What a waste! (Mild spoilers).

Rating: 3/10 (28 May 2005)

Good God! Is this the future of family films? After watching the trailer countless times at the theaters earlier this year, my nephew and I decided to see this film. The idea of penguins escaping from the zoo terrorizing New York City seemed to be kind of funny. Of course our heroes from the zoo, Lion, Hippo, Giraffe and Zebra saving the day would be a bit of mindless fluff. Where did I get the idea the penguins were the antagonists? The trailer! Sadly, the trailer is the funniest part of the film. And Dreamworks sure knows how to pack them in with their special brand of trailers. They show all the best parts of the first fifteen minutes, and leave you in the lurch when you find out...The penguins are only featured for less than five minutes! What's the plot? Well, the Zebra wants to live out in the wild. He gets his chance when he follows an escape route created by the penguins (Remember them?) The Lion, The Hippo and the Giraffe follow the zebra to bring him back home. That's the first fifteen minutes or so of the film. The quartet are captured as well as the penguins by enforcement officials, and sent on a boat trip elsewhere. The penguins cause an attack, and due to the the penguins attack, the Lion, Hippo, Zebra and Giraffe land on a deserted island. And I'm stopping right there. Wouldn't it be nice