16 Benedict Cumberbatch Things to Watch After You See Doctor Strange
By Lacy Baugher
Benedict Cumberbatch in wolf form, in “The Penguins of Madagascar”. (Photo: Dreamworks Animation)
The Penguins of Madagascar
If you need a break from watching Bendandsnap Crumplesnax play several different varieties of tortured genius, this movie is for you. Penguins of Madagascar is a spin-off of Dreamworks’ popular Madagascar animated movies. It focuses on the adventures of an elite squad of special-ops penguins who chase villains, blow stuff up and have other goofy adventures.
Cumberbatch, in his first animated role, voices a gray wolf named Classified. He’s the superspy leader of a covert group of animal agents called The North Wind. They all end up having to work together to thwart the villainous Dave. An octopus voiced by John Malkovitch, he wants to destroy anything that’s cute or cuddly. In case you hadn’t guessed yet, this movie is extremely silly, and features plenty of dumb jokes.
However, we’ve all had a pretty rough time of it here in the year 2016. If watching animated animals blow stuff up and laughing at them is your kind of self-care, you could do a lot worse than this. The plot, as such, is pretty skeletal, but the penguins’ zany predicaments are generally entertaining. And while it definitely features too many fart jokes, the Penguins movie is willing to try anything for a laugh. Sometimes it doesn’t work. But a lot of the time, it does.
Plus, it has Cumberbatch doing the whole superspy thing. I’m always here for that. Even if it is in animated form.