Recipe for laughter or boredom..

Rating: 4/10 (15 June 2005)

I am, quite frankly, sick and tired of DreamWorks' recipe for all their movies. It's like Antz and Shark Tale and Shrek 2 and Madagazcar all came out of some robotic movie writing machine. (Shrek 1 was notably an exception.) Here's the recipe: You get a bunch of Hollywood stars, depict them into goofy cartoon characters, wrap some lame (ridiculously repeated) story and then add a lot of funky dance songs (all past hits, don't think of anything yourself). And you count on the star power of the voice actors and the funny graphics and hip tunes to gather viewers. Because once viewers see the film, they will remember nothing else but a few funny lines and a few funky tunes.
Madagascar is no different. It is wonderfully animated, very colorful and well acted. Ben Stiller does the best job then Chris Rock seems bored at times and the other two are sub par. But beyond that, the movie makers want you to laugh and ignore the details. Don't worry about how or who or why. Just keep laughing to one liners and funny situations and ignore the fact that the story is non-existent.
Here is the difference: You watch the Incredibles and you are completely engrossed in the characters, you know Mr.Incredible is a proud hero yet typical suburban dad, you see Syndrome as the diabolical wack-o. You don't even think about the actors voicing the characters. But in AntZ, you are supposed to see Woddy Allen and Sylvester Stallone. In Shark Tale you are supposed to feel Will Smith is the main character. In Madagascar, you see Chris Rock and Ben Stiller.
The brightest spot in the movie is the diabolical team of penguins. They were a true joy and about the only creative stroke in the whole movie.
Dreamworks has much to learn from Pixar. The most important thing being, they need to be creative, not repetitive. there is no ONE recipe to make movies, they have to give each movie its own spirit and creative touch.