The Penguins of Madagascar/Headscratchers


 * What's with all the unaired episodes? As of this writing there are eight unaired episodes. One pair ("Kaboom and Kabust"/"The Helmet") was supposed to air in March but didn't; a 23 minute special ("The Lost Treasure of the Golden Squirrel") was supposed to air in April but didn't; two episodes are exclusive to the Operation: DVD Premire; "Field Tripped" was released only on the website; and who knows about "Huffin and Puffin" and "Stop Bugging Me"? The second season of the second most popular cartoon on Nickelodeon should not be going two months between episodes at the beginning of the season. Are they just afraid of drawing too much attention from their other works?
 * All the mentioned episodes have been aired. Hooray!
 * Why did they need to change Kowalski's and Private's voice actors for the show? Replacing Sacha Baron Cohen and Cedric the Entertainer I can understand, but the original VAs were DreamWorks staff anyway. Not that I have a problem with the replacements (Jeff Bennett is made of win), but it was just an interesting change.
 * My guess would be because the two who voiced Kowalski and Private were career animators who, unlike Tom McGrath (Skipper), were not involved in creating the show, they likely wanted to work on other projects in their field without being constantly needed for voice work as major characters (with the most lines, no less) of a TV show. In other words, they wanted to be free to work in their field instead of doing voice work on a show they don't animate for. So the studio just hired two career voice actors for the roles. And I agree, Jeff Bennett's 1950s sounding voice was made for the role of Kowalski.
 * It makes him sound sexier too.
 * The reason Alex and co. aren't in the cartoon is implied to be because they stayed behind in Africa. But by that logic, how are the lemurs in this show? They stayed behind too.
 * Alternate Continuity.
 * The opening animation-sequence seems to imply that the lemurs were shipped to the zoo from Madagascar (or Africa in the sequel). Not only that, but there is a gag in one episode where a radio broadcast mentions a "little old lady beating up a lion" indicating that the movie is canon to the series. "The All Nighter Before Christmas" had a Continuity Nod to Merry Madagascar as well.
 * If Alex and co had been in the show, it would have been almost impossible for the Penguins to star. That's why they're not in it.
 * In Lost Treasure Of The Golden Squirrel, why did Marlene not go psycho the moment she was taken out of the zoo?
 * The same in "Work Order". Penguins have built a fake zoo to fool the repairman. Obviously, the fake zoo was outside of the real zoo, but Marlene didn't go wild when she was there even when she knew the truth. I guess, the writers forget about this habitude, when this isn't relevant to the plot.
 * It's not being taken out of the zoo that makes her go phsyco, it's being in a wide open unfenced place. She only goes nuts when she was in the park because there's so much space there. In The Lost Treasure of the Golden Squirrel she was in tunnels, around buldings, surrounded by piles of gold, and not in particularly open places. In Work Order again, when she was in the fake zoo it was a closed space. If she was outside the zoo after they took it down it could be just from shock at their plan, or already being calm out there, since it usually seems to happen pretty quick.
 * The episode "Brush With Danger" bugs me. So, in this episode, burt gets hold of a brush and starts painting, an becomes a major attraction. Them, a critic comes and labels all of Burt's paintings as crap. Seriosuly, did she ever realize that those paitings were done BY A FREAKING ELEPHANT? I really don't understand art at all, but if I saw a picture done by an animal, I'd be amazed, no matter how cruddy it could be.
 * I guess that was done intentionally, for comedic effect and to show how far that critic lady is from reality.
 * If the penguins are illiterate, how do they manage to type words in their talking device when they "speak" to humans?
 * Touch-typing may play a factor... although it doesn't explain how they can spell...
 * In "Tagged" Skipper makes Rico barf up a hacksaw to get the ankle tags off their ankles, Private asks how long it will take to saw through the bracelet, and Skipper says "Bracelet? I was just going to saw off my foot. Maybe you're onto something private." then Kowalski says trying to cut through it would sound off the alarm. If he's so ok with it why didn't Skipper at least bring up trying to saw through his foot again?
 * After Skipper's memories are removed with Dr.Blowhole's Mind Jacker you see him fall into the ocean and sink. You later see him wash ashore in the morning. If he couldn't swim, how did he survive that long underwater?
 * In cases like this, the words "They're just that badass" apply.
 * Rico has the most genuinely Ambiguously Gay moments among the Penguins (because it's funny for the Dumb Muscle to maybe be gay) with moments like the mating calls, and being asked to groom Skipper, and getting accidentally close to the other guys in falls. This could also suggest HE is actually the SHE. But he ALSO has Miss Perky, whom he loves very much. That I don't get. Any Fridge Logic or Fridge Brilliance to help explain that?
 * Bi the Way?