History YMMV / ThePenguinsOfMadagascar

** The show is very popular in Poland, partly due to SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing. The fact that one of the main characters has a Polish surname likely helps.
** In Serbia the show is extremely popular (again due to a case of SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing that's peppered with many a {{Woolseyism}} and heaps of local humor) , to the point the dub is constantly being rerun for ''10 years straight'' - the audience doesn't seem to care as long as the penguins are on their telly screens.

** One of the implications of how the other penguins behave around Rico is reminiscent of that of an adult with a learning or developmental disorder - when he loses control they seem just as concerned that he might hurt himself as others. Significantly, in "Kaboom And Kabust", Skipper's lines describe serious concern for Rico's safety, with the penguins all implying that he's not fully responsible for his own actions, while Julien's behaviour in this episode is ''highly'' manipulative, taking advantage of Rico for his own personal amusement. Julien even describes himself as Rico's enabler at one point. An enabler is a person who encourages or enables negative or self-destructive behaviour in another.
** It can be argued that a lot of Skipper's paranoia, tendency to demand perfectionism from the other Penguins, obsession over having control over the whole zoo and need of multiple emergency plans and escape tunnels, could be seen as response to [[NoodleIncident losing Manfredy & Johnson, being betrayed by Hans]] or both, [[NeverBeHurtAgain out of feeling he wasn't ready for what happened in either case]].
** The male falcon in "The Falcon and the Snow Job" has being speculated to be Kitka's ex-boyfriend. Given he has his nest in the same building that Kitka and happened to kidnap an animal in the same place where Kitka was (which based on this interpretation, could have being out of revenge rather that to eat), not to mention Kitka was aware where King Julien has being taked without even knowing the situation. All of this seems to fit too perfectly, for it to be a coincidence.

* AlternativeJokeInterpretation: Kowalski questions how Marlene could talk to Skipper through the radio in "Best Laid Plantains". The most obvious interpretation is that Kowalski is simply lampshading how is this possible. However, if one pulls ShippingGoggles, the fact that Marlene is the only animal besides the penguins that Skipper has contact through the radio, that Skipper isn't weirded out by this and dodges the question immediately when Kowalski asks it and it was planned to be the last message Marlene would leave before skipping town and never coming back, the joke could be [[SecretRelationship hintting at something else]].

* FanonDiscontinuity: Inverted by the actual series. Most fans regard the series canonical to the movies, despite the inconsistences in the backstory of the Penguins and WordOfGod denying that to be the case.

** The episode "Untouchable" features a poison dart frog with such potent venom that the slightest touch renders one temporarily paralytic and with a comical rash; he uses this power to keep all the other animals at his pettiest whim. Private eventually knocks up a protective suit that will allow him to give the slimy little chap a nice big hug. Barry contemplates if he's really a jerk, but decides that yes, he likes hugs more.

* {{Applicability}}: The episode "Miss Understanding" has being interpreted as an anti-sexism episode, a commentary on gender stereotypes or internalized misogyny, an RainbowLens metaphor on what is like to be an trans person being typecast on a gender they don't identify with, or a simply an episode of Skipper acting like a woman that doesn't have any deeper meaning beyond RuleOfFun.

** The show is a clear victim of NoFlowInCGI but it managed to play with it's limitations, it averted the more complicated scenarios from the movies to focus on the relatively minor Central Park Zoo and the New York City and deliberately AdaptedOut the main characters in favour of focusing on the less complicated to animate Penguins, compare this with later shows that tried to recreate the more complicated character designs and scenarios from the movies they were based on and you get UnintentionalUncannyValley.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: Some of the later Creator/DreamWorksAnimation's shows like ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaLegendsOfAwesomeness'', ''WesternAnimation/MonstersVsAliens2013'', ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfPussInBoots'' and ''WesternAnimation/MegamindRules'' would often receive criticisms for downgraded animation quality and flanderization of the characters, leading to many older fans to consider them cash grabs that lacked the spirit of the movies. Despite having a much better reception, this show ended up kickstarting these trends but managed to control them well enough for them to not be an issue:
** The show flanderized aspects of the personalities of the Penguins and the Lemurs but those were relatively minor characters in the movies who mostly served as comic relief and the Penguins were very close to be {{Satellite Character}}s to each other, so to many fans not only the exagerated characterizations didn't downplay more complex and sympathetic characters but managed to flesh them out. Kowalski's TheSmartGuy status and Rico's StomachOfHolding actually [[AdaptationalBadass became more impressive]] in the series. Skipper, Private, Maurice and Mort were given more characterization. And while fans are split over King Julien's handling, his role was still not that far of a strech from the movies to become jarring. Also, HeroicComedicSociopath aside, the penguins remained sympathetic and heroic characters, even more that the movies arguably, so fans didn't see an issue with the changes. Fans however did take an issue when later shows turned [[AdaptationalJerkass heroic three-dimensional characters in one note-jerkasses]] and took away [[BadassDecay the elements that make them badasses in the movies]] or made them more incompetent for the sake of RuleOfFunny.

* FirstInstallmentWins: Easily the most popular and well-liked of the three shows Creator/DreamworksAnimation made in association with Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} (partly because ''[[WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaLegendsOfAwesomeness Legends of Awesomeness]]'' is very divisive among the ''Franchise/KungFuPanda'' fanbase and ''WesternAnimation/MonstersVsAliens2013'' is universally regarded as [[{{Sequelitis}} a weak effort]]). Some fans would go further and argue is still the best show based on a Dreamworks movie, although ''WesternAnimation/DragonsRidersOfBerk'' and ''WesternAnimation/AllHailKingJulien'' have solid fanbases who disagree.

** The show's take on King Julien. Plenty of people find his LargeHam antics entertaining and think he's close enough to the movies portrayal, others are somewhat annoyed by his presence and [[ItsAllAboutMe attitude]] with fans who loved him in the original movies finding his more jerkish personality jarring, it doesn't help that his involvement in the series doesn't make any chronological sense.