Madagascar

I'd heard a great deal about this film both on t.v. spots and from a friend who wanted to go see it with her children, so I opted to check it out the day after it opened on May 28, 2005 at 5:00pm. The film was playing at the Coral Ridge Mall, my preferred location for films due to its close proximity to me.

Created by the well-known Dreamworks team, Madagascar is a beautifully rendered, exotically named, yet not so uniquely plotted animated feature with 4 friends who inhabit the NY Zoo as the main characters. One of the animals, a zebra called Marty (voiced by Chris Rock), has a sudden yearning for the wild and takes a quick jaunt out of the zoo to get back to nature, i.e., the wild and wooly streets of good ole New York, New York. His friends, a lion named Alex (Ben Stiller), a hippo named Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) and a giraffe named Melman (David Schwimmer), are worried about his safety as well as that he will lose his spot at the zoo, so they chase after him to keep him from trouble, only to end up with all 4 friends being forced to embark on a journey to another continent and to find the real meaning of living in the wild.

Madagascar's animations are breathtaking, however, in a world full of recent movies equally gorgeous due to computer technology, pretty pictures alone don't cut it. On that score, the film is sorely lacking. While the plot does handle a simple idea that getting back to nature might not be as swell as it seems, the film isn't very unique in either plot nor character development. Children will likely enjoy it, but adults will not have much to keep interest, although the film isn't very long (only 86 minutes) and is entertaining enough for an evening.

All in all, the film rates a decent rank due to its mild entertaining value. I wouldn't recommend seeing it in the theatre, but a night at home watching on DVD would be an okay way to pass the time.

Please feel free to comment on this review or on the movie itself at the forum thread devoted to it at this location.