Private

**Private** is a minor-turned-supporting character in the *Madagascar* franchise, one of the tritagonists of *The Penguins of Madagascar* TV series, and the main protagonist of *Penguins of Madagascar: The Movie*.

## History

### Early Life

Before he was born, Private as an egg was presumably abandoned by his parents. According to *Operation Penguin*, Private's father's name is Sam Fishy but his mother's name is unknown. His egg was eventually buried in a snow bank and began rolling down a hill, knocking down three penguin children, Skipper, Kowalski and Rico. Skipper, not willing to let a defenseless egg get smashed goes to save it, but ends up making it fall down a cliff.

The penguins, growing worried when they see the penguin egg endangered by a group of leopard seals, all fall down the cliff and enter the danger zone on the ship. Rico swallows the egg whole and carries it to safety with the rest of his brothers. Shortly after they escape the leopard seals, Skipper accidentally slaps the egg's shell, which activates Private being hatched. Private greets them and inquires if they are his family. Before Skipper responds, child Kowalski answers that Private has no family and that they were all going to die. However, Skipper instead slaps Kowalski and tells baby Private that they're all the family the baby penguin has. They adopt him as their baby brother and names him Private.

### *Penguins of Madagascar: The Movie*

Throughout the film, Private tries to prove that he can be a valuable member on the team as much as Kowalski and Rico can. However, Skipper always dismisses him.

During the battle at the Aquarium in Shanghai, China, Dave kidnapped Private along with the other penguins. After witnessing Dave the full power of the medusa serum, he accidentally alerted Dave of his presence by yelling "crikey," a term Private used earlier when he and the other penguins were initially captured by their one time. Though discovered, Private swears to Dave that when his brothers come, they'll bring about disaster to his operation. Dave realizes that Private's brothers are coming to them and decides to use it as his advantage. When Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico are captured as well and attempts to use the full power of the medusa serum on Private, but he escapes before using the paperclip that he swallowed earlier. Of course, this just leads Dave into thinking he disintegrated Private, as well as his brothers. He rescues the North Wind before they are killed by one of Dave's killing machines.

## Abilities

* **Combat Skills:**
* **Leadership Skills:** Private may be younger than all four of the penguins, but Private has displayed several leadership skills, such as taking control of the penguins after all uniting to defeat Dave.

## Family

Notes:

* ?: Indicates a possiblity. Since Nigel is Private's uncle, he could also be the brother of Private's mother as well.
* Dotted: adoption
* Solid: Parent-child bloodline

## Trivia

* Private is the third supporting character to be the lead protagonist in a movie or spin-off, preceded by Skipper and followed by Julien.
* Voiced by Christopher Knights in the movies and James Patrick Stuart in the TV series
* Private is the protagonist of the film because of his feelings, sacrificing his cuteness to turn all the Penguins back to normal.
* Private is a fan of the Lunacorns (along with Bada, Roy the Rhino and Julien), which is a parody of the *My Little Pony* franchise.
* While Private loves all three of his brothers, he appears to be closer to Kowalski more than he does Skipper and Rico