Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private

**Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private AKA The Penguins of Madagascar** are a group of secret agent spy military Penguins who are major characters in the *Madagascar*franchise.

## Team

* ***Skipper***: Team Leader
* ***Kowalski***: Brains (The Scientist)
* ***Rico***: Raving psycopath (Demolitions).
* ***Private***: The cuddly one (Rookie).

## Personalities

Skipper is a hardened commando-type and the leader of the squad of penguins. He often acts like a 'Nam veteran with regards to some kind of Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder, especially with regards to his raving paranoia (which even the other penguins sometimes consider as being over-the-top) and conflicting stories of past events. He believes that a friend is just an enemy who hasn't attacked you yet. Thanks to his training in commando skills, he seems to have absolutely no idea of how to act like a *real* penguin, with Private having to give him advice when he's under close observation by humans.

Skipper is very suspicious, and usually mistrusts those whom the other penguins have all fallen for. He is often proven correct. He can sometimes be a bit cold and often does things only because the other penguins, especially Private, want him to.

Of the four penguins, Skipper is the best at hand-to-hand combat, generally able to take down even their surprise attacks. However, he has a tendency to overestimate his own abilities, taking on opponents many times his own size, and continuing the attack even when it's shown to be totally ineffective. He claims to not know the meaning of the word 'surrender' and always has trouble admitting fear of anything.

Skipper cannot stand hippies, as seen in Night and Dazed, It's About Time and Hello, Dollface, and would very much like to either beat them up or make them get jobs. He also has *Trypanophobia* (Fear of needles) as shown in Needle Point and Love Hurts. In King Me he wasn't able to knit because of this fear.

He's a 50's style male chauvinist, believing women are weak and need protecting. He's also rather xenophobic, with the opinion that any species other than avian (especially mammals) is inferior. All of this ties in with his raving paranoia, and the other penguins don't always back him up on these points. It has also been stated that he has a fragile ego. In Madagascar 3 Skipper buys solid gold dentures to eat apples with. Unfortunately, by doing this he discovers he... doesn't really like apples.

Kowalski is the brains of the team; their group strategist and inventor. He's loyal, even if he's not always completely honest about his inventions. He's also highly narcissistic - both confident and boastful about his brains and his looks - so much so that Kowalski will regularly try out his completely untested inventions on himself. Sometimes it ends well. And sometimes... it doesn't. He loves to demonstrate his encyclopedic knowledge of anything and everything, and can be such a show-off that Skipper has created the 'Show-Off Jar', which Kowalski must put a quarter into every time he shows off his intellect unnecessarily.[1]

Kowalski's main disadvantage is that sometimes he over-analyzes things, extensive reasoning getting in the way of acting. Also, he can become too fascinated by science; in the episode Jiggles, he completely loses it when the other penguins become concerned over his latest scientific breakthrough/abomination of nature, calling them "science haters". It was only when Jiggles tried to eat him that he snapped out of it.

Kowalski, as a man of science, does not believe in unproven magic or King Julien's so-called *sky spirits.* However he has witnessed the supernatural and, while he attempts to find a scientific explanation, he doesn't always succeed, such as in Out of the Groove when King Julien had his Groove removed.

Kowalski is clearly a nerd, and uses many memes popularized by the internet such as "Wehehehel, fail-ail!" (Night and Dazed), "For the win!" (Invention Intervention), and "Holla!" (Friend-in-a-Box). However, due to his nerdiness, all his attempts to be cool sound rather forced. He also tends to use long words. The others are not always able to understand what he is saying, and sometimes ask him to repeat what he's saying in more simple terms.

Though Kowalski is the smartest of the penguins, he lacks the physical endurance of the other penguins, tiring more easily as seen in A Kipper for Skipper. He's convinced that intellect trumps brute force, which brings him into disagreements with Rico.

Despite Kowalski admitting he has trouble expressing his emotions, he still demonstrates strong feelings for others, such as in All Choked Up when he fears that Rico is going to blow up, and by writing bad poetry about a dolphin named Doris - whom he also has a tattoo of. He has been seen kissing with Eva. It is also strongly implied that he once had feelings for a van and gushed "She's beautiful!".[2] On the other hand, in The Otter Woman his main interest in 'Arlene' is scientific as he prepares to study her - while taking her for a nice walk in the park, of course.

