Madgascar’s hilarious penguins are getting their own movie. What took them so long? They’ve been the best part of both Madagascar films. DreamWorks should probably have done this instead of Madagascar 2.

Writing duties on the penguin project will go to Megamind scribes Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simon. It’s not entirely clear how they’ll turn the scene-stealing side characters of Skipper, Kowalski, Private, and Rico into mains, the risk here is that their strange style of militaristic, accidental humor might only really work in small doses. They do, however, already have their own TV show on Nickelodeon. The Penguins of Madagascar is now in its second season, and is the network’s second most watched show after Spongebob Squarepants. Maybe they can make this work, and even if they can’t, kids will watch anything with penguins in it.

Here’s the penguins in action, opposite the less funny Ben Stiller voiced lion Alex, in Madagascar 2: