguins. When Private gives the other penguins a thankful kiss on the cheek, Rico pulls him in for a full on smooch. Later when high fiving, Rico gives Skipper a slap on the butt. And during the Lederhosen dance, Rico and Kowalski go all out, clearly playing on their Ho Yay in the cartoon.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Once living at the Central Park Zoo, Dave had a roomy habitat and all the fans. Then started a chain where penguins unintentionally stole his glory as the octopus was moved to zoos and aquariums around the world, where he was forced to live in small tanks. Even Private found his backstory sad.
  • Skipper himself becomes this after Private gets captured and he realizes that he didn't give him the credit that he deserved. It gets even worse when he starts thinking that Private died.
• Misblamed: No, the Nickelodeon cartoon getting axed had nothing to do with this movie's poor box office results. The show was cancelled one year before the movie was released (and was already in a 1-year long hiatus at that), and the reasons were unrelated to this movie's existence. Basically, Nickelodeon wanted to put more resources on original programming instead of licensed material so the show was Screwed by the Network by being sent to Nicktoons in 2012, causing ratings to slide until it was cancelled.
• Questionable Casting:
  • Many people felt that Kowalski and Private's TV actors, Jeff Bennett and James Patrick Stuart, should've voiced the characters in the movie instead of their movie actors, Chris Miller and Christopher Knights, due to how the former two's performances as the characters were widely praised for bringing more depth to the characters. Even though this movie is part of the main canon and not the TV series' regardless.
  • Many people were confused as to why John DiMaggio was replaced as Rico by Mason's voice actor, Conrad Vernon, given that John could've easily reprised the role.^note It's rumored the reason he didn't reprise his role was because he was upset over Bennett and Stuart not reprising their respective roles as Kowalski and Private, but this has not been confirmed.
• Replacement Scrappy: While Dave is considered a fun villain in his own right, is not uncommon to hear fans who regard him as an inferior Suspiciously Similar Substitute to fan favorite Dr. Blowhole.
• Strawman Has a Point: In the plan off, Skipper makes a poor atempt to look down on the North Wind's plan saying a good plan is more that just effects and fancy words. This is meant to be him being pity and trying poorly to discard an obviously superior idea. But if one thinks about it, both plans are rather identical (getting the guards distracted while the main team gets in the submarine), so is a fair argument that the major difference are the presentations. It doesn't help that the plan ultimately fails in the same movie where the Penguins infiltrated into Fort Knox, so it can't be denied the Penguins were qualified for the mission.
• Tear Jerker: Skipper choosing the North Wind plan over his not just because they're more experienced, but also because he failed to save Private before. Kowalski and Rico are shocked at his decision.
  (Skipper raises his hand on favor of the North Wind plan]
  Skipper: His... his is better.
  (Rico grunts in shock)
  Kowalski: What?
  Skipper: (turns on his friends) I'm sorry, boys, but I can't lead you this time.
  Kowalski: But... we're a team, and... and you're our skipper, Skipper. We don't... we don't need these guys.
  Skipper: No, Kowalski, but Private does. I think... it's time we leave it to the professionals.
  Kowalski: But, sir... (Skippers closes Kowalski's mouth)
  Skipper: It's settled. We take our orders from Agent Classified now.
  (Rico tries to change his mind)
  Skipper: That's an order, Rico! (Skipper waddles away before stopping) All right, Classified... what's the diversion?
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Some fans of the show were disappointed that the movie focuses only on Skipper and Private and that Rico and Kowalski are pretty much just supporting characters. Considering that the show gave both Rico and Kowalski well-defined personalities (Rico is an aggressive explosion-lover with a sensitive side and Kowalski is an Adorkable, yet egotistical and eccentric smart guy) and those traits do show up in the movie from time to time, it's pretty confusing.
  • The North Wind except for Classified. They are a more competent version of the titular penguins and it would be interesting for them to play off their counterparts more (Kowalski and Eva, Rico and Short Fuse, and Private and Corporal), but there's not much to them.
  • King Julien and Mort are reserved to a cameo in The Stinger, considering the show gave the Penguins a very developed Vitriolic Best Buds dynamic with the Lemurs, is can be seen as dissapointing that their role in the movie is rather minor.
  • The fact that the movie takes place in the main Madagascar universe instead of The Penguins of Madagascar universe practically made it impossible for fan favorites like Marlene, Dr. Blowhole (who was more or less replaced by Dave) and Hans to show up.
  • Related to that, the fact that the prologue is a bit of an Origins Episode for the Penguins but it doesn't acknowledge Manfredy & Johnson, not even as gag, can be a letdown for those who wanted to see the origin of those characters. Granted, they wouldn't be in the present anyway so is justified they weren't added into the movie.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: More that a few fans, believe that Private should have kept his mutated form, because it's still an adorable design and because it would have made the message stronger.
• Ugly Cute:
  • The penguins, after they've been mutated, are supposed to be hideous monsters, and although they possess a Sickly Green Glow and mismatched body parts, but are still, well, penguins. Especially Private, whose only monstrous traits are a purple tint and a pair of antlers.
  • Dave could also be considered as this, especially after he is hit by the reversed ray, turns into a cuter version of himself. His octopus assistants are also somewhat cute with the bubbly sounds they make.
• Uncertain Audience: The Penguins are popular characters, enough to warrant a movie, but the movie was released nine years after their original debut, and therefore a few years after their initial popularity had run off. Kids who grew up with the original Madagascar movie were a bit too old to be interesed in a movie about cute penguins. Meanwhile, those who were familiar with the more recent Nickelodeon cartoon were turned off for the lack of connection with that show, both in continuity and in recurring cast. This is probably what lead to the rather disappointing box office results.
• The Woobie: Private. For all we know, his family lost his egg and didn't attempted to look for it or worse yet, died. He was also totally unappreciated by other members of team, captured by Dave after one of Skipper's plans went wrong and had to watch his adoptive brothers turn into horrible monsters. Combine this with his friendly and kind personality and cuteness and you have this trope.
• Woolseyism:
  • The Swedish dub did not keep the original names for the octopus henchmen, but didn't do any original puns based on Swedish celebrities. Instead, all of the names starts with "B", probably because the Swedish word for octopus is "bläckfisk".
  • The Hungarian dub replaced the celebrity references with random puns and wordplays.

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