Kowalski

"This looks like a job for SCIENCE!"

~ Kowalski

Ranked as Second-In-Command as Skipper's Lieutenant, (Mr.) Kowalski is of the penguins in The Penguins of Madagascar,Madagascar, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and the secondary tritagonist of Penguins of Madagascar. He the smartest, tallest (if unusually small for his species) and presumably either the second oldest of the Penguins or possibly the same approximate age as Skipper. Kowalski forms plans for the group and usually takes notes for Skipper. His knowledge has allowed him to take up positions where his intelligence is needed, such as being the team's medic as well as chief scientist and inventor. He tends to unnecessarily over-analyze simple situations.

Appearance
Kowalski is the tallest of the penguins.

Personality
Kowalski is rather arrogant or boastful about his intelligence. In fact, he can be such a show-off that Skipper has created the 'Show-Off Jar', which Kowalski must put a quarter into every time he shows off his intellect unnecessarily. He believes that intellect is stronger than brute force (He tries to prove this in The Helmet). While he is certainly the most "book-smart" of the zoo animals, his tendency to over-analyze situations affects how intelligent he appears to the others. He can describe emotions in deep words, but he did admit in Monkey Love that he has trouble comprehending love and expressing his feeling to another, which Skipper knew already. Another EXAMPLE that shows this was in the episode All Choked Up when Skipper, Kowalski, and Private thought Rico was going to be blown up, and he states "I, also, love...you...in the same...way expressed previously...dude." In spite of his hesitant nature, he has proven useful in battles with more intelligent adversaries such as the Blue Hen or Dr. Blowhole (who just happens to be the brother of his love interest, Doris).

Kowalski's main disadvantage is that sometimes, he over-analyzes things, extensive reasoning getting in the way of acting. Also, he can become too fascinated by science; in the episode Jiggles, he becomes almost stark raving mad at the other penguins for not accepting his latest scientific breakthrough/abomination of nature. He called them "science haters" (which made Private sad). It was only when Jiggles tried to eat him that it became a problem.

Kowalski, as a man of science, does not believe in magic or King Julien's so-called sky spirits. However he has witnessed the supernatural and, while he attempts to find a scientific explanation, he doesn't always succeed, such as in Out of the Groove when King Julien had his Groove removed.

Kowalski uses many memes popularized by the internet such as "Wehehehel, fail-ail!" (Night and Dazed), "For the win!" (Invention Intervention), and "Holla!" (Friend-in-a-Box). However, due to his nerdiness, all his attempts to BE COOL sound rather forced. He also tends to use long words. The others are not always able to understand what he is saying, and sometimes ask him to repeat what he's saying in more simple terms.

He can also be highly sensitive, even a little weepy. It is also strongly implied that he once had feelings for a van and awed "She's beautiful!"; with that, Skipper slapped him. It didn't stop him from gushing over the thing. On the other hand, however, he is shown to sometimes be be very arrogant and condescending, such as in Brain Drain, when, at Private's remark that "Gosh, Kowalski, I think your brain power's already tip top!" he only replies with a deadpan "You also think that there's a little man in the fridge who TURNS THE LIGHT on and off."

He also has the worst luck of the four; his inventions always backfire on him and he usually suffers for his arrogance.

Despite the fact that he is the most book-smart of all the Penguins, Kowalski is unable to read. However, he seems to have gained a basic handle on this skill in later episodes as he is seen interpreting SIGNS and using the Speak and Spell.

While being able to formulate plans and invent things (such as a rocket ship out of a trashcan and fireworks, a rotary saw blade made of energy and multiple random objects, or a knowledge sucking machine from just a cardboard box, a magnet, and a vacuum) he is shown to have a bit of difficulty deducing simpler machines. At the end of "Needle Point", it is revealed that he has an irrational fear of dentists, which is peculiar in that, as Private soon states after Kowalski runs off, penguins do not have teeth. He seems to also spout nearly or completely nonsensical words, such as, "The moo cow may have a chocolate marshmallow", or "I'll be a bicycle cream cone", whenever either hit incredibly hard (as he did when body by the Rat King during a hockey game) or when shocked severely (as by Officer X's stun gun). He screamed "Galileo Galilei" when he got his injection during "Needle Point". He also loves candy.

Relationships
He is in LOVE WITH a dolphin named Doris, though he has been seen kissing with Eva.

