- "The Red Squirrel" redirects here. For the character, see Red Squirrel (character).
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The penguins find “America’s greatest penguin hero”, Buck Rockgut, and try to help him capture Penguin Enemy Number 1, The Red Squirrel.
Plot[]
While creating their fifteenth escape tunnel, the four zoo penguins stumble upon the bunker of a rockhopper penguin named Buck Rockgut, who claims to have been down there for 47-years and who Skipper, Kowalski and Rico idolize for being "America's greatest penguin hero" but Private has never even heard of until now. One of Rockgut's exploits includes capturing "Penguin enemy #1," the Red Squirrel, who Rockgut claims is still alive and has escaped. Rockgut recruits the four penguins to help him recapture the Red Squirrel, which Skipper, Kowalski and Rico readily agree to but Private seems a little hesitant. Rockgut quickly starts accusing all the animals in the zoo of working for the Red Squirrel, with the penguins (minus Private) siding with Rockgut.
The imprisoned animals team up with Private, the only penguin who knows that Rockgut has taken the situation too far. Private uses Fred to pretend to be the Red Squirrel as a decoy to get rid of Rockgut, but his plan fails when Rockgut, Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico catch him in the act of releasing Fred. Private explains why he did it, pointing out that Rockgut's "completely mental" and how it's absurd to think that some enemy for nearly-fifty years ago would still be out there plotting against them.
At first, the other penguins start to accuse Private of working for the Red Squirrel, but then Rockgut accuses Private of actually being the Red Squirrel (having gotten plastic surgery to make himself look like a penguin). This confuses the other penguins, and when Kowalski notes that it's technically impossible for Private to actually be the Red Squirrel, Rockgut then accuses Kowalski of being the Red Squirrel (feeling he had the right idea but had the wrong penguin).
Skipper and Rico see this exchange and then look at Private, who just shrugs his shoulders and simply states, "I did try to tell you." Skipper has Rico regurgitate a telephone booth and then pretends to get a call from a penguin from top headquarters, who tells Skipper to tell Rockgut that the Red Squirrel is hiding out in a place called "Grrfurjiclestan," which Rockgut believes and finally leaves. Skipper, Kowalski and Rico apologize to Private for not believing him about Rockgut and taking the situation too far.
Private accepts their apology but then admits that, despite everything that happened, he feels bad for Rockgut—Private points out that the old penguin has wasted so many years chasing after a threat that probably doesn't even exist anymore.
But after the four penguins slide away on their bellies, the Red Squirrel's then revealed to be real—and still around, as he was hiding in an underground bunker, happy that Rockgut has finally been disposed of.