#82 PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR

#82 PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR

Written by Eric Darnell, John Aboud, Michael Colton, Tom McGrath. Directed by Simon J. Smith and Eric Darnell. 92 minutes short!

Starring the vocal talents of: Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Conrad Vernon, Christopher Knights, Benedict Cumberbatch, John Malkovich and Werner Herzog.

A relentless, non-stop, madcap, manic romp that doesn't let up for one single second, crammed full of insane, ridiculous incident and some of the most inspired puns and gags I've ever seen this side of The LEGO Movie, in fact there's almost too much in it and I missed several gags because there's just too many and I was laughing too much. Actually, this might be there first kiddy-friendly animated film I've ever seen where the adults laughed more than the kids.

The plot, is so dense it's almost impossible to do it justice, starting as it does with an origin story for our four clucky pals followed by a bat-shit crazy romp that sees them go head-to-head with John Malkovich's Dave - an Octopus with a huge chip on his shoulder and a demented urge for revenge, add to that Benedict Cumberbatch's leader of the North Wind, a super-secret animal lead spy team and you have a huge, dumb, sugar-rush of a movie that seems to be channeling every Looney Toon ever made. Seriously, I haven't laughed this much at an animated movie in ages. All that said, this might be too much for some people, those raised on a rarefied diet of pure Pixar movies for this is the complete antithesis of those wonderful films (bar the shit that is Cars and Monsters University) eschewing strong character-driven story for jokes and slapstick.

Kids will love it and so did this adult.

8/10