Penguins of Madagascar
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: November 26, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
13
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanNov 25, 2014
The screenplay by John Aboud, Michael Colton and Brandon Sawyer has a fizzy, pop-culture pizazz, tempered by a distinctly vaudeville sensibility. It’s smart, but not brainy; dumb, but never inane. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoNov 26, 2014
There’s plenty here to tickle the kids, and that’s what counts. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Geoff PevereNov 26, 2014
Any kids’ cartoon that opens with narration by the mondo eccentric German filmmaker Werner Herzog is bound to bring comfort to hearts of certain parents in the house. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireNov 26, 2014
The pacing is so zany, the jokes are so rapid-fire and the sight gags are so inspired that it’s impossible not to get caught up in the infectious energy of it all. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyNov 25, 2014
Frenetic and frequently funny, Penguins Of Madagascar represents the DreamWorks Animation franchise style — which boils down to self-aware, but naïve, talking animals who learn kid-friendly life lessons — at its most palatable. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallNov 25, 2014
Penguins of Madagascar is fun while it lasts, and then mostly forgettable except for whatever shake-your-head lunacy sticks. Read full review
75
The PlaylistDrew TaylorNov 25, 2014
In zany set piece after zany set piece, the movie sets itself apart as willing to try anything, do anything for laugh, and it succeeds more often than it fails, even when falling back on some creaky wordplay and the occasional over-emphasis on both fart gags and pop culture references. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreNov 25, 2014
As “cute and cuddly” as ever, and often downright hilarious. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesBill ZweckerNov 25, 2014
From the opening frame right up to the whirlwind finale, you will be treated to non-stop action, clever dialogue and quite a bit of zany energy. If I’d fault anything about this fun romp, it’s that the filmmakers tried to jam-pack too much into one movie. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriNov 26, 2014
All Penguins of Madagascar wants to do is make you laugh at its silliness. It succeeds. Read full review
70
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergNov 25, 2014
The decision to focus on the series’s comic relief has resulted in the loosest and perhaps funniest film of the brand. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesNov 26, 2014
A merry entertainment that never pretends to greatness, Penguins of Madagascar is all about antics, verbal and visual. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaNov 26, 2014
Parental units who manage to remain conscious through the kiddie-centric proceedings can either savor, or groan at, Malkovich's bespectacled Octavius barking punny, celebrity name-dropping orders to his minions. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChris CabinNov 24, 2014
It does well to put more focus on delivering a plethora of jokes, imitations, zippy repartee, and sight gags than its plot's familiar machinations. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeDec 2, 2014
The film is frantic and silly and our biggest gripe is that all the penguins look the same. Read full review
60
The GuardianJordan HoffmanNov 26, 2014
Penguins of Madagascar is an injection of sugar direct to the pineal gland and woe betide any parent who tries to get their children to take a nap after seeing it. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghNov 25, 2014
All the glossy, kinetic animation and inventive action sequences get lost in the gag machine. The film throws jokes out like a tennis-ball machine on the fritz: gross humor, slapstick pratfalls, bizarre non sequiturs. The randomness does land a few laughs, but it's also exhausting. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNov 25, 2014
A sassy script and good-natured voice work from Benedict Cumberbatch and John Malkovich should keep kids and grownups entertained over the holidays. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigNov 26, 2014
This is a joyless, frenetic film that is very rarely funny. Read full review
50
HitfixDrew McWeenyNov 25, 2014
It is a perfect example of marketing driving the machine. It's also a profoundly silly movie that really isn't even trying to play by the conventional rules of family animation. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyNov 25, 2014
The pun is a gun for Penguins' writers. Not a sharpshooter rifle, but a machine gun that unloads a nonstop quip barrage, mowing down the real promise of this 3-D animation action comedy. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTom RussoNov 25, 2014
It’s a movie content to stay within the show’s comfort zone, changing things up mainly with flashier, 3-D visuals, a couple of which are dazzlers, and a theme that doesn’t connect in any notable way. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonNov 25, 2014
Strives to be entertaining, but for much of its run time it is so emotionally uninvolving that even the smallest children might find themselves bored. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenNov 12, 2014
While there are plenty of madcap antics to fill a feature, all that manic energy ultimately proves to be more exhausting than exhilarating. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyJeff LabrecqueNov 26, 2014
Aims primarily for the kiddies, racing from one frenetic action sequence to another like some haywire Walter Lantz cartoon. Read full review
40
The DissolveScott TobiasNov 25, 2014
What Penguins Of Madagascar needs is a roomful of ruthless editors to take jokes out of the script, particularly the ones aimed at pleasing the grown-ups in the audience. Read full review
40
VarietyGeoff BerkshireNov 12, 2014
The graceful camerawork, precise editing and high-quality animation still can’t disguise the lack of imagination that went into the overall conception and the repetitive sameness that creeps into every bind the penguins find themselves in. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternNov 27, 2014
The story line, a sequence of very loosely connected events, sustains a state of almost pure brainlessness with its indifference to dramatic development and the dictates of logic, even the fantasy logic of cartoons. It’s as if most of the script had been generated by algorithms. Read full review
30
Village VoiceSimon AbramsNov 25, 2014
Plays like a sampler of Dreamworks Animation's worst creative impulses: sugar-rush pacing, pandering meta-gags, and a slick, flavorless animation style. Read full review
30
TheWrapInkoo KangNov 12, 2014
The unfunny, unmoving, and uninspired Penguins never persuades us of its need to exist. Sure, there's a muddled lesson at the end, as tacked on as a Post-It on a piece of week-old cake. Read full review
25
New York PostLou LumenickNov 25, 2014
A lazy, noisy ADHD-addled collection of animated clichés guaranteed to give anyone older than 5 a headache, even if you don’t see it in optional 3-D. Read full review
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