I was actually biased in favor of “Penguins” and I still found this movie terrible; it didn’t even reach the levels of humor from the TV series, which I liked. The movie had an awesome first 10 minutes, then eeeeyyyyeeerrroooo…BOOM! “Precipitous plummet” would be an understatement, and it’s sadder knowing how funny the characters can be from the TV series and the Madagascar animated franchise that they was spun off from. It’s not that the movie is bad or offensive; it’s just very unfunny, with one off-target joke after another. A gang of four zoo penguins who consider themselves the world’s greatest spies take on an evil mastermind with the help of another animal-spy team. In this kind of movie, it’s not the plot that matters, it’s the jokes. The Madagascar movies worked because the jokes were funny; not so here. To make matters worse, they changed the great voice talent behind the TV version of the science-wizard penguin Kowalski. In the program, he sounded like Mr. Spock on the verge of a nervous breakdown; in this movie, he doesn’t really sound like anything. I guess they killed any possible Penguins movie franchise with this one.

2021 Update: Yes, they definitely killed it; no Penguins movie has appeared since.