Re:cycle of the Penguindrum

If you're thinking about using this as an introduction to Penguindrum: don't.
These movies are, by necessity, an incredibly abridged version of the Penguindrum story. They took out a lot of the worst parts about the show, but they also took out a lot of the best parts as well. Part of the fun of Penguindrum is the slow descent into the story and detailed build-up followed by the satisfying pay-off, but these movies go at an absolutely breakneck speed the entire way through. It does not give the viewer room to ponder the questions which the story presents, before either shifting to an entirely ... different scene or immediately answering the question that was presented. If you want to watch it as an introduction, it will make almost as much sense as the original (which, to be clear, is not much!) however you will miss out on a lot of the emotional payoff of the show's format.

That being said, if you have seen Penguindrum in the past and want to re-watch some of the best moments of it without watching the entirety of the show again, the Penguindrum movie is for you. Some scenes are shifted around from the original, and there is a bit of added content, but at its core, it is mostly the same. Unfortunately it does not expand much on the source material, since so much of the movie is just a rehash of the original show with less emotional impact.

TL/DR: It is an inferior, but a lot faster, experience to the original show, overall.

As another reviewer said, if you've never seen Mawaru Penguindrum and are thinking about watching these movies to find out what it's all about, don't do that. They move so quickly through the plot points of the series that it's difficult to keep track of what's going on, who the various characters are, or how in the world they relate to the other characters. It gets particularly bad in the second movie. I will need to go rewatch the series to remind myself of exactly what's going on.

Also, by watching the movies first, you miss out on what is (in my opinion) the best part ... of the show: the repeated instances of Himari's over-the-top and absolutely delightful transformation sequence and bop of a song, followed by her brothers perplexed and panicked reactions to [redacted].

All that being said, I've been waiting to find an English sub of these films ever since they finished airing in Japan, and the experience did not disappoint. It was fun to revisit the characters and the crazy story (which is crazy and difficult to follow in even the series. Let's be honest: Ikuhara isn't exactly known for straightforward, linear stories). The penguins were still cute. The art was still lovely. But at a certain point I had to give up on trying to understand everything and just enjoy getting swept away by the spectacle.

tl;dr If you've never seen Mawaru Penguindrum, do yourself a favor and watch that first. Then, if you want more, watch the movies later on. You'll get a lot of repeats of the content, since this isn't an entirely new experience like Adolescence of Utena, but a summary movie with some new content, more along the lines of End of Evangelion. But if you're a completionist or just really love Penguindrum, this is worth your time.