This film is a spinoff* of the “Madagascar” series.

    Lacking the presence of the funny menagerie* voiced by Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith, this film fails to connect with audiences.

    The beginning of the movie is full of hope in Antarctica*, where dozens of the waddling* denizens* are the subjects of a documentary*, voiced by the very special Werner Herzog.

    Breaking from the flock* to run after a runaway egg are younger versions of the fearless Skipper (voiced by Tom McGrath), quick-thinking Kowalski (Chris Miller) and loose cannon* Rico (Conrad Vernon).

    Unsurprisingly, the one in that egg turns out to be the cutest of the team, Private (Christopher Knights), but he isn’t the only thing that’s been hatched*.

    So has an evil plot to corral* all of the world’s penguins by the hateful Dr. Octavius Brine aka Dave (played by John Malkovich), an octopus* who has thought out a way to make them less loveable.

    Co-directors Eric Darnell (the three previous “Madagascar” films) and Simon J. Smith (“Bee Movie”) keep the action at a high pitch as the story moves from Antarctica to Venice to Shanghai to New York.

    There’s much breaking of wind and blowing of chunks* along the way, but there are also some clever visual gags provided by screenwriters John Aboud, Michael Colton and Brandon Sawyer.

    But even with the added presence of Benedict Cumberbatch, playing an undercover* operative wolf who goes by the name of Agent Classified, the 3-D animated “Penguins of Madagascar” still comes up a bit flat. (SD-Agencies)