Madagascar
In the first movie, he plays a small role and is seen escaping the zoo with the other penguins, but was promptly captured and put into a crate for transferring with his comrades. The crates were all placed on a ship bound for Africa, where all the creatures from the zoo would be kept in a wildlife preserve. While in the crate, Kowalski confessed that he could not read (he said the words on the side of the box were an "older code", in slight reference to STAR WARS VI) and asked another transferee, a chimpanzee named Phil, to read the words on the crate. As soon as this was done, the four penguins headed to the ship's bridge, knocked out the crew and captain, bound them up, and Kowalski plotted the ship's course to Antarctica. He is shown to be unable to crack the computer, but after pressing another few random buttons gains access. At the end, he is shown on beach chairs with the other three in Madagascar because Antarctica wasn't that great in their opinion.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
In the second movie, he is steering the plane in the cockpit with the other three Penguins, and high fives the other three when they manage to land (Although not so well) the plane, in fact half-destroying it. He is shown to be shocked, along with the others, when blackmailing pictures of Skipper kissing the bobble-head Lola are shown by the monkeys. Afterwards, he is shown again at Skipper and Lola's wedding.

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
In Madagascar 3, Kowalski becomes even more like his spin-off character - he invents a Warp Drive for the copter and upgrades an SUV with a nuclear reactor to be more easily driven by the Penguins. When it crashes, becoming utterly destroyed, his genius helps to upgrade the Circus into a fantastic lights and music-show. Along with the other Penguins he helps to fight off DuBois.

A Christmas Caper
In A Christmas Caper, he is organizing the HQ for Christmas, and follows Skipper and Rico when they go and find Private.

Merry Madagascar
In Merry Madagascar, he is hostile towards the reindeer, like Skipper and Rico, although Private falls forCupid, a young female reindeer. He then flies Santa's sled with the other three after being covered in the magical dust which lets the reindeer fly. After crash-landing similarly to in Madagascar 2, he still high-fives the others and Skipper remarks "Whoever said penguins couldn't fly?!?", and says a similar line in Madagascar 2 after they emerge from the wreckage of the plane. Afterwards, he RETURNS to Madagascar with Alex, Marty, Gloria, Melman, Private, Skipper and Rico although they all wanted to stay in New York.

Statistics
Tier: 9-C

Destructive Capacity: Street Level+ (held his own against Skipper, fought evenly with Rico).

Range: Unknown

Speed: Superhuman (a security camera has several problems catching the moves of his team).

Lifting Strength: Unknown

Striking Strength: KJ Class (can break all the bones of the neck with a single strike).

Durability: Superhuman

Stamina: Unknown

Intelligence: Unknown

Techniques and Abilities
Kowalski is among the smartest characters in his universe. He is capable of inventing almost anything from simple objects. He can also play a banjo and sing as seen in Concrete Jungle SURVIVAL.

Inventory
Things the character usually uses, or carries w

Feats
(Films)
 * Built a nuclear reactor in an SUV.

(TV Series)
 * Invented a time machine.

Weaknesses
(Films)
 * Cannot read English.

(TV Series)
 * Arrogant
 * Sometimes over-analyzes things.
 * Inventions tend to backfire repeatedly.

Voice Actors

 * Madagascar/Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa/Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted/Penguins of Madagascar/A Christmas Caper/Merry Madagascar/Madly Madagascar: Chris Miller
 * The Penguins of Madagascar - English Dub/The Penguins of Madagascar Dr. Blowhole Returns-Again: Jeff Bennett
 * The Penguins of Madagascar - German Dub: Oliver Feld

Battles
(Films) (Specials) (TV Series)
 * Alex, Marty, Melman, Gloria, Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private vs. the Foosa - (Alex, Marty, Melman, Gloria, Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private Win)
 * Alex, Marty, Melman, Gloria, Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, Private, Julien, Maurice, Mort, Gia, Vitaly, Stephano, and Sophia vs. Captain Chantel DeBouis - (Alex, Marty, Melman, Gloria, Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, Private, Julien, Maurice, Mort, Gia, Vitaly, Stephano, and Sophia Win)
 * Kowalski, Rico, Skipper, and Private vs Nana's dog - (Kowalski, Rico, Skipper, and Private Win)