Kowalski has the worst luck of the four, but it's mostly brought on by his own arrogance - his inventions frequently blowing up in his face does nothing to keep him from experimenting on himself, such as in Brain Drain. Even so, he can be expected to take hits in other circumstances as well,.

Despite his intellect being the highest of all the penguins, Kowalski can no more read than any of them, although for some reason this doesn't keep him from creating complicated equations, which means he is fluent in mathematics and algebra. The writers seem to have realized how this makes no sense at all, and Kowalski seems to have gained a rudimentary handle on literacy as in later episodes he can interpret road signs and use the Speak and Spell.

Rico typically doesn't think things through. While he is not stupid, he's far more comfortable taking orders and being the muscle of the team. When he loses self-control, Skipper often shows concern that he might hurt himself more than others, and also seems aware that when used properly, Rico's unpredictable nature becomes his greatest strength.

Rico has a psychotic love for violence, pyromania, and destruction, looking on to such scenes - whether programs or real life - with a vacant expression of amusement. He enjoyed a nature documentary that had penguins being eaten by Orcas and Leopard seals and ate popcorn while the others had to vomit into paper bags. He also thinks about fish a lot.

Generally referred to by Skipper as a world-class psychopath, Rico has an appetite for destruction that has an unfortunate tendency to cause as much trouble as Kowalski's mad inventions. The Penguins say that he needs to be kept tightly reigned in, to only use explosives when strictly necessary, but to some extent, this could be a concern that others might manipulate him. This is shown effectively in Kaboom and Kabust, when he completely leveled the Lemur Habitat - mostly because King Julien recklessly took advantage of Rico's fondness for destruction and ability to choke up explosives.

In Roger Dodger, Roger switched personalities with Rico and we see Rico's full capabilities as an 800 pound alligator (although he loses his ability to regurgitate). Also, Kowalski once got his personality partially mixed with Rico's in Sting Operation and exclaimed how horrible it is, asking Rico how he could stand it, to which Rico just shrugged.

Although Rico is said to have little tolerance for mushy stuff, he displays the full range of emotions, often being the first to break into tears, and after Private could, in fact, be the second most emotional penguin on the team. He is never given any rank but seems to be classed as higher ranking than Private, but lower ranking than Skipper or Kowalski. As the weapons maintenance and storage guy, it is possible (but unconfirmed) that he holds the approximate rank of one of the many variations of Sergeant.

Rico has also been shown to have some artistic skills. He is able to carve ice, and quite impressively so, as a matter of fact: like in *A Christmas Caper*, when he carved a Christmas tree; and "Byte-Sized," when he carved a chainsaw. He is also seen as a skilled weapons juggler, as seen in Roger Dodger.

In "Tagged," he grinned encouragingly when Skipper had to 'groom' him, and even puckered up his beak- Skipper hastily slaps him away. He also showed attraction to Kowalski after Kowalski blasted penguin mating calls at the lemurs in "Operation: Break-Speare" as well as when he raised his 'eyebrows' up and down suggestively at him in The Falcon and the Snow Job, of course, he could have just been teasing. On the other hand, Rico also has a female doll, Miss Perky, whom he seems to love very much.

In "Herring Impaired," it was shown that Rico considered the title, 'fish craving psycho' to be his 'thing', and he was also shown to be very, gluttonous.

Private is the youngest member of the team, making him more gullible and trusting more easily. He was born in front of his older brothers, who adopted him and Private loves them a lot.

in A Christmas Caper, Private is the one who was captured. Even in the movie, Madagascar Skipper states that it is unlikely that Private will survive when they go off to fight the fossa. In the movie, he was not actually treated well by Skipper because Private, at first, couldn't get the password for the ship correct. Private's job was activating the ship's computer. Private also played a big role.

The episode Paternal Egg-Stinct reveals that Private is much better at normal parenting than the rest of the team who have no clue about how to take care of an egg (Skipper put it through a dangerous obstacle course, Kowalski tried to increase its intelligence with an electric shock, and Rico flew it with a hang glider).

Being the youngest and unsure of himself, Private sometimes gets himself into some "sticky" situations. In the episode Tangled in the Web Private slipped on a roller skate and earned himself a large stage with the nickname "Slippy."

Mort Unbound depicted Private trying to reason with a giant Mort, who was under the effects of a ray Kowalski invented. After Mort throws Private aside (using King Julien as a weapon), he, too, becomes big. After some tough love, Mort drinks an antidote Kowalski created and reverts to normal. Julien confronts Mort with a lesson, but Maurice said that Julien used Mort to bully the other zoo animals. Julien doesn't want to admit it but does when Private was about to sit on him. However, when it is Private's turn to take the medicine, he refuses to, as he enjoys being big. Then, Rico says, "Oh boy."

