and become one of the greatest bands that ever been. Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private are penguins, but most importantly they are a band. Not a band in the sense of belonging together as a group, but a music band. Madagascar is known to most, yet the shelved “Rockumentary” from the same studio is not. The picture would have been based on The Beatles’ musical A Hard Day’s Night. In this version, The Beatles would be played by – behold – penguins. Not just any penguins, but your favourite band that was able to take over a fully manned container ship. Issues with music rights prevented a squaking penguin cover of “Can’t Buy Me Love” from taking place, but what we got in return is perhaps far better. I can imagine living in a world where no penguin attempts to recreate McCartney’s singing on “Hey Jude.” Yet a world where penguins are not partially responsible for bringing an estranged lion back to his home country? I’d rather not.
With this newfound – and oh-so-important – information, it becomes painfully obvious that each penguin embodies one of the Beatles. Skipper has the same frontman energy as Lennon did, though I find it hard to imagine him singing “imagine all the people living life in peace” or staying at the Hilton Amsterdam calling for a stop to a war thousands of kilometers away. Private shares the same innocence that a young McCartney had when he started his career. He, by all means, lives up to “the cute one” of the band. Kowalski has tapped into this spiritual and intellectual spirit, the same spirit that Harrison found and projected into the band and his own career. If Rico has to play any instrument, it must be the drums, so it is only right for him to be the Ringo of the group. They also share a passion for having a signature move, whether that be being a human waste bin or making a peace sign in literally every photo in existence of yourself.
Similarities between the groups continue: shaping fond childhood memories, shaping taste, offering comfort in hard times, existing as physical media that recalls forgotten memories, and leaving behind a legacy that lasts far longer than the creators themselves. Though “Rockumentary” was shelved, the penguins still found themselves mentioned in the same breath as the band that is widely recognised as the greatest pop band. The inspiration for the penguin band found a way to manifest itself in a way that perhaps pays homage in a way that no cover ever could. Moving away from the original inspiration, made it even closer to the original. Though there was no penguin version of Beatlemania, I would like to believe that Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private continue to exist as the greatest band that never made a song.
