The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper/Trivia

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General[]

At first, Skipper and Kowalski didn't help Private get a present for Ted due to busy things for their Christmas party. But in the end, they do.

Continuity Errors[]

The holes made in the laminated floor, by the candies, around the Christmas tree, are absent in the shot when the Penguins are giving high fives.
A penguin uses binoculars rotated at a 90 degree angle, but the shot of the view through them is composed as if they were being used normally (horizontally level).
When the penguins leave Nana's house, the umbrellas in the umbrella stand, by the door, change positions between shots.
Nana wraps Private in a red ribbon, and puts a sticker on his chest. However ,when Private flies out of the stocking, the sticker has vanished.
Rico has his scar and mohawk, even though this short takes place before the events of the movies.

Trivia[]

This short was played in theaters with the feature film, "Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)".
The Taxi Nana gets into has the license plate "I8BIGAPEL", which is the code of "I Ate Big Apple".
This short takes place before the events of the 1st film. This is because Alex, Marty, Melman, Gloria, the Penguins, and the Chimps were still living in the Central Park Zoo. Also, the Lemurs don't make an appearance.
This short marks the first appearance of the Penguin HQ, much of which remains the same in the series, including the periscope, the bunks, the portholes and the plank-and-cinderblock table.
Kowalski's iconic abacus appears (and gets smashed) for the first time ever, as does much of Rico's character and penchant for explosives for the TV series to come.
Ted doesn't appear again until the events of Jungle Law.
This short was available on DVD with Madagascar (2005).
It was also released with the Merry Madagascar DVD on a disk entitled Party with the Penguins.
It is also on the DVD The Penguins' Whacked-out Adventure and The Penguins' Whacked-out Holiday Adventure.
When Skipper, Rico, and Kowalski find the Private, they see him in a sidewalk cart with Nana inspecting the merchandise. Skipper then don's a pair of night-vision goggles to zoom in and view Private and subsequently Nana purchasing him as a toy. When the action is shown as if the viewer was looking through the goggles, red text on a HUD very quickly scrolls above the green night vision image with the following text: Initializing penguin tracking system I/O...…. Successfully booted. Welcome to penguin threat interaction system. Acquired potential danger: Granny aka blue hair searching database for personal file. Done. Warning: Psychotic subject, behavior out of whack. Proximity to Private 30 ft and closing. Looking for similar subject matches to subject "Blue Hair" for [ The scene switches back to the penguins inspecting the situation ] Indexing database of known humanoid perpetrators for pattern match...… done. Feeding Boolean matches to query engine: Psychotic & neurotic Nice & bluehi Full matches: None. Listing partial matches in that encrypted [sic] super secret penguin code, …
/amandafrancois/nicolas/guy/jacqueline/pierre/finarricangrace/carlosakydri/ alexadidem/davidarwra/pavel/sasha/joaquim/cheannelson/alex/duff/jasmine/cole/ carter&amya&emily/amanda/gary/ben&owen/
… Partial match ignored.. No user input. Flushing 5K memory. Attempting to access web for search on 'blue hair' through local coffee shop wi-fi network. Connecting... Connecting... Connection established. Booting 'flipper v0.001' web browser........ Fatal error... Core dumped. System message to user: An unknown fatal error has occurred please reboot. Shutting down network services and switching to failsafe. [The penguins march behind nuns, and then take cover behind a trash can. "Skipper" brings out the goggles one last time to examine the action] warning: target "blue hair" has intercepted penguin "private", searching for alternate course of action. Submitting case id of penguin abduction to internal systems. potential danger for penguin imminent. recommend immediate course of action. abnormal penguin stretching detected. penguin "private" height to width ration decreased by 3. That cannot feel good! Hailing all other penguins within proximity for assistance. No reply. Potential danger for penguin [The penguins then discuss the situation and their options]
Coincidentally an alligator was present during the Jingle Bells Monkey Smells song. Some fans speculate that it was Roger; however, because this took place BEFORE the series, it's unlikely. It's also possible that this was the grown-up version of the alligator featured in the Madagascar: A Little Wild episode The Pigeon and the Egg.
There are also two toucans on top on the alligator and the rhino, which might have been inspiration for Xixi from All Hail King Julien.
Lulu may have been the third chimp.
This is the Pilot Episode for Penguins Of Madagascar, this is technically the First Episode of Penguins Of Madagascar. Despite A Christmas Caper being released in 2005.
According to the commentary on The Penguins' Whacked-Out Holiday DVD, the Gloria piggy bank Private used belonged to Kowalski.
When the short aired on Sprout, certain lines were edited. For example, Skipper's line "Missing? Hoover Dam!" was replaced with the voice clip of him shouting "WHAT?!" near the end, "Grand Coulee Dam!" is replaced with "Holy stocking stuffer!", which is an edited combination of two of Skipper's lines, "Holy Butterball!" and "Engage Operation: Stocking Stuffer!", and "Shiitake mushrooms!" is replaced with an annoyed groan.

Gags[]

Rico is constantly regurgitating a piece of dynamite out of his stomach and asking Skipper's permission to use it three times. Finally, at the end, Skipper lets him use it.
Nobody except Skipper exactly knows the Penguin Credo & they often confuse it with the Walrus Credo and the other Penguin Credo: "never bathe in hot oil and Bisquick." While the main Penguin Credo is: "Never swim alone." "Never swim alone" was mentioned by Private in Crown Fools, an episode in the Penguins of Madagascar TV series.
In an attempt to get a better view of Private while on the streets of New York, Skipper, Rico and Kowalski try to blend in with passing Catholic nuns.
When trying to catch up with Private the penguins attach a grappling hook to a taxi. The license plate of the taxi reads "I8BIGAPEL" i.e. I ate Big Apple (New York City)
As the taxi speeds off, you can hear a New Yorker say, "Hey! I'm walking here!", a reference to the movie Midnight Cowboy.
During the battle, Skipper uses Rico as a machine gun for cover fire, using swallowed peppermints as bullets.
In a reference to the first film, Skipper makes several references to curse words, i.e. "Hoover Dam", "Grand Coulee Dam", "Shiitake mushrooms", "Holy Butterball."
When the Private flies across the room and smashes into the kitchen, the sports announcer on TV yells "What a hit! Ryan is down!", an allusion to Saving Private Ryan.
When Skipper tells Rico that the old lady "didn't see anything", he makes a hand-motion similar to the Jedi mind trick, another reference to the first Madagascar.
When penguins stop following the nuns and roll over they very closely assemble most widely reproduced publicity images from Charlie's Angels.
Throughout the skirmish in the room Nana lived in, you could hear that the announcer for a football game announcing coincidental events happening directly around the unaware woman, (Ex. the announcer said, "Throws a Hail Mary downfield" while Mr. Chew was flying down the room into a stocking)

Crazy Credits[]

The end credits include small photo frames showing various pictures of Mr. Chew the dog, and his elderly owner, in different locations.
Animated versions of the Sonic Eagle logo and the Mail Collection Box are used with the permission of the United Stated [sic] Postal Service. New York City Police Department name, logos and insignia are trademarks of the city of New York and are used with the City's permission.

Release Dates[]

USA—7 October 2005
UK—8 October 2005
Netherlands—12 October 2005
Germany—13 October 2005
Finland—14 October 2005
Hungary—27 October 2005
South Korea—4 November 2005

Also Known As (AKA)[]

Les pingouins de Madagascar—France
Pingviinien joulukepponen—Finland
Pingwiny z Madagaskaru: Misja świąteczna—Poland

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