First images arrive from The Penguins Of Madagascar

The first images have arrived online for animated spin-off, The Penguins Of Madagascar , in which the flightless birds from the popular DreamWorks franchise take centre stage.

The new images show off our pint-sized heroes in action, while also giving us a first look at Benedict Cumberbatch's character, a wolf who also happens to be a suave secret agent.

"I don't know what it's like to be a penguin," says Cumberbatch, "but I do know what it's like to be a super-duper-smooth classified agent." He certainly has the voice for it.

The new film will see the penguins pitted against a villainous octopus voiced by John Malkovich, who is hell-bent on wiping out their species. He sounds like a bit of a rotter to us…

Directed by Simon J. Smith and Eric Darnell, and starring the vocal talents of Ken Jeong, Peter Stormare and Chris Miller, The Penguins Of Madagascar will open in the UK on 5 December 2014.

George Wales

George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.