- “But sir it's not ready. The control rods will have to be calibrated. And don't even ask me about the uranium 238 blanket”
- ―Kowalski, a reflection of his scientific side
Kowalski is a major character in Madagascar who appears as a minor character in the first film, a supporting character in Escape 2 Africa and Europe's Most Wanted, and one of the major protagonists of The Penguins of Madagascar and one of the two tritagonists of the film of the same name (alongside Rico). Kowalski is the smartest penguins and is Skipper's main go to man about logical explanations. He is also a secret scientist and inventor whose experiments always go haywire. Additionally, despite his vast knowledge, Kowalski stillcannot read.
In the films, Chris Miller provides the voice for the character in films, specials, and video games. In The Penguins of Madagascar, Kowalski is voiced by Jeff Bennett.
Background[]
Kowalski was born in Antarctica with his other two brothers, Skipper and Rico and raised in a family of penguins. Kowalski first realizes that they appear to be flightless after trying to get to the front of the line. Skipper sees an egg passing by and goes to rescue it with Kowalski and Rico following behind. The egg falls in the old boat, which Kowalski claims that no one ever comes back in alive.Skipper says that there is another bird down there, but leopard seals come and eat the bird. He lists their options on how to survive a situation to saving the egg, before the trio of Penguins land via someone pushing them with their microphone.
The three manage saving the egg, but are also stuck on the cannon. Kowalski insists they fire, but Skipper tells them to when they see the whites of their eyes. He intervenes by pushing the leopard seal to the right and fires.Kowalski and the others find that they are drifting away from Antarctica left with the egg. It hatches, bringing out a baby boy, who questions if they're his family. He comes out saying that he has no family and that they're going to die. However, Skipper and the other two penguins adopt the baby penguin into their family.
Eventually, Kowalski, Rico Skipper and their new baby brother Private are found by humans while drifting to sea. They are later sent it the New York City Zoo. Unknowingly, Kowalski and his brothers had attracted all the attention from Dave, an octopus who swore revenge on the penguins, even though it wasn't their fault.
Physical Appearance[]
Kowalski is the tallest of the other penguins (however, he is short by human standards. He has black and white feathers (black behind and whtie up front), an orange beak and webbed feet and has arctic blue eyes. Kowalski is considered handsome by penguin standards but is dubbed cute and cuddly towards humans
Personality[]
From the first film, Kowalski's personality is barely developed. Though he appears the smartest in the first film, Kowalski actually acts as just a sidekick to Skipper. However, as the series progressed, so did Kowalski and the other Penguins, Rico and Private. From this new personality, he was sometimes arrogant and boastful, mostly about his intelligence. Kowalski can get easily jealous of his rivals, as he claims that the bad guys "always get the good stuff," referring to Doctor Blowhole's inventions. Kowalski is also highly sensitive and emotional, as he cries every time his friend, Doris wants to stay in the friendship zone. According to Skipper, Doris just views Kowalski as a friend and he cries so much, he doesn't bother listening to the rest of her "Friendzone" speech. The series also portrays him a little bit more confident and boastful of himself. He has the highest count of love interests in the franchise. He claimed a truck beautiful, before Skipper slapped him. He had a crush on a dolphin named Doris (who is the opposite of her brother). Later, Kowalski falls in love with an owl named Eva in the movie, who returns her affections in return.
Sometimes, his intelligence is his weakness. He doesn't know how to read, which is odd for a man who knows science and math. Being a man of sciene, Kowalski doesn't believe in any supernatural things. Sometimes, Kowalski came out telling the cold hard truth, difficult for letting out emotion. For example, he tells Private that he has no family members left and that they're all going to die. Ten years later, he says Private looks disfigured and could be hunted for sport. He can be very nerdy, but helpful in the worse situations. In the Penguins of Madagascar film, he came up with a ridiculous, nerdy way to get himself and the other penguins down to rescue the yet-to-be-hatched penguin, Private; In the series, Kowalski got overly protective of his creation, Jiggles and called those who disliked him as "science haters". However, he did solve the problem by shrinking his monstrous creation.
Despite his nerdy quirks, Kowalski loves his brothers more than anything, for he told Skipper they didn't need the North Wind but Skipper and was shaken by Private's apparent death. He is loyal to them to a fault and always there to help them when one of his own is in danger, as he was adamant in saving other penguins from Dave. Kowalski highly admires and respects each and every one of them.
Abilities[]
- Combat skills: At first, Kowalski shows being a terrible at combat skills because of his mind easily weighed down on knowledge. During one exercise Private easily even defeats him in it (which is kind of embarrassing to see a younger brother defeat his older one so easily. Kowalski easily overcomes combat skills while fighting the chameleon's tongues
- Inventor: Kowalski invents many inventions with good intentions, but they always backfires. He created an enlargement ray and while intending to hit a fish, it hit Mort, causing him to become stronger and bigger but later created an antidote for it with Private's assistance. He creates a shrinking ray, which was used to shrink his creation, Giggles. He also created a device he never knew what it did. It was stolen by Rhonda, known as Agent 12, working for Dr. Blowhole. He also created a time machine, which was later destroyed by him and his brothers.
Appearances in the Madagascar franchise[]
Madagascar[]
Several years after coming to the Central Park Zoo, the penguins grow tired of living at the zoo and wish to go to Antarctica. Kowalski uses shovels, which really are plastic spoons, to bust them out of there. He reports back to Skipper that they had just broken their last plastic spoon. They later break out and return to their mammal friends in Madagascar. Kowalski helps distract them before they celebrate the downfall of their foes.
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa[]
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted[]
The Penguins of Madagascar: The Series[]
Penguins of Madagascar: The Movie[]
Relationships[]
Skipper[]
Kowalski is Skipper's second in command and whenever their leader is unavailable. However, usually when Skipper needs options, he asks Kowalski for advice. He has only defied Skipper once thus far and he still had kept his Jiggles creation alive when Skipper was led to believe Kowalski had destroyed it. An example is in "I Was A Penguin Zombie" where everyone believed Skipper was dead and Kowalski took over temporarily until he was revealed alive in the end of the episode).
Private[]
Out of all the penguin brothers, Kowalski and Private are extremely close. He ideally has a protective streak over Private and would hate it if anything bad happens to his younger brother. Notably he risks everything to save Private and was visibly upset when Private appeared to be killed by the medusa serum ray but hugged Private a bit too tightly when it was revealed he was alive. In the series, usually if there is something he deems inappropriate for Private to see, Kowalski covered his eyes and also covered Private's ear whenever Skipper swears (or his angry word as he calls it).
Rico[]
Most of the time, Rico and Kowalski are both different as day and night. While Rico is mostly destructive and using violence, Kowalski is mostly creative and doesn't use brute force, but rather his knowledge. However, they have been very close friends since they were children. Although they mostly do have different characteristics, it's revealed when they thought Rico was going to die, Kowalski tried to calmly tell Rico that he'd miss him but spoke it rather nonchalantly but he broke down crying and joined a group hug with Rico, Skipper and Private that resulted in Rico being saved.
Jiggles and the Jiggli[]
Jiggles and his race where created by Kowalski, who loves them like his children (as they are so in that way.) He grew very offensive when Rico, Private, and Skipper were calling him a "monster."
Romances[]
Doris[]
Doris is Kowalski's love interest in the TV series. For years, Kowalski is in love with a dolphin named Doris. However, she just wants to be friends with him, giving him the friendship speech sixteen times, but he was too busy crying. Whats scary is that Doris is Dr. Blowhole's sister What's extra scary is that Kowalski has a tattoo of her on an unknown part of his body. He also uses her name as his password to his computer, according to Mort. They kiss for the first time in "The Penguin who Loved Me".
Eva[]
Eva is Kowalski's official love interest and girlfriend in the film series. Kowalski first fell in love with her when she saved him and his brothers from Dave's octopi. He tries hitting on her every time but it ultimately proves very awkward. One time, he tells her that they should kiss, but Eva just looks at him coolly. At first, Eva doesn't return affections towards Kowalski. However, it is revealed she had a secret crush on him the same time he did. She kisses him on the beak lips, thus she indicated she and Kowalski will have a relationship in the future.
Friends[]
Marlene[]
Kowalski is good friends with Marlene. He informs Marlene of the possibility that she may be rooming with more than one otter. He also lets her use his unknown invention in "Roomies" in saving Rhonda. While she shoots sarcastic comments, Kowalski usually followed them and saw her having a shot in science when they thought the zoo was going to close down forever.
King Julien[]
Kowalski and Julien hardly ever interact with one another. Kowalski's not usually irritated with Julien's stupidity, but he does get irritated when Julien steals his inventions. In fact, Julien often tries stealing what Kowalski has, namely his device that stopped time and Kowalski's "helmet" project.
One of the few times they have interacted in the series is when they both were alone when Kowalski froze time with his invention. They grew close with each other, even going far as to plastering their pictures all over a building in New York.
Enemies[]
Dr. Blowhole[]
Kowalski is jealous of Dr. Blowhole. One evidence is he claims that he's smarter than that no good dolphin while trying to shut down Blowhole's Ring of Fire. A second evidence is Kowalski also is jealous that Blowhole gets "all the good stuff". Finally, Kowalski adds that he'll prove he's smarter than the kleptomaniac.
Kowalski's inventions[]
- Penguin Air: An airplane to take the Zoosters to NYC. (Escape 2 Africa)
- L.A.R.V.: Kowalksi upgraded an SUV that made it easy for land travel, assault and defense.
- Nuke-U-Lar Reactor: Charges the LARV.
- Super Ray antidote: Kowalski later made an antidote to reverse the effects. (Mort Unbound)
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Kowalski was voiced by Chris Miller in the trilogy, the spin-off film, the short film "A Christmas Caper" and the specials. Jeff Bennett replaced him in the first spin-off television series focused on the Penguins and its same video game.
- Seems a bit more taller and boastful in the TV series.
- Kowalski's name is actually his surname. (The Trouble with Jiggles)
- Loves candy more than the other penguins. (Happy King Julien Day)
- Has a hard time thinking on his feet. (The Hidden)
- Kowalski has a crush on a dolphin named Doris, as its pointed out in the entire series. In fact, he has a tattoo of Doris the Dolphin, but is unspecified where. (Love Hurts) However, Skipper says that Doris sees him as a friend and not as a love interest.
- Kowalski has dentophobia, fear of dentists, much to the animals' confusion. (Needle Point)
- Claims that he can read lips. However, Kowalski cannot do it very well.
- Kowalski cannot read (Madagascar, Penguins of Madagascar: The Movie), but is shown that he learns to reads.
- Kowalski is proven to be a deep sleeper. (The Helmet, Operation Break-Speare)
- Kowalski can do the impression of the Red Squirrel (this is because both Kowalski and the Red Squirrel share the same voice actor.
- Is ambidexterous
- Prone to babbling nonsense when shock. (Cat's Cradle)
- Uses an abacus to calculate things
- Kowalski is always jealous of the bad guys in the series, as they always get the "good stuff". (example: angered when Dr. Blowhole kept showing off his inventions.)
References[]
- ↑ "Monkey Love." Penguins of Madagascar.
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