| “ | The humans know me as Dr. Octavius Brine: renowned geneticist, cheese enthusiast, and frequent donor to NPR pledge drives. But you know me by a different, much older name. A name perhaps you'd hoped you'd never hear again. A phantom! A shadow of a former life! I... AM... DAVE! | „ |
| ~ Dave introducing himself to the penguins |
Dr. David Styroker "Dave" Brine, also known as Dr. Octavius Brine, is the main antagonist of DreamWorks' 30th full-length animated feature film Penguins of Madagascar, a spinoff of their Madagascar franchise.
He is a vengeful giant Pacific octopus who seeks revenge on Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private's penguin species for taking away all the attention from him and causing him to get abandoned in the dark by any means necessary, even if it means getting them exterminated by humans.
He was voiced by John Malkovich.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
- He kidnapped all of the penguins under the guise of a human scientist named Dr. Octavius Brine and imprisoned them in cages in his submarine.
- He kidnapped the penguins to reveal his plan to them, using a vending machine to do so, and after they escaped, he ordered his octopi to get them.
- He sadistically turned a random cricket into a monster just for an experiment, taking joy in the results.
- He sadistically revealed to the penguins that he planned to turn them into monsters, explicitly telling them that he finds it to be much, much worse than simply killing them.
- After capturing Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico, he sadistically attempted to turn Private into a monster in front of them, even pointlessly stalling the attempt just for kicks.
- When he seemingly disintegrated Private, he showed no remorse over how he might have killed him, brushing it off and telling his octopi that that is why they test things.
- He had one of his octopi try to brutally kill the four North Wind Agents by sending them through his weaponized roller coaster.
- He admitted that he is aware that making penguins uglier won't make anyone like him, but rather will make everyone despise the penguins, which he admitted that he would love to see.
- He had his octopi turn all of the penguins into mutant monsters upon arriving at the city.
- He unleashed the penguins on New York as mutated monsters, thus causing havoc throughout the city, before tricking the humans into calling the exterminators in order to get all the penguins exterminated, which could've led to the penguins' extinction, making it an attempted systematic genocide by proxy.
- Upon realizing that he still did not feel satisfied even after getting his revenge on the penguins and humans, he decided to take things further by attempting to get revenge on other animals like kittens and puppies, indicating that he intended to do the same thing he did to the penguins to them.
- When he saw the penguins trying to reverse the effects, he threw Skipper, Rico, and Kowalski into the exterminator trucks before trying to sadistically attack Private himself.
- He tried to attack the penguins one more time only to realize that the Medusa Ray had turned him small and adorable and gotten him trapped inside a snow globe.
- Despite the penguins stealing his spotlight causing him to be a villain, it doesn't excuse his actions as he mutated all of the penguins, even though most of them are innocents and they never did anything wrong to him intentionally, and even after he got revenge on them, he decided to go on to mutate other animals that didn't even do anything to him just because he could.
- While it could be argued he was affable to his henchmen since he never abused them, it's not clear if he actually cares for them or just thought they could be useful or as tools.
- While he eventually found happiness and peace, he never feels remorse for his actions and there is no implication he truly redeemed himself.
- While he did had many comedic moments, like grossing the penguins by stretching to the floor and making a gross sound effect while also dropping a bit of water before grossing them again by readjusting his head, revealing his name to the penguins, only for them to have no idea who he is, leading to him awkwardly trying to get them to remember, being in a small tank in one aquarium that briefly empties every time someone uses the toilet, the running gag of his orders to his minions sounding like him naming famous actors, video calling the North Wind, only for there to be no sound, and accidentally making it so he can't be seen while trying to fix it, before trying and failing to end the video call with a dramatic exit and having to have his minions tell him which button ends the call, kidnapping penguins in Rio de Janeiro by acting as a football referee, with him even giving them a red card, telling one of his minions to make a victory cake, and Private knocking him with the hand that was put on his rear, they don't detract from his villainy and he is still taken seriously by everyone in-universe.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- His backstory of being forgotten and shunned out by humans who gave all the attention they gave to him to the penguins instead, leaving him attention starved, while not justifying his actions, is played for minor sympathy and makes him a bit tragic, as shown when Private felt sorry for him, who also felt insecure and ignored by his allies.
- After his defeat of being shrunk and ending up trapped in a snow globe, he’s found by a little girl who seemingly shows him affection, which leads him to be fulfilled and find peace. Even Skipper, one of his worst enemies wishes him to find happiness. While the scene later turns into a gag, with the girl violently shaking him and being more interested in the snow globe itself than him, this doesn’t subvert the pathos, as Dave is still shown to have found peace. This is portrayed as an uplifting moment for him, which is too humanizing for him to be Near Pure Evil.
External Links[]
- Dave on the Villains Wiki
- Dave on the Madagascar Wiki
- Dave on the DreamWorks Wiki
- Dave on the Ultimate Evil Wiki
- Dave on the Entertainingly Detestable Wiki
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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Animated Features Live-Action Features Animated Television Fanon See Also | ||
 Inconsistently Heinous
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