“Dang, I resisted this for a while, didn’t I? I meant to see it opening weekend, after Horrible Bosses 2. But that film felt way longer than it was, and I just felt like getting back home. And it wasn’t really a priority. I’m not a fan of Madagascar, but the Penguins are funny in the same way that the Minions are. THe rest of the movie is okay, but their moments are good, so maybe a full movie would work. That and Bennedict Cumberbatch voicing a character seemed reason enough.
And I still almost didn’t end up going. It was one of only two viable movies playing this weekend that I hadn’t seen yet. Then I ended up wanting to see Birdman again. I found a way to make them both work, but it was going to depend on weather. Even though I ended up trudging back thru the snow, I made it. Yay?
It was kind of what I expected. Some clever lines scattered throughout a very thin aimed at the kids plot. Some penguins being cute. Identifying the other celebrity voices I recognized (John Malkovich and Ken Jeong) while hanging on Cumberbatch’s every regal sounding word. Was it worth going to? Sure, when the alternative was sitting bored at home.
Really, it came down to two things for me that kept me going. One was the celebrity name puns that Molkovich’s Octopus Dave kept saying (“”Nicholas! Cage them!). And the other was listening very closely each time Cumberbatch spoke, hoping he would mispronounce penguin. Spoiler alert, I did catch a couple “”pengwings”” in there.
Oh but the kids sitting in the audience by me seemed to really enjoy it. Much high pitch laughter, and even some cheering. Maybe I’ll just wait for the internet to give me a supercut of name puns and Cumberbatch.
The Penguins of Madagascar – \m/ \m/ \n”