The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper

Scrat was arguably the funnies character in 'Ice Age' and he was awarded with his own very funny animated short film. The funniest characters in 'Madagascar' were the penguins and they as well get their animated short. The difference is that this short is actually better than the animated feature film.

I liked 'Madagascar' up to a point but we are spoiled with films like 'Shrek' and 'The Incredibles' and 'Madagascar is nowhere near that good. 'The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper' comes a lot closer.

The story with the penguins out in New York, three searching for a fourth, gives us plenty of laughs. I have seen this before 'Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit' and it was almost as entertaining. That really does say something!

That is for some reason tagged onto the reels for the very halloween-y Wallace and Gromitt's Curse of the Wear Rabbit. It would have made more sense for this film to be tagged onto something in December but hey-ho.

I've not actually seen Madagascar, so I'm not immediately familiar with these characters. But I have to say that the penguins were very funny. The story has one of them leave Central Park Zoo to look for the perfect Xmas present, only to end up an Xmas present himself. The other penguins soon follow him to a posh apartment building where a blind old lady plans to give him to her evil pet poodle.

Very funny antics and hijinks follow. I wouldn't be surprised if this cartoon were nominated for an Oscar come February.

There are so many sight gags and jokes in this 12-minute animated short it would make your head swim. The artwork is fantastic and the humor is equally fabulous. It's all a story about four penguins ready to celebrate Christmas when one of them goes out to cheer up a lonely polar bear. The others, with the "Black Hawk Down" credo of never leaving anyone behind, go after him and rescue the little guy from a brutal old woman and her vicious poodle.

The story really is secondary to all the clever gags and visuals, too many to mention in here. Suffice to say that if you own the "Madagascar" DVD, do yourself a favor and check out this bonus feature. It is about as entertaining a dozen minutes as you ever hope to find. This is something you will want to watch over and over.....guaranteed!

I haven't even seen "Madagascar" yet, but because of this, I want to. I've been bragging about this to my friends ever since I saw it in front of the "Wallace and Gromit" movie. I don't care if I have to buy "Madagascar" just for the penguins, I will. I'll give you insight on what to watch out for without giving away too much: the bowling pin, "kaboom!", the #1 rule of penguins. If you don't like "Wallace and Gromit," fine. Go see it just for this. If you liked "Madagascar," you'll love this. I was always a fan of short animated films. My girlfriend and I both thought this was one of the funniest we've seen in years.

It's Christmas Eve. Private is concerned about Ted the Polar Bear being sad. He disobeys orders and goes out to get a gift for him. Skipper leads the squad to find him. A mean rich old lady mistakes Private for a toy and buys him for her dog Mr. Chew. Mr. Chew turns out to be a vicious dog and the squad arrives just in time.

The Penguins have always been my favorite characters of the Madagascar franchise. This short has a good density of jokes. The gang is fun. There is good hijinx. The main leads of Madagascar aren't really in this and that is perfectly fine. It's nice that Private is looking out for others and the gang looks out for each other.