Penguins of Madagascar

You can't knock them, so sweet and cuddly, especially the young uns. Happy Feet may have been too sticky for your biccy but WOW! these Madagascan birds are rude, sassy, smart and as funny as Ace at full throttle - that's Ventura to you!

The pace accelerates through 15 stages of excitement without stopping to refuel. Three friends - teen sized pengs - are caught up in a fiendish plot, hatched by the dastardly Dr Octavius Brine (a manic John Malkovich on vocals) who shape shifts into a tentacled creature of the deep and controller of a cadre of octopuses whenever he feels the need to be comfortably evil.

Battling him and all things terror related is the grey fox Classified (voiced by Sherlock himself, the flavoursome Benedict), creative force behind The North Wind, an international security company, capable of techno feats of dazzling complexity.

How can four little penguins - forgot to mention Private; it was chasing him inside an egg over a snow capped precipice onto the deck of a derelict tanker that started the incredible journey - make a difference in this world of madcap power play?

The animation isn't Pixar; it's DreamWorks which is right up there in the 1st Division. The script is as clever as The Incredibles which will thrill the kids with a pulsating plot and make the grown ups laugh out loud.

If there is a downside, it is simply this. You won't have time to breathe.