The Penguins of Madagascar

The Penguins of Madagascar is an American CGI animated television series that had aired on Nickelodeon. It stars nine characters from the DreamWorks Animation animated film Madagascar: The penguins Skipper (Tom McGrath), Rico (John DiMaggio), Kowalski (Jeff Bennett), and Private (James Patrick Stuart); the lemurs King Julien (Danny Jacobs), Maurice (Kevin Michael Richardson), and Mort (Andy Richter); and Mason (Conrad Vernon) and Phil the chimpanzees. Characters new to the series include Marlene the otter (Nicole Sullivan) and a zookeeper named Alice (Mary Scheer).

Plot
"The Penguins of Madagascar" follows the adventures of four penguin protagonists - Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private - in New York City's Central Park Zoo. The Penguins rule the roost at their Central Park habitat, carrying out secret missions in the heart of the city. At times, their missions beckon them to venture outside the zoo. Just as the team thinks it has its urban acreage under control, new neighbors move in next door: the Julien-Maurice-Mort trio. Now the penguins must keep control of the Central Park Zoo despite the lemurs' antics.

Why It's Cute And Cuddly

 * 1) The show has great humor and timing.
 * 2) It introduces new and likable haracters we haven't seen in the films, like Marlene, Eggy, Bert, and Roger.
 * 3) The show's animation is very good for a low-budget show, with well-made detailed character models (except for the lemurs).
 * 4) The penguins are given a lot more personality than the films to distinguish them from one another.
 * 5) Dr. Blowhole is an excellent villain (although he only appeared in a few episodes and was mentioned in most), and it really helps that Neil Patrick Harris does a fantastic job voicing him.
 * 6) The other villains are great too such as Hans, Officer X, and more.
 * 7) Catchy theme song. The background music is also pretty decent and like other episodes, The Return Of The Revenge Of Dr. Blowhole has great and memorable songs.
 * 8) Just like they did in 2005 and 2007, It was one of the three Nicktoons that premiered in 2008, after Making Fiends, and followed by "The Mighty B!". However, the series didn't air regularly until March 28, 2009.
 * 9) While the series takes place in a parallel universe, it alludes to the films, and Alex (Well, a spirit guide version at least) makes an appearance in the TV Movie "The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole".
 * 10) Some of the episodes have really interesting plots.
 * 11) The show has some pretty good continuity, with some episodes having sequels and references to other episodes, such as the robotic penguin suit making several appearances and Dr. Blowhole being hypnotized being referenced in one episode that doesn't even involve him. Also, Manfredi and Johnson, who are referenced several times as a running gag on the show, actually appear in The Penguin Who Loved Me, along with Doris, who is mentioned several times as well.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) It was sadly confirmed to be non-canon to the Madagascar universe.
 * 2) While the animation is decent for a low budget TV series, it hasn't aged the best either.
 * 3) Julien was flanderized from a brainless but likeable, funny and entertaining comic relief to an unlikable and obnoxious jerk who almost never suffers any consequences for his selfish behavior and can actually be considered the show's true main antagonist instead of Blowhole.
 * 4) *Alice the Zookeeper is also unlikable and a huge buzzkill.

Trivia

 * Although "Gone in a Flash" is considered the series' official pilot episode, the show finds its roots in the theatrical short A Christmas Caper, which originally accompanied Wallace & Gromit in Curse of the Were-Rabbit in theaters and later appeared as a bonus feature on the first Madagascar movie's DVD. When Nickelodeon ran a behind-the-scenes sneak peek at the series during Superstuffed Nicktoons Weekend in 2007, clips from the short were used.
 * In the second-season episode "Hello Dollface", when the Penguins were quickly separated because of the abundance of customers wanting to buy the talking Mrs. Perky Doll, Private is grabbed by a human, who then says, "A talking penguin? What is this, 2005?" This is in reference to the year the original Madagascar movie was released.
 * Only four episodes of the series were not released on any medium - "Tunnel of Love", "Goodnight and GoodChuck", "P.E.L.T.", and "The Penguin Who Loved Me". Prior to the series being added to Paramount+, one could only view them in the "Complete Series" collection on Amazon Prime Video and a few on-demand releases such as Xfinity.
 * This was the first Nicktoon produced with DreamWorks Animation.
 * McGrath, has said that the series takes place "not specifically before or after the movie, he just wanted them all back at the zoo. Saying he thinks of it as taking place in a parallel universe".
 * The series was executive produced by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle, who were the creators of Disney Channel's Kim Possible.
 * The series suddenly ended after a long hiatus in 2015 with 5 more episodes that were supposed to be part of a fourth season pushed out onto Nicktoons in 2015, a year after the movie's release and a year before the new Madagascar series, All Hail King Julien, dropped. It might be because of DreamWorks working on Netflix shows, thus, they couldn't make a season 4 or give a proper conclusion to the show. While the episode The Penguin Who Loved Me might be considered the true finale to the show, there were still two episodes after that.