The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper (2005)

The penguins of the Central Park Zoo have an adventure in the city on Christmas Eve.

Director:

Gary Trousdale

Writer:

Michael Lachance

Stars:

Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Tom McGrath	...	Skipper (voice)
Chris Miller	...	Kowalski (voice)
Christopher Knights	...	Private (voice)
John DiMaggio	...	Rico (voice)
Elisa Gabrielli	...	Old Lady (voice)
Bill Fagerbakke	...	Ted the Polar Bear (voice)
Sean Bishop	...	Doorman / TV Announcer (voice)
Mitch Carter	...	(voice)
Rif Hutton	...	(voice)
Richard Miro	...	(voice)
Holly Dorff	...	(voice)
Hope Levy	...	(voice)
Lynnanne Zager	...	(voice)

Storyline

On Christmas Eve, Private slips out of the zoo for some last-minute shopping. In the city he's mistaken as a cute chew toy by a mean old woman named Nana, who gives Private to her vicious dog, Mr. Chew. On a mission to rescue their penguin pal, Skipper, Kowalski and Rico risk life and flipper as they take on Nana and Mr. Chew with an explosive solution that will leave you laughing out loud.

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Plot Keywords:

penguin | christmas | zoo | polar bear | dog | 

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Taglines:

Join the Madagascar Penguins in their all-new holiday adventure!

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Genres:

Animation | Short | Comedy | Family

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 October 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Madagaszkár-pingvinek és a karácsonyi küldetés

Company Credits

Production Co:

DreamWorks Animation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

11 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Skipper, Rico, and Kowalski find the Private, they see him in a sidewalk cart with the old lady inspecting its merchandise. Skipper then dons a pair of night-vision goggles to zoom in and view Private and subsequently the old lady purchasing him as a toy. When the action is shown as if the viewer was looking through the goggles, red text on a HUD very quickly scrolls above the green night vision image with the following text:

• Initializing penguin tracking system I/O....... Successfully booted. Welcome to penguin threat interaction system. Acquired potential danger: Granny aka blue hair searching database for personal file. Done. Warning: Psychotic subject, behavior out of whack. Proximity to Private 30 ft and closing. Looking for similar subject matches to subject "Blue Hair" for [ The scene switches back to the penguins inspecting the situation ] Indexing database of known humanoid perpetrators for pattern match...... done. Feeding boolean matches to query engine: Psychotic & neurotic Nice & bluehi Full matches: None. Listing partial matches in that incripted [sic] super secret penguin code, /amandafrancois/nicolas/guy/jacqueline/pierre/finarricangrace/carlosakydri/alexadidem/davidarwra/pavel/sasha/joaquim/cheannelson/alex/duff/jasmine/cole/carter&amya&emily/amanda/gary/ben&owen/ ... Partial match ignored.. No user input. Flushing 5K memory. Attempting to access web for search on 'blue hair' through local coffee shop wi-fi network. Connecting... Connecting... Connection established. Booting 'flipper v0.001' web browser........ Fatal error... Core dumped. System message to user: An unknown fatal error has occurred please reboot. Shutting down network services and switching to failsafe. [ The penguins march behind nuns, and then take cover behind a trash can. "Skipper" brings out the goggles one last time to examine the action ] warning: target "blue hair" has intercepted penguin "private", searching for alternate course of action. Submitting case id of penguin abduction to internal systems. potential danger for penguin imminent. recommend immediate course of action. abnormal penguin stretching detected. penguin "private" height to width ration decreased by 3. That cannot feel good! Hailing all other penguins within proximity for assistance. No reply. Potential danger for penguin [ The penguins then discuss the situation and their options ]

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Goofs

A penguin uses binoculars rotated at a 90 degree angle, but the shot of the view through them is composed as if they were being used normally (horizontally level).

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Quotes

[first lines]
Private: He looks so sad.
Skipper: Rico, I want that tree up to muster.

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Crazy Credits

The end credits include small photo frames showing various pictures of Mr. Chew the dog, and his elderly owner, in different locations.

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Connections

Spun-off from Madagascar (2005)

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Soundtracks

Jingle Bells
Written by James Pierpont (uncredited)
Performed by Brave Combo
By Arrangement with Ocean Park Music Group

User Reviews

Better than Madagascar

I went to see Wallace and Gromit last night and was surprised to see this little gem tagged on to the start.

The story follows a group of penguins that are trying to rescue one of their own after he leaves to buy a Christmas present for someone else, only to wind up being put in a stocking himself.

This short was just as well made as the full length features in every way.

I wasn't overly impressed with Madagascar, but this short was superb. It was far funnier than Madagascar itself, and possibly even Wallace and Gromit. As someone else has already said, it seems odd to tag a Christmas theme on the front of a Halloween one.

It's worth the admission fee for this alone.