New Year’s Eve is tomorrow, so if you want to ring in the New Year with your very little ones, but don’t want them to stay up til the stroke of midnight, Netflix has a solution for you.

Netflix has created an on-demand New Year’s Eve Countdown program on their streaming service that can be watched beforehand, because from what I understand there are people who on New Year’s Eve fool their small children into thinking it’s midnight earlier than when it is, so that they’ll go to sleep on time.

The Netflix countdown is a 3-minute short featuring King Julien, the star of their new series All Hail King Julien, a spin-off of DreamWorks Animations’ Madagascar film. The Countdown is available right now in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, UK, Ireland, the Nordics, the Netherlands, and France.

He’s played a contemporary version of one of the most famous literary detectives around. He’s played an iconic villain in the Star Trek universe. He’s voiced a terrifying dragon in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. He’s even played dual roles as both creator and monster in the a stage production of Frankenstein. Now Benedict Cumberbatch will be taking his talents to the animated world in Penguins of Madagascar, but not as a Penguin. No, instead the actor will voice a wolf of an elite task force team composed of other arctic animals, who recruit these penguins to help them on a mission of great importance.

So hit the jump to see the trailer, and hear the sultry voice that is Benedict Cumberbatch.

Fans of DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar franchises will be happy to learn that new features from both are now confirmed to be on the way.

During their panel at San Diego Comic-Con, the studio’s CCO, Bill Damaschke, confirmed that Kung Fu Panda 3 was indeed on the way, though it wasn’t announced when we might see the trilogy-maker. The 2008 original made $631.7 million worldwide, while its sequel, Kung Fu Panda 2, made $665.6 million, making the decision to roll again quite easy.

Madagascar
Blu-ray (2005)
Starring Ben Stiller, Jada Pinkett Smith, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Cedric the Entertainer
Paramount Home Entertainment
Release Date: September 23, 2008

When Madagascar first came out in 2005, the computer-animated film was considered a commercial success but I still avoided it like the plague. I do not know why but there is something about computer-generated films littered with big-named stars that just makes me think it is going to be a stinker. Now with the sequel coming out in November, Paramount/Dreamworks has decided to re-release the film, this time on Blu-ray DVD, giving me an opportunity to find out if I was right to miss it the first time.

Madagascar follows the life of a group of pampered animals that all happen to be the star attraction at the Central Park Zoo in New York. One of the animals, Marty the Zebra (voiced by Chris Rock), realizes on his tenth birthday that something is missing in his life. He is tired of being cooped up in the zoo and wants see the world. When Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller) discovers fellow zoo residents the penguins’ plot to dig a hole to freedom, Marty follows suit and breaks free with them. His friends Alex the Lion, Melmam the Giraffe (David Swimmer), and Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) go after him in an effort to bring him back to the zoo. The mission fails famously and in a series of odd events, the animals get stranded on a tropical island left to fend for themselves for the first time.