Rico

* Films
* The Penguins of Madagascar

**Rico** doubles as head of *demolition* and *quartermaster* for the Penguins. Rico is a major character of Madagascar. He is a supporting character in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, a major protagonist of The Penguins of Madagascar, a supporting character in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and a major protagonist of Penguins of Madagascar: The Movie.

In the first two movies Rico was almost indistinguishable from Skipper, but in the TV series was made fatter, given scruffy feathers on his head and a visible scar on the left side of his beak, the origin of which has never been revealed. The third movie used his fatter body. It is shown in *A Christmas Caper*, which would have taken place before the movies, but does not appear in the movies. He also became taller, fatter, his head became rounder (while Skipper's was more flat) and also developed a double chin.

In the spin off movie (Penguins of Madagascar: The Movie), Rico is made more distinguishable from Skipper by having a tuft of slicked-back feathers on his head, as well as being taller and fatter. He also had a chip in his beak, but this was on the *right* side of his face. It is unknown how he got this scar either.

Rico holds a variety of items in his gut, which is a virtual 'hammerspace' as many of those items are bigger than him. While inside his digestive system, Mort finds a spiral staircase and an elevator. In "The Big S.T.A.N.K.," he choked up an air-to-ground missile and launching platform. In "The Red Squirrel," it was a ringing payphone.

Unlike the other Penguins, Rico usually does not produce comprehensible words, although he is still able to comprehend and obeys orders.

## Biography

Part Tasmanian Devil, part ticking time-bomb, Rico provides the team's muscle. A demolitions expert, Rico will literally devour anything and everything - mostly for fun, but also so that he can hack up the tools necessary to get the boys out of a jam. Rico is Skipper's most reliable and unquestioning soldier - and not just because he can't speak, no, no. Rico is fueled by a deep, primordial desire to help the team succeed, and blow a few things up along the way.

In the first three movies Rico rather closely resembles Skipper, but slightly more hunched and fatter. By the fourth movie, he is given a slicked-back version of his TV mohawk and a small chip on the right-hand side of his beak.

### Madagascar

when the Penguins attempted to break out of the zoo, he snagged a plastic spoon from a little boy. Also, when all the escaped zoo animals were put on a ship to be transferred to Kenya, Rico regurgitated a paper clip in order to help the Penguins get to the bridge so they could redirect the ship to Antarctica.

### Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

Skipper allowed Rico to keep the plane in a nose dive for extended periods while ignoring the other passengers, until the aircraft is too close to the ground, at which point Skipper orders him to pull up the nose. After the crash, he produces some black duct tape and a switchblade from nowhere.

### Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

he, as well as the other Penguins, took on his more distinct and popular spin-off personality, filling a cannon with explosives, choking up matches, and at one point cuddling a stick of TNT affectionately. He is apparently the one who supplied the dogs with rocket-skates. Marty the Zebra actually speaks directly to Rico, calling for him to refill the cannon, which he does almost instantly, implying his bottomless gut is now in play.

### Penguins of Madagascar

Rico embraces his appetite for eating and regurgitating the impossible, notably managing to swallow and safely regurgitate Private's egg - this event occurring prior to the Madagascar movies - eating and hacking up Dave's entire snowglobe collection, rapid-fire small change, and can also fire fireworks.

While hijacking the North Wind's plane, Skipper orders Kowalski to purge the chemical toilet - which Rico has apparently been occupying for fifteen minutes. Even with Private's life at stake, the idea of just *emptying it into the open ocean* dismays Kowalski. It sounds like the final excretory stage of Rico's digestive system is just as complicated and dangerous as the previous three stages.

## The Penguins of Madagascar TV Series

In the episode "All Choked Up", Skipper had Rico keep a time bomb in his belly for later, in order to destroy a robotic tour guide. Alice noticed that Rico was constantly regurgitating and forced him to take a special medicine that would prevent him from throwing up. The Penguins scrambled to get the bomb out within the time it was supposed to take to explode, but every attempt, including the horrible event Number 12, and stuffing Mort down Rico's throat, fails. Skipper, Kowalski, and Private say their goodbyes, and their farewells were so heartfelt that Rico began to gag because of the "mushiness". Perhaps in combination with the Number 12 substance and the medicine wearing off, he finally hacked up the bomb (and Mort), and it exploded on the tour guide.

Rico's fortune cookie in the episode "Misfortune Cookie" said: "You will soon meet a foul end." While Rico and the other Penguins do not believe in curses, as a rule, Julien took it upon himself to make them believe by tricking Rico into believing that he was cursed to the point where Rico hid in a small pillow fortress. Skipper then confronted Julien and they agreed to make Rico think that his curse had been removed by going through with an ancient lemur ceremony. After a duck lands on Rico's face on the way back from the ritual, Private revealed the meaning of the fortune: the duck's bottom is indeed a fowl end.

When all attempts to get Roger to toughen up fail in "Roger Dodger," Kowalski switched his and Rico's minds. Unfortunately, he failed to take into account the warm blood/cold blood differentials in their physiologies, which resulted in Rico's aggression levels spiking, and after he had dealt with the Rats, he went on a rampage across New York. The Penguins tracked the destruction to him, and Roger (in Rico's body) sang a lullaby to pacify him, as he had earlier in the episode. After they swapped back, Roger helped the Penguins sing another song. Rico can't stand how "lovey-dovey" the song is at first but eventually starts to sing along.

In the episode "Herring Impaired," it is revealed that Rico's obsession for fish could be due to him catching a rare brain disease called Bacterial Pisces Dementia, which can only be cured by refraining (or being restrained) from eating any fish for a whole day after the first symptoms of the infection. (It should be noted that he may have some self-control of this, most of the time.) When the other Penguins catch this disease from eating very old herring, Rico must prevent them from eating any fish for the whole day. When he succeeds in doing this, the other Penguins go back to normal and award him a smoked Alaskan salmon for his efforts - which he instantly eats.

Rico is occasionally considered the greediest and most inconsiderate team member (e.g. Marble Jarhead and Private And The Winky Factory ) but on the whole Skipper considers his generalized psychosis to be an advantage for the team, as long as he's kept under close watch. His loyalty to Skipper is unquestionable, to the point that Skipper is concerned and surprised when he does disobey orders. He's just as dedicated to the team as any other member, and can sometimes be very caring and considerate.