It's fun

Rating: 8/10 (19 February 2006)

While not as entertaining as "Monsters, Inc." nor as fun as "Ice Age," "Madagascar" is fun to watch and gives some very good laughs. Four animal friends live out their lives quite happily in the New York Central Park Zoo. They are: Marty the Zebra (voiced by Chris Rock), Alex the Lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), Melman the Giraffe (voiced by David Schwimmer (of "Friends" fame)), and Gloria the hippopotamus (voiced by Jada Pinkett Smith (married to Will Smith)).
The Zebra desires to see the wild and so therein lies the plot. Marty gets out of the zoo and all 3 of his friends follow him into the streets of the city - and are caught by the humans in the main lobby of Grand Central Station ("It's grand, and it's central." - yawn).
They eventually get there, have some adventures, and have to make a decision. 8/10
-Zafoid
PS: the characters they meet in the wild are far more interesting and I kept wanting to see one of them, King Julien (voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen (of "Da' Ali G' Show - who is brilliant) dominate the entire movie. (I hope Hollywood reads this and gets the idea to have a movie starring this wonderful character with Mr. Cohen doing the voice). ... In fact that entire sequence should be starred in a movie of its own.
PPS: why is Ben Stiller given top billing when the movie spins around the character Marty and his issues. Is this politics or fear of racism if the lead character is African American? I don't know, but Chris Rock should get the top billing playing the TOP CHARACTER - the LEAD ROLE!! Yeesh.
-Z