In Skorca! Private is put on aerial recon duty. He brings a sugary snack of Peanut Butter Winkies for the trip, though he knew he wasn't allowed to, as Skipper said sugar went straight to the brain. Private sees a flying orca (actually a parade float). He alerts all of the zoo animals to the presence of the predator, which Julien dubs a "Skorca", a combination of the word "sky" and "orca". While the penguins set off to track down the Skorca, Julien engages the services of Joey the kangaroo to eliminate the threat. After discovering that Private consumed an entire box of "Winkys" during his patrol, the penguins believe the Skorca sighting was a hallucination created by a sugar rush. They change their minds when they see the Skorca, which is actually just a large parade balloon. During a fight with Joey for the privilege of destroying the Skorca, when Private pierced the balloon with his beak, it flew away and took Private in its tracks. Believing he was dead, the penguins held a tearful memorial service for Private, but he returned during the service with part of the Skorca (the Skorka's tail) and was treated as a hero.

In Mr. Tux Private is revealed to be a fantastic mini-golf player, but had given up when he realized the competition had turned him into something he wasn't. But he later played again when the zoo was in jeopardy and won.

He doesn't seem to get angry at the lemurs like the other penguins, even offering to help them in several episodes and is even proud of doing something good for them (even though the other penguins aren't), for example: In Lemur See, Lemur Do, the penguins broke a robot who was friends with King Julien which made them feel guilty, and, after repairing it, Private said that repairing the robot for King Julien was a good thing, however, the other penguins didn't agree with him. One other time, though, he got annoyed by the lemurs' loud music. Contributions licensed as CC-BY-SA. More details.

Private has a sugar addiction and loves butterscotch lollipops and Winky's.

He loves watching the show "Lunacorns", along with going to their events, buying their merchandise, and even citing advice and words of wisdom the characters on the show say, much to the annoyance of his fellow penguins and animals.

Usually, if Private team members or others in trouble, he several times shows, how he can save them by himself. Example in: Truth Ache, Untouchable, Stop Bugging Me, Wishful Thinking, Concrete Jungle Survival, A Visit From Uncle Nigel, Operation: Antarctica, Siege the Day and the Penguins of Madagascar: The Movie.

He has also been in love twice. The first time was in Merry Madagascar with a reindeer called Cupid. The second time is in Love Hurts, where he fell in love with a pretty nurse named Shauna.

In Tagged he showed that he knew nothing about how a real penguin acts.

In Penguins of Madagascar (movie) when Skipper says ''You are a valued and meaningful member of this team!'' to Rico, Private tried to swallow the paperclip which Rico keeps in his throat so that he can become a valuable and meaningful member of the team.

In Penguins of Madagascar (movie), Private wants to be a meaningful and valued member of the team. Anyway, Skipper looks down Private, because he thinks, Private just a "cute little guy". After Private and later the penguins are captured by Dave, they want to turn Private into a monster. Kowalski says Private "the cute one" and Skipper says "It's all the little guy's got!", Private become upset. Thus, Dave boost the ray and shoot Private. At the last moment, Private has successfully escaped with a paper clip, but. Thereafter, Private saves the North Wind from a death machine, Classified opts to go back to headquarters to get more equipment. Private attempts to persuade them to stay and fight immediately, because that's what Skipper would do. The North Wind leaves while Private stays to fight back. Private then tries to find a way to get through to his brothers. He starts with Skipper, doing a goofy face that always amuses him. Skipper's normal personality returns, and they get Kowalski and Rico to do the same. The penguins decide that to reverse the effects of the serum, they need something with ultimate cute power, and that would be Private. He straps himself to the laser and uses it on the penguins. The effects cause Private to be encased in chrysalis before he hatches again with moose antlers on his head. Skipper tells Private that he is the most valued member of the team. The rest of the penguins and the North Wind all see him as a hero.

## Trivia

* The Penguins met Thomas, Twilight Sparkle, and their friends in *Thomas and Twilight Sparkle Go to Madagascar*.
* The Penguins guest star in Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's Adventures Series.

## Gallery

Skipper as a chickKowalski as a chickRico as a chickPrivate as a newborn chick