 In entertainment, unlike Wall Street, past performance is a perfectly reliable indicator of future results. As a result, it's always been a bit of a puzzler to me why I greatly enjoy Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley's Kim Possible and liked their live-action movie Sky High, but DreamWorks' Penguins of Madagascar never sparked for me despite the pair's involvement as executive producers. Maybe it's a negative halo effect from the original movies or maybe it's that the show relies so heavily on the antics of King Julien (who I find almost completely insufferable). I find the latest Penguins of Madagascar DVD, Operation Blowhole, to be a small improvement on the episodes of the show I've seen so far, although its still a far cry from the fun that the young Miss Possible and her friends brought to their show.
The three episodes on this DVD center on Dr. Blowhole, a sinister dolphin criminal mastermind who is the title penguins' nemesis. In the usual episodes of the show, the penguins' secret agent schtick is comedic self-aggrandizement, so it's a little bit odd to see it turn into something more real. However, the change does provide more opportunities for the same kind of poke-at-the-genre fun that Kim Possible did so well, since the fundamentally unserious scenarios on the show normally act like a double negative to undermine the show's tone. Even so, the funniest bit in all three episodes is probably a throwaway gag in the first episode, "Dr. Blowhole's Revenge," showing what happens after Dr. Blowhole commands one of his lobster minions to take something down. The two-part sequel "The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole," plays bigger but not necessarily better, as the penguin's leader Skipper has to work through a case of amnesia while his three comrades in arms have to cope with Dr. Blowhole's latest nefarious scheme. A guest appearance by another cast member of the Madagascar movies isn't much help, serving only to remind us that the laughs in those movies are even more meager than they are here. In both episodes, the best thing is probably Neil Patrick Harris' Dr. Blowhole as he chews scenery with appropriate bad-guy abandon.
The DVD presents all the episodes in anamorphic widescreen and packs a surprising 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack, which is used quite effectively by the "deep voice" effect that Dr. Blowhole uses periodically. Each episode has two chapter stops (one to skip the credits and one mid-way through the episode), which is perfectly sufficient. There are no bonus features on the DVD other than trailers and the "World of DreamWorks" advertisements. This isn't a bad DVD, but its rather short total running time make it a hard sell even to hardcore Penguins of Madagascar fans.
Penguins of Madagascar: Operation Blowhole was released on January 10, 2011
 SpongeBob SquarePants: Frozen Face-Off is another "soccer mom" DVD release of Nickeolodeon's iconic cartoon character. Like most recent episodes of the show, the episodes sampled here feel like they must have been a lot of fun to make but not a lot of fun to watch. At least the title episode, which runs a full 22-minutes, doesn't waste a lot of time trying to set up a plot before throwing all the characters into a pitched sled race. It all turns out to be one of the show's stock plots (again), but at least it doesn't drag much. The rest of the episodes include "Accidents Will Happen," "The Other Patty," "Drive Thru," "The Hot Shot," "A Friendly Game," and "Sentimental Sponge;" the best gag I can remember from any of them is one involving Plankton splitting something into smaller and smaller pieces that ends in an amusingly explosive punch line, although I can't even remember which episode that gag appeared in even right after watching the DVD. The DVD presentation isn't much of a surprise (full-frame, stereo sound, good marathon play features) and the bonuses are 2 episodes each of Fanboy & Chum Chum and T.U.F.F. Puppy (which equates to one on-air half-hour each). The former certainly has energy to spare and there are times I wished it was hand-animated so it could get more extreme than the CGI seems to allow it to. The latter feels like that uncle who laughs uproariously as he tells you the same 3 or 4 jokes at every family gathering as though you'd never heard them before.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Frozen Face-Off was released on January 3, 2011
Dora Loves Boots is the latest Dora the Explorer DVD from Nickelodeon. It contains four episodes ("Boots' First Bike," "Bouncy Boots," "¡Vacaciones!", and "The Big Red Chicken's Magic Wand"), no bonus features, and no surprises. It was released on December 27, 2011.
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