A movie starring the singing, dancing penguins of DreamWorks’ ”Madagascar” series comes out today, but you might not want to watch it because those penguins are actually rapists in real life ...

These penguins really are cute, the animation is consistently appealing, and the movie is obviously bound for megamoolah at the box office. Yet it’s worth noting another distinction, of sorts.

Whatever this little nothing of a cartoon comedy lacks - decent female characters, an original villain - they’re still cute, still cuddly, still as funny as a ninja penguin could ever be.

The harmless "Mr. Popper's Penguins" repeats that old formula, when a lonely dad ends up being the unwilling custodian of the six titular birds.