Everything penguin is awesome by default. The whole species is just cute beyond words, they're fat and cuddly and waddle cutely and slide on the ice and their fat jiggles when they toddle on the glaciers~~~

#1, #2, #3 and Esmeralda, from Mawaru-Penguindrum

Okay, these stupid penguins were what urged me to make this completely pointless animal listing in the first place. I wanted to do something with them, but I didn't quite know what, so I just ended up thinking what other penguins I know. Then I started coming up with squirrels, and then cats, and later rabbits... and then the average Hapuriainen-style evolution of a seemingly harmless idea escalating to something of completely idiotic scale started.

The penguins and their antics were, surprisingly, one of the highlights of the Mawaru Penguindrum anime for me. I tend to really dislike animal sidekicks, but this time they didn't bother me at all. Especially the beginning of the series treated them pretty well (Kanba drawing numbers on them to make it easier to tell them apart and later using them for tailing Ringo for example).

I love how the Takakura penguins are just #1, #2 and #3 while Masako's has a proper name. Hunchback of the Notre Dame will never be the same again...

Private, Kowalski, Skipper and Rico from Madagascar

The reason I bought the DVD in the first place. The main characters and the stoty weren't all that fabulous, but the penguins were pure awesome. Their antics saved the sequel a lot as well. I hear they even got their own tv show (not surprising), but I don't want to know about it; their sheaningans are fun when inserted into a larger story in small doses but I don't think I could handle their adventures in a standalone long story.

Penguin zombie trio, from One Piece

One of these is not like the others...

I pondered whether the leftmost "penguin" should be with the dogs, but as a part of the penguin trio it probably fits better here.

Hippo, from Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch

I once owned the first volume of the MMPPP manga, but by now I've managed to sell it away. The story is one of the few rare exceptions where I just can't manage to finish a fairly short series where all the volumes are available from library for free. Normally I can read all kinds of junk when I borrow random manga from library (to be read before going to sleep to calm down a bit, or in a bus), but no matter how many times I've borrowed the adventures of this pink idol singer princess mermaid I just can't bring myself to finish it...

Chiyo in a penguin suit and Chiyo's "helper", from Azumanga Daioh

The infamous Azumanga penguins everyone should know. Chiyo-chan's penguin acrobatics were epic. And the penguin dream was creepy and awesome.

Piplup, Prinplup, Empoleon and Delibird, from Pokemon

Pokemon has a fairly nice set of penguins. Piplup actually has a great premise to be one of my favourite pokemon: water type, even the water starter, nice design, and it's a penguin. It's just that... I know, I haven't seen a single episode of the Sinnoh anime saga, but the fact how it's promoted everywhere in the anime's promotion material really rubs me the wrong way. And being accompanied by my least favourite pokegirl certainly doesn't help...

Prejudice aside, Piplup and its evolutions are pretty good pokemon design wise if you ask me, going from cute to ~awesome~. Delibird... it had some gimmick move or something like that, but there really isn't anything memorable about it.

Mumble, from Happy Feet

Yet another movie with the "be yourself! Everyone can be different, we must accept it!" message. At least the penguins were cute...

Cody Maverick and Lani Aliikai, from Surf's up

This movie left me such a weak impression that I didn't even remember its existence until I stumbled into it on TvTropes' "everything is better with Penguins" page... The documentary parody style really wasn't my thing and I didn't like the main character's attitude.

Feathers McGraw, from Wallace and Gromit

How he managed to fool Gromit by wearing a glove on his head is a mystery. What is it with all the conspiring penguins?

Wheezy, from Toy Story

When searching for pictures I do my best to find one straight from the series instead of using merchandise. Now I really couldn't tell if the picture was from the movie or a toy based on it, but then I realised that in this case it probably doesn't matter...

Didn't really care much for Wheezy. He didn't have much of a role so they could have used some other toy the audience already knew instead of introducing a new friend whose only purpose was to get in trouble so Woody could save him.

Pingu and Pinga, from Pingu

I watched this when I was a kid. My sources say it is/was popular in North America?