Penguins of Madagascar

King Julien entertains—and annoys—the title characters in The Penguins of Madagascar.

Photograph: Courtesy of Nickelodeon

Those scheming penguins that served as comic relief in Madagascar (2005) and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) sure were popular. That’s why they’re getting their own television series, The Penguins of Madagascar, depicting their Dragnet-style missions in Manhattan’s Central Park Zoo. As the first project from DreamWorks Animation’s partnership with Nickelodeon, Penguins is expected to set new standards for cartoon spin-offs. The animation quality rivals that of the films, and in keeping with Nick’s reputation for edgy comedy, the jokes elicit real laughs. Co–executive producer Bob Schooley says that compared with the movies, the show’s humor will be “a little more absurdist.”

Any parent who’s read a favorite storybook “the wrong way” knows that kids are literal-minded sticklers for consistency. So here’s how to prep your little ones for the series’s alternate reality: Tell them it takes place before the stories in the movies happened. With that explanation in their pockets, they won’t make a fuss about connecting all three works, or sit around waiting for the characters to reminisce about their time on the Island of Madagascar. The movies’ plotlines are simply not alluded to in the series. For instance, you won’t see the penguin named Skipper parading around with a hula-doll bride, as he did at the end of Escape 2 Africa. That bit didn’t even exist when Schooley and co–executive producer Mark McCorkle started working on the series in July 2007.

In another departure from the flicks, most of the action takes place in the Central Park Zoo. The “set” is modeled after the 1960s blueprint of the animal house (back then, the zoo really did house large mammals, like the elephants and lions depicted in the films), with hints of the 2009 institution. “It doesn’t have the modern amenities of the current zoo; it’s evocative of what it was before they put in really nice habitats,” says McCorkle. New York City kids can also spot other Big Apple locales. “We’ve been in the sewers, the subway, and ventured out into the park,” McCorkle says. In the pilot, the penguins travel all the way to a dump in New Jersey, and narrowly avoid being run over by a D train on their way back.

Upcoming stories were actually inspired by a visit the creative team made to the Central Park Zoo. “We learned that you can’t tell a female penguin from a male penguin unless you do a DNA test—that comes up in an episode,” says Tom McGrath, who directed the films, serves as one of the series’s creative consultants, and voices Skipper. “And penguins smell really bad.”

So far, however, the writers have kept that bit of information to themselves.

The Penguins of Madagascar premieres Mar 28 at 9:30pm on Nickelodeon.

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