What were they thinking?

Rating: 3/10 (25 June 2005)

Having just seen this movie with my family. With all the build up, the hype, and the (unrealistic) high expectations... what a disappointment. Wheres the Magic? The spark? The energy?
I have to ask the team at Dreamworks... What were you thinking? Come on guys! You can do better that this! Or was Shrek brilliant purely by accident?
Technically the animation was pretty good (Water effects superb!) Characterisation was OK (A little thin overall)
The Plot... Weak, Simple, Underdeveloped, lacking
The Story. It was like they boiled it down to the bare essentials, looked at what was left, realized it was not that good, chucked it out and tried to hash a story out vapor they had boiled away.
Ben Stiller. Voice acting could be his thing. (Overall not bad)
Chris Rock. Love him or Loath him. Personnaly I think he should go back to stand up comedy in places where people haven't heard of.
Jada Pinkett Smith. Excellent! really brought this Hippo to life, and with attitude!
David Schwimmer. It was like they cast 'Ross' from friend in this role, It works on some level (Unless you really hate Friends).
And were those Penguins annoying or what? (To their credit, delivering the best laugh in the movie - Arriving in Antartica and deciding "This sucks")
Overall? A totally forgettable movie, that is destined to sit on the top of the discard pile along with likes of Robots, The Emperor's New Groove, and Shark Tale.
Disappointing from the team at Dreamworks.