Wait for the DVD

Rating: 5/10 (11 June 2005)

Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, and Jada Pinkett Smith all star in this newest computer generated film from Dreamworks Studios. The film centers around four animals (Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe, and Gloria the Hippo) held captive in a New York state zoo. Though none of them are mistreated, but rather, very heavily pampered; Marty (Rock) dreams of being free in the wild.
The film opens with Marty celebrating his 10th birthday, which orchestrates a middle life crisis for him. He has been raised in the zoo all his life, and his birthday wish is to depart the zoo. His wishes are further strengthened when a group of penguins, who are also in the midst of an escape, accidental burrow into Marty's pen. The penguins are by far the best thing this film has to offer, and steal every scene their in. I could have easily watched an entire film the penguins escapades, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.
Marty hears of a magical place called "Connecticut" and upon the zoo's closing, he flees the zoo to find his paradise. After discovering his absents, his friends: Alex (Stiller), Melman (Schwimmer), and Gloria (Smith) follow after him. All four are soon captured, but instead of being returned to the zoo, they are crated up and sent to Africa.
As computer generated films go, this film isn't the greatest; however, it's not the worst either. The film just seems to go through the motions of being a film. After viewing it, there is nothing that seems to stick in your mind worth remembering. I guess what tickled me the most, was at the beginning of the film I was saying to myself, "Wow, a lion and a zebra are friends (one carnivore and one herbivore)"; to my surprise, this ends up playing a very pivotal plot point in the film.
I really feel that there is nothing to gain by rushing out to see this film, I'd just wait for its DVD release.
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