Penguins coming to TV

The penguins from the movie Madagascar will have their own TV show on Nickelodeon.

While you're waiting for the show to air in March of 2009, you can check out the penguin feature fun pages on the Nick website right now.

Play penguin games, watch penguin video clips and talk to other penguin fans on the message boards.

(via Nothing but Penguins)

Game: Mr. Penguin

Help Mr. Penguin fly through the obstacles and save Ms. Penguin!

Game: Penguin Rush

Race your penguin to the finish line, speeding down the slopes, diving under water and speeding through ice tubes!

Play Icy Escort

Mother Penguin has lost all of her baby penguins, and now she needs your help to find them again!

Play Penguin Family

In this game you need to help the penguins cross the river. The penguins come in pairs of father and son. When the father is not around, the son will be scared and fly away if adults from other families are there. Plan carefully to let all the penguins cross the river. Click on the penguins to move them to and from the floating ice.

The penguin Pororo

Korea is home to Pororo, an animated penguin whose only dream is to be able to fly.

In 2004, when the cartoon "Pororo the Little Penguin" hit television screens in France through TF1, the country's most popular network, the aspiring penguin was welcomed with a record-high 47 percent viewing rate.

The cartoon then successfully made its way to the U.K., Italy, South America, China and finally Japan last year. In that time the little penguin has pulled in some W80 billion (US$1=W942) in revenue. Now other companies have begun commercializing on the character, such as Club Med which has organized Pororo children's camps in holiday destinations like Bali, Phuket and Bintan.

The Penguin in comics

The Penguin (Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot), is a DC Comics supervillain and is an archenemy of Batman. He was introduced by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, he first appeared in Detective Comics #58 (December 1941).

In most incarnations, The Penguin is a short, chubby man who wears a tuxedo, top hat, and monocle. A mobster-type criminal, he fancies himself a "gentleman of crime."

The Penguin does however possess a few eccentricities. He is known for his love of birds and his high-tech umbrellas that serve some specialized function, such as hang-gliding and weaponry. He also keeps beautiful women around him; perhaps to remind others of his monetary power or to compensate for his own grotesqueness.

Are penguins trying to take over the world or just pop culture?

Penguins are exploding.

Although not literally. That happened in a 1970 Monty Python sketch but is not known to occur in nature.

Instead, the small, flightless birds are invading pop culture with a chilling precision. They are taking no prisoners, if only because their lack of opposable thumbs makes it difficult to manipulate a Taser.

The latest evidence: "Surf's Up," an animated movie that documents how penguins invented and perfected the sport of surfing.

The penguin presence has been obvious in lots of other forms as well, from computer games to TV shows to comic strips. In many of these, the birds, no matter what type - Adelies or emperors, chinstraps or macaronis - are fussed over as lovable, cuddly and life-affirming, like Buddha reincarnated as a Beanie Baby.

Penguins, Cuter on Film Than in Real Life, Outgross Cats, Pigs

What's up with all these penguin movies?

Sure, penguins appear cute on the screen, real or animated. But zoo personnel don't always find them that cute. Rick Yazzolino, a penguin keeper at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, said they bite hard and use their stumpy flippers to slap around anyone who annoys them.

``I've been bitten hundreds of times,'' he said. ``There's not a day that goes by I don't go home without a wound, a sore or cut on my hands.''

One more thing, he said: They don't sing or tap dance.

So what is it about cinematic penguins that makes them more attractive than most other animals?

George Miller, who directed ``Happy Feet,'' said the birds' anthropomorphic qualities, like the way they walk, account for much of their popularity. Also, he said, ``only in the last decade or so has there been serious documentary footage out of Antarctica. It's tough to get around Antarctica.''

Gil Myers, an area supervisor for penguins at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, where penguins remain one of the major attractions, said they also benefit from a growing public awareness that global warming and overfishing are threatening the habitats of some species, a major theme in ``Happy Feet.''