Trivia

 * In The Trouble With Jiggles, Skipper said-"Anyone whose last name doesn't end in -OWALSKI have any OPTIONS [to stop the jiggli]?" It is thus shown that Kowalski is actually Kowalski's surname.
 * In conjunction with this, Jan Kowalski or Jan Nowak is the Polish equivalent to John Smith or Doe in English-speaking COUNTRIES. (Kowalski means Son of Kowal, which in turn means Smith.)
 * However, he and the others always technically mispronounce his name, since in Polish, the letter "W" is pronounced like the English "V", and the stress is placed differently.
 * In the Eyguption/arabic version, Kowalski's name is "Abcarino". The word "abcari" means genious in Arabic.
 * In I Was a Penguin Zombie, when they see Skipper acting crazy due to the side effects of a topical cream, Kowalski and the others believe that Skipper became a zombie. Kowalski assumes command until Skipper manages to pull himself together, but Kowalski tricks Skipper into believing him. In the end, Kowalski, Rico, and PRIVATE try to catch him, but they end up breaking their wings too.
 * In Love Hurts, Skipper reveals that Kowalski has a tattoo of Doris the Dolphin. (We never find out where)
 * In the commentary of the movies and in A Christmas Caper, he states his name, rank and serial NUMBER as: First Lt Kowalski, Serial Number 8-6-0-niner-bravo-alpha-mega-niner. (860-NBA-MN)
 * He also seems to have a slight temper, but not as temperamental as Skipper. (see Otter Gone Wild, Otter Things Have Happened, Jiggles, The Penguin Stays In the Picture, It's About Time...)
 * The first time Kowalski made a mistake and was slapped by Skipper is in The Hidden.
 * He is shown to be jealous that the bad guys (like Dr. Blowhole) get the "good stuff".
 * While Kowalski once claimed in All Choked Up that creating a shrink ray could take 712 years, by the time of the episode Jiggles, he had created a functioning one.
 * In Operation: Cooties, Kowalski had to put a quarter in the show-off jar (because it must be implied that Skipper is annoyed that Kowalski keeps showing off his smarts to the other penguins).
 * In Night and Dazed, he reveals that he's able to read lips (not very well, though).
 * He seems to have learned how to read in later episodes, along with Private.
 * April Fools SHOWS that he reads for a pastime (although it has been stated he can't read)
 * Kowalski is prone to high-pitched screaming when he's in panic and nonsensical outbursts when he DEALSwith a brain-related injury. (most notably in Mask of the Raccoon, Miracle on Ice), Cat's Cradle
 * Once called Blowhole a "dolph-uh-in" as a response to "peng-you-in". (Singing, The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole}
 * Though he is Skipper's Lieutenant, it is shown that he isn't quite ready to lead the penguins as he relies on Skipper most of the time, panics a lot and is accident-prone. (see Snakehead!, Action Reaction, Pets Peeved,Command Crisis, Rock-A-Bye Birdie and The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole)
 * However, he had an alter-ego of himself called "Commander Kowalski" that seems more confident and notably better than his previous leadership ideas. (P.E.L.T.) It is unknown whether this is a recessive sub-personality or trying to prove to Skipper that he is trustworthy.
 * I Know Why the Caged Bird Goes Insane shows that due to his excitement, he is able to scream so loud that glass breaks.
 * In Maurice at Peace, Kowalski starts sneezing as soon as he enters the FLORIST'S SHOP, suggesting he may have hay fever or some allergic reaction to plants or just general allergies caused by the pollen & dust.
 * Kowalski is a deep sleeper; even Julien's antics couldn't wake him up, as seen in The Helmet and Operation: Break-Speare as in the latter he doesn't seem to be suffering the detrimental effects of the severe degree of INSOMNIA Skipper experienced.
 * In Loathe at First Sight, it is said that Doris gave Kowalski the "let's just be friends" talk 16 and a half times but he couldn't hear the rest because he was sobbing.
 * Upon being loyal to Skipper as a recruit, Kowalski has disobeyed him twice, one in Invention Intervention, where he built something after Skipper told him not to invent anymore, the other in The Trouble With Jiggles where he is FOUND out for not destroying Jiggles.
 * In Our Man in Grrfurjiclestan, he can do a great impression of the Red Squirrel.
 * He can be a little violent sometimes. Like in The Trouble With Jiggles, where he thought the children were eating the jiggli (they were really eating jello cubes) and was about to shoot them with a laser.
 * Kowalski's way to relax is "pushing the untested boundaries of science". Action Reaction.
 * Kowalski fears head injuries due to harm coming to his precious intellect when not in headgear. Noted in Byte Sized where he cries "NOT IN THE BRAIN!" while trying escape a fish slapping from Skipper and, in Rock-a-bye Birdie, where he is hit by a bowling pin and responds "I'm ok, it's a non-brain injury."
 * He carries around a wombat brain & in Misfortune Cookie when he says that he doesn't know how swapping Rico's brain with it would help, Kowalski says: "Oh, I've got to do something with this" and holds up a jar with the brain in it.
 * Kowalski has a tendency to dismiss everything that goes against science, even when there's strong evidence he's wrong, he still refuses to believe it. Several occasions include: Wishful Thinking, where he rudely rebukes PRIVATE'S belief in magic, in Driven to the Brink, where he refuses to believe the car is haunted, even when he has no other explanations, and in Mental Hen, where he refuses to believe in Psychic Powers, even when evidence strongly pointed to its existence. Strangely, on two of these occasions, he proved to be right, as they were either accidents (Driven to the Brink), and the RESULT of flawless study (Mental Hen).
 * Kowalski compliments himself in front of a mirror when nobody is watching.
 * Kowalski desperately wants to be a leader and it is suggested that he thinks that Skipper is a 'dunder-brained boob'.P.E.L.T., Whispers and Coups, Snakehead!
 * Kowalski has a widow's peak, which is where his black feathers form a V shape on his forehead.
 * He likes peanuts and butter, but he does not like peanut butter ( Brain Drain, Loathe at First Sight )
 * It is revealed that he doesn't like broccoli in The Penguin Who Loved Me but he mentioned going "all in on the broccoli for lunch" in Operation: Cooties. It's possible that after Operation: Cooties he STARTED to dislike broccoli.
 * Kowalski earns his intellegnce from eating fish
 * Kowalski always records his ideas or possible OPTIONS on a clipboard, notepad and a whiteboard. Since he can't write, he just draws pictures.
 * Kowalski had no options in Work Order when Gus was digging his way to his universe-threatening invention.
 * He loves Doris, who was mentioned in "Gone in a Flash", "Driven to the Brink", "Hot Ice" , Love Hurts, The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole, Loathe At First Sight, Showdown on Fairway 18 and finally showed up in The Penguin Who Loved Me.
 * He holds the abacus the wrong way. (e.g. Kanga Management ect.)
 * He is ambidextrous.
 * He is able to make gadgets quickly, using simple tools (e.g. Roomies)
 * He always has time for personal things, such as making new inventions, mixing chemicals together, etc.
 * Kowalski considers MATH to be a universal language as in shown in Roger Dodger.
 * The only leisure ACTIVITY he would do with friends is trivia games, as stated in Kanga Management multiple times.
 * He happens to give complex and complicated options sometimes which is a counterpart to Private's simple options (e.g. Maurice at Peace, Out of the Groove, etc.)
 * In the SHOW, he is shown to be very mild-tempered.
 * In Love Hurts he is one of the two penguins (him and Rico ) that are in denial of going crazy for a girl.
 * Kowalski seems to have been TRAINED in fencing, in the episode "The Hidden" he takes a fencing stance and says "en guarde.
 * In Cute-Astrophe, Kowalski demonstrates he still has a high opinion of his own coolness level, attempting to dance to encourage the throwing of fish, even ready to slap his buttocks. Rico recoils from the sight, somewhat nauseated.
 * Kowalski is the one who has kissed most throughout the EPISODES. First episode was "Mental Hen", where the Blue Hen kissed him for being such a hot dancer. Second episode was "The Penguin Who Loved Me" where Doris kissed him, after she saw him fighting, causing them to DATE each other. This is also the episode where Kowalski has finally made Doris his girlfriend.


 * (Continuity error): After Kowalski reveals that they are going to the Moon, Rico drops his doll, yet in the next shot, the doll is nowhere to be seen on the floor of their compound.
 * After Kowalski gets hit by the bowling pin, his flipper gets broken but then after he exclaims, "Smashed atoms!" his flipper looks perfectly okay.