Line #22 Fridge/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar


1	!FridgeBrilliance:
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3	* There is a reason why Skipper called Julien their best singer in "The Return of The Revenge of Dr. Blowhole" and they decided on something other than a power ballad to get the [=MP3's=] attention. It all goes back to ''Madagascar''. While Kowalski has had many songs and Roger is a gifted singer, JULIEN was the one who sang over the movie's credits with "I like to move it, move it". Not only did Julien sing it, but it has a similar beat to Julien's [=MP3=] song!
4	** He also sings the credits in the third ''Madagascar'' movie.
5	* Julien is surprisingly good when it comes to athletics, which stems from two things: 1.) Being a dancer all his life and 2.) Always having to deal with the fossa back on Madagascar.
6	** It should be noted that dancing ''does'' technically count as a sport.
7	* In "Endangerous Species" Kowalski proudly holds up a rare atom and tells everybody there's only one in the known universe and he found it...in Rico's gut. You don't see Rico choke anything up for the rest of the episode. He fails to choke up a chainsaw at the expected time and only coughs up a feather, which hardly counts. In fact, when Kowalski asks if he's got another, he can't find another. Looks like that atom is ''Rico's'' power source. Presumably he gets it back in time for the next episode...
8	** This weird atom is the Higgs boson particle, which is believed to be responsible for all the mass in the universe, so it adds up.
9	* I just realised that Rockgut and the Red Squirrel are a parody of the "Red Scare". Rockgut represents America's obsession during the second Red Scare about the infiltration of America by communist spies which is why he accuses everyone of being the Red Squirrel (Communist spy), the Red Squirrel represents Communism as itself. Rockgut's attitude is treated exactly like it would be treated today...as paranoid lunacy. The extreme patriotism Rockgut represents is regarded as risible and obsolete.
10	** It also shows that communists in general (Red Squirrel) didn't really do as much to America as the Rockguts of this world would like to believe. The episode showed the ''real'' danger of the "Red Scare": that the paranoia caused by thinking that anyone could be working for the enemy (even your own ''friends and neighbours'' didn't escape suspicion) was more dangerous than the enemy themselves.
11	* The theme of the show delivering twisted morals continues in "The Big Squeeze". Instead of having the classic "Never judge a book by its cover" or "Never trust stereotypes", it says something more important; "Trust your instincts about people: if they look shifty, they probably are", as well as "There's a reason for stereotypes--there's often some truth behind them". "We know the penguins are paranoid; here's ''why''".
12	** Savio also functions as a jarring KnightOfCerebus for the series (around about the time Creator/DreamWorksAnimation's other cartoon spinoffs got DarkerAndEdgier). ''Every'' antagonist prior had moments of [[LargeHam ham]] or [[LaughablyEvil silliness]] (even Dr Blowhole had silly moments, due to his love of EvilGloating and theatricality). Savio does not. He is also the only antagonist the penguins were never able to defeat by themselves and the only antagonist that was perfectly willing to kill (not defeat, not capture, ''kill'') the main cast.
13	* ''Hard Boiled Eggy''. Eggy defeats absolutely ''everyone'' in the zoo [[spoiler: ''but'' King Julien]]. Considering [[TykeBomb he is a combination of the four penguins' strengths]], it is obvious that he (and, likewise, the penguins) [[spoiler: would be unable to handle King Julien.]]
14	* Marlene's tendencies to go wild--when she is in the park for first time, she looks scared at first, when she realizes she really is not in zoo, before she go wild. And in "Littlefoot", when she [[spoiler: was deprived of her wild herself]], she was extremely fearful. Maybe going wild is her way to defeat fear. (But it cannot explain, why she does not remember anything about she was wild).
15	** ''Fridge Heartwarming'': Marlene no longer turning feral in her later appearances is a sign that she has overcome her fears.
16	* Kind of minor thing, but Kowalski's fear of the dentist at the end of "Needle Point" does make some sense when you really think about it: just like humans, zoo animals are required to have regular oral checkups, so even though animals like birds[[note]]Which would obviously include penguins[[/note]] don't technically have teeth[[note]]At least not in the same way that most mammals do[[/note]], they do still need to see a dentist once in a while.
17	* Why hasn't Blowhole troubles with eyepatch like Red Squirrel? Because dolphins use echolocation, so lack of one eye doesn't bother him so much.
18	* In "All Choked Up" the only person that's small enough to push down Rico's expansive gullet is Mort, the smallest character. As the series goes on, Rico coughs up larger and larger objects as his ability to choke stuff up is Flanderised, and eventually by "Private and the Winky Factory" Rico is capable of accidentally swallowing Kowalski, who is actually larger than he is. Practice makes perfect, I guess...
19	* Skipper having a rather [[FantasticRacism condescending attitude toward mammals]] most of the time while putting birds (specially penguins) on a pedestal makes sense given that birds are modern dinosaurs. Their kind ruled Earth for 160 million years, far more than any mammal as of now, and, even after a catastrophic asteroid impact, many of them are still kicking.
20	** This could also explain why he acts to Roger more kinder than, let's say, to [[OddFriendship Marlene]]. Because crocodilians - like Roger, who is a alligator - are archosaurs and are closely related to birds and dinosaurs.
21	* Although Skipper claims he treats his team as equals, he displays favoritism towards Rico. That's because Rico is Skipper's ideal soldier; strong, tough, merciless and follows orders without question. While Private and Kowalski do not possess these traits.
22	* Why would Kowalski create Amnesia spray? To ensure any evidence of their existence is erased effectively and avoid a huge blunder like in the episode "Fit to Print".
23	** Kowalski had the spray contained in a red ketchup bottle. Like a [[ResetButton Red-set]] [[{{Pun}} Button]].
24	* When Private reveals that Mort loves Julien only for his feet, Julien doesn't react to this. Of couse he wouldn't, he's aware that Mort had done bodily harm to him, except the feet.
25	* In "The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole", we discover that Hans suddenly knows Dr. Blowhole and that he helped him escape Hoboken. How do they know each other? Because Rhonda is also in Hoboken, and is Dr. Blowhole's spy.
26	* Knowing Skipper was only pretending to believe he was Chuck Charles in "Command Crisis", means that he was deliberately pressing King Julien's BerserkButton at asking for his family.
27	* In "The Terror Of Madagascar" why [[spoiler: Baby Fossa sees Julien as their father figure?]] Because Julien was the one who opened their crate when they arrived at the zoo ergo. being the first animal Baby Fossa saw, meaning that Baby Fossa is essentially [[spoiler: {{imprinting}} him!]]
28	** Also, if you stop the scene where Julien opens the crate before he starts panicking, [[FreezeFrameBonus you can see]] that he looks at Baby Fossa, implying that Baby Fossa looked back at him.
29	* Uncle Nigel is first mentioned in "All Choked Up" where the penguins see a documentary involving leopard seals eating penguins and Private mentions that one of the penguins looks like him. Of course he will survive that, [[spoiler: he's a very competent secret agent after all]]!
30	* The show is rather unique take on the RememberTheNewGuy trope, as well as justifying it. You can be surprised seeing Joey making his first appearance in "Assault and Batteries", due to the fact that we didn't saw any kangaroo living in zoo [[WesternAnimation/Madagascar1 during the original movie]]. But that's actually a point - the zoo scenes were focused on the Penguins, Alex, Marty, Gloria, Melman and the chimpanzees, while the other zoo inhabitants who didn't had been involved in the main plot were relegated to the background and could have been easily missed by the non-eagle-eyed viewers (in one scene, you can see two Asian elephants in the background, one of them probably being Burt). Meaning that zoo residents introduced by this show already lived in it by the time of the first movie, but weren't involved in the main plot to be focused upon! But with this show focusing on Penguins and their adventures in Central Park Zoo, those zoo residents could be now properly introduced to the viewers and have their character traits shown throughout episodes following their debuts (Burt revealing his [[CulturedBadass artistic soul]] in "Brush with danger!"). Looks like the Penguins and chimps weren't the only characters who get ADayInTheLimelight in this series.
31	* In "Mask Of The Raccoon" why Mason and Phil decided to give "The Archer" their fleas so he can give them to "[[BlatantLies these poor, hungry pigeons]]"? Because grooming is a very important social interaction for chimpanzees, often used to maintain status, build friendships, and keep close bonds between the chimps. Phil probably assumed that after they gave their fleas to those "pigeons", then they will be grooming each other just like he and Mason!
32	* Why Pervis [=McSlade=] never shows any worry about his baldness being discovered in "Hair Apparent"? Because as Joey himself said in the same episode, everyone already knows that he is bald!
33	* In "It's About Time" when Private and Skipper ask their respective Future!Kowalski's of how the future will look like ([[TheHeart Private]] asked if he lives on a island with two eggs that he fathered while [[BloodKnight Skipper]] asked for a post apocalyptic scenario with roving bands of irradiated mutants) they get the same answer - no. Because "the future" that Kowalski's refer to is actually the same day, but few hours later!
34	* In "Don't Bug Me", why is Rico the first to duck after seeing Officer X? Because the last time the Penguins meet X in "What Goes Around", Rico destroyed his van and later his future new doll hit X in the face preceded by sewage water that splashed into him. Rico probably assumed that X hasn't forgotten it and he will be penguin on which X will take the most of his revenge.
35	* In "Truth Ache", Roy reveals that he was on vacation in Tijuana, Mexico. At first it may be strange that he (a zoo animal) went on vacation to Mexico, but it turns out that Tijuana has its own zoo, Morelos Park, so it can be assumed that Roy was living there temporarily and saw it as a vacation.
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37	!FridgeHorror:
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39	* In "Kaboom And Kabust", if you overlook the hilarious FallingInLoveMontage that is Julien and Rico's exploding romp, it's disturbing to see how manipulative Julien is in this episode, clearly taking advantage of Rico's mental illness for his own personal entertainment. It's just cemented by how obviously concerned the Penguins are that Rico's going to hurt himself. In fact, a lot of Rico's behaviour becomes a lot more disturbing if you interpret him as having some kind of learning disability.
40	* In one episode Kowalski proposes to [[ItMakesSenseInContext replace Rico's brain with that of a Wombat]], which he then holds up demonstratively in a jar. Now, about every animal in this series is conscious and able to talk...
41	* In "The Lost Treasure of the Golden Squirrel", we see at least one rat fall into the lava. No graphic detail on the landing, but still. Brr.
42	* This is Horror AND Brilliance. In "Time Out", Julien and Kowalski are frozen in time, seemingly forever. Who knows how much time (or rather, duration) went by since Julien stuck his gum everywhere and Kowalski made all those inventions, so by the time time is unfrozen, there's the possibility that they both aged significantly, since time has stopped but duration continues. Then again, they're cartoons, so there's no telling if they really aged at all; the Brilliance part comes in the fact that since K's invention stops time, they didn't miss a single second of their lives.
43	* What would have happened at the end of "I was a Penguin Zombie" if Skipper didn't force himself to speak clearly. Rico would have slashed him open with a chainsaw and really would have killed Skipper. Kowalski would have also experimented on him and subjected his own leader to a grueling series of increasingly painful tests.
44	* In "The Big Squeeze" Private, Marlene, King Julien, Maurice, Mort were eaten alive. If the other Penguins and Burt hadn't rescued them, they would have been digested alive as well.
45	* Rico swallows and pukes out a conscious Kowalski in "Private and the Winky Factory".
46	* Whatever Rico's been through before the brain switching of "Sting Operation", it was bad enough to mentally scar Kowalski. Note that this is the same Kowalski that somehow got a wombat brain and very much wanted to experiment on "zombified" Skipper's body.
47	* In "Cat's Cradle" Max tells penguins that he doesn't want to end up in pound, because as he himself says those maniacs (animal pound workers) are doing horrifying things to stray cats. [[NothingIsScarier What things exactly]]? Does Max almost ended up neuterized, or worse, ''euthanized''?
48	* What happened to Buck Rockgut? His final apperance was in "Our Man in Grrfurjiclestan", [[HopeSpot where he leaves after succesfully capturing the Red Squirrel at last]]. But the Red Squirrel appears free again, one season later in "Nuts to You" and no mention of Buck Rockgut is made, either he's very bad at his job or [[PosthumousCharacter he's sleeping with the fishes]].
49	** Worth mentioning is that the Red Squirel spends most of "Nuts to You" complaining about his lack of sidekicks, in "Our Man in Grrfurjiclestan", he brainwashed Buck Rockgut, so he wouldn't have that issue if in theory, he was still alive.
50	* In "Loath at First Sight" what would had happened if zoo residents managed to ''kill'' Kowalski?
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52	!FridgeLogic:
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54	* In "Operation: Plush and Cover", how the heck did Private end up left at the factory, when the "Private" who turned out to be a doll was clearly shown moving on his own both before and after the penguins got packed inside the box and sent back to the zoo?
55	* The events of "Miss Understanding" happened because of an short circuit, yet you can see at the background of the Penguins's HQ that their little lantern is still on during the whole episode.
56	* Frances, the villain of "The Hoboken Surprise" is a good enough inventor to create an almost exact replica of all animals, yet she chooses to use this technology to be a zookeeper, when she hates interacting with animals? Wasn't there another job she could have with this level of competence?
57	* Why hasn't the zoo management fired Alice yet? This woman is apathetic towards her job, does it poorly and sometimes mistreats the animals she is supposed to care for. Even Mason in "The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole" lampshades this, saying how she was even employed.
58	--> '''Mason''': Honestly, how that woman got employed is a mystery worthy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
59	** It could fall into FridgeBrilliance when you consider that a lot of the Penguins activities tend to fix her disasters like putting the animals in the right habitat, feeding them well, making sure kids recover their lost stuff, making sure anything that could an issue for the children aren't a problem, etc.

Context Fridge / ThePenguinsOfMadagascar