Entertaining visual action but lightweight movie ends too soon

Rating: 6/10 (19 November 2005)

This lightweight animated movie will be great for any child's collection, because although the verbal humour is geared to adults and the plot line a little anemic, the visual humour is excellent and well-drawn and warrants re-watching. Sasha Baron Cohen steals the picture as the King of the Lemurs, but then I happen to find his Ali G personae funny - some of them at least. Jada Pinkett Smith is not allowed enough of a part to develop her hippo (read "stereotypical fat black woman") character and the physical humour of the large-bellied hippo and a sympathetic maternal presence are only hinted at. Similarly, David Schwimmer is not allowed to stretch his hypochondriacal giraffe character very far. Luckily, Ben Stiller as Alex the lion and Chris Rock as Marty the zebra, zoo buddies, keep the manic energy going, but at a tolerable level - almost subdued. You may find the Marty character eerily reminiscent of Donkey, in Shrek.
For the kids' sake, the downer aspects of animals devouring each other in the wild are honestly developed and confronted, then quickly glossed over, as Alex happily discovers his wild nature (and the real reason why he is called the "King of Beasts") only to find himself in self-conflict over the down-side of his newly uncovered talents and physical advantages.
I rated this low because it's not in a class with Disney's or Pixar's recent animated efforts.