Search - The Penguins of Madagascar Operation: DVD Premier on DVD

An Excellent 2 Hour Babysitter, you might laugh too

Daniel G. Lebryk | 02/22/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Start the review off with what a lot of people want to know, the EPISODE LIST!!! Funny, a DVD and that list just isn't clear up front.

1) Dr. Blowhole's Revenge

2) Truth Ache

3) Command Crisis

4) Go Fish

5) Roomies

6) Needle Point

7) Lunchtime

8) All Chocked Up

9) The Hidden

10 Tangled In The Web



I'll start the review off with the contents of the DVD:

Special Features:

DreamWorks Animation and Nickelodeon Sneak Peeks (the usual suspects here, KungFu Panda, Dragon, Madagascar, Shrek Forever After, The Penguins of Madagascar, Fanboy and ChumChum, and SpongeBob Square Pants)

[...] The Devious Dr. Blowhole Game (you have to go on line to play this, think nick dot com slash blowhole and the special 'secret code' is doctor). So let me be frank here, this is about the lamest thing anyone could do on a DVD.

DreamWorks Animation Video Jukebox - they're cute videos, aw, you know you want to watch these! Cee Lo and Jack Black doing Kung Fu Fighting; the Move It Move It song from Madagascar; Here Comes the Sun from the Bees (Jerry Seinfeld) movie, Shrek, I'm a Believer; and Rockin' the Suburbs from Over the Hedge.

Credits

All 10 end credits strung together - the individual episodes run an abbreviated credit line.



Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Houser and How I Met Your Mother) doing Dr. Blowhole - once you recognize his voice, it is very funny. Some of the other voice talent sounds very familiar, like Cedric the Entertainer, Ellen DeGeneres, and some other famous people. Alas, they are only people that sound like their famous counterparts.



For the television series aficionados, I hope these details were helpful. If you've seen one episode of this program on Nick, you don't need to read anything more - the episodes are all just about equally funny and follow the same formula. You will absolutely love this DVD.



For the person dropping by here, thinking this is another Madagascar movie, like Part 3; you are in for a sad surprise. This DVD is an episode compilation of a Nick television series. Each episode is about 20 minutes long, equipped with fade to black for commercials throughout. The opening music / animation sequence will get very old after the fifth episode shows. The end credits are all identical and that will get repetitive just as quickly.



Overall, this is not anywhere near as funny as the movies. The series focuses on the penguins, the trouble they get into, their incredible spy ability, and being 'cute and cuddly,' (a refrain we hear just a few too many times). But the series does have silly humor. Yes there are a bunch of laughs. These episodes are a lot like popular music, if your child is at the age of watching something over and over again, it will be hard to not hear those voices all day, long after the DVD has stopped playing.



The animation is surprisingly good. The stories are all silly Saturday morning cartoon illogical. The voices are all pleasant. The episodes will entertain children for a good long time. As a baby sitter, this is probably an excellent DVD.





"

Great Penguins DVD

Mom24girls | VA | 02/10/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My kids love the Penguins and this is a great DVD. It contains the new episode, Dr. Blowhole, plus two other new episodes. It has seven other previously aired episodes as well. Lots of fun!"

Tons of Fun for a Penguin Fan

M. Carreon | Gurnee IL, USA | 02/15/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this for my wife is a huge fan of the cartoon. It contains episodes of the cartoon that have been aired and some that haven't. I haven't seen the entire DVD myself. There is no list of the expisode on the back cover or on a slip of paper inside the case, which I don't like. Over 2 hours of cartoons for the price, it's certainly worth it. This is not the 1st series on DVD, just a collection of some of them."

Disappointing for a hard-core Penguins fan...

Peter Johnson | at my desk | 04/01/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"When I saw that the Penguins were FINALLY coming to DVD, I was very excited. Unfortunately, the disc falls far short of expectation. The episodes that are included seem to have been chosen at random, and most of the best episodes are missing. The major showpiece, "Dr Blowhole's Revenge", isn't particularly funny or well-written. The other new episodes are lacking as well; the animation on all of the new episodes is choppy and unconvincing, unlike the regular TV episodes. It looks like they were done on the cheap, just to have something new to put on the disc.



Actually, there's every indication that the entire disc was done cheaply and quickly, and unfortunately the end result is a major disappointment. Heck, the back cover doesn't even give you any idea of what's on the disc, as if the layout people didn't know what was going on the disc, and there's no insert card to tell you either. In a world where "Steven Seagal: Lawman" gets a full-blown DVD release, mistreating the Penguins this way is unacceptable.



A word to Nick: It's not too late to do right by the Penguins... when the complete season sets are released, I'll be the first to buy them."