The Penguins of Madagascar

Appropriately, the Thanksgiving holiday box office was all about the leftovers. While two high profile new releases struggled to open, films from the past few weeks continued to do solid business. In fact, this was one of the most varied weekends at the box office in quite some time, with YA adaptations, animated family movies, epic blockbusters, and small independent films all performing better than expected.

There are some actors who take their work very, very seriously—Daniel Day Lewis or Christian Bale, for instance. Guys who fully immerse themselves in their characters so much that they become the people they’re playing. This method of acting is respectable, sure, but the latest ‘Penguins of Madagascar’ featurette has a little fun with it, as Benedict Cumberbatch, John Malkovich, and the rest of the voice cast show off just how committed they were to playing their animated animal roles.

When it comes to upcoming movies being previewed at this year's Comic-Con, 'Penguins of Madagascar' feels like it may fly under the radar with the great geek masses. After all, there's no way a cute little spin-off from the 'Madagascar' series could steal the spotlight from the likes of Marvel or Warner Bros. However, if this new clip is any indication, this film is already going to have the children of the great geek masses in the bag, and that's all that matters, really.

The first 'Penguins of Madagascar' trailer doesn't even begin to hint at what an odd project this film really is. First of all, it's a spinoff of the 'Madagascar' movies that follows those four scene-stealing penguins as they encounter secret-agent animals voiced by the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch. However, it's a completely different thing from the Nickelodeon series of the same name. Are we looking at DreamWorks Animation's first movie set in an alternate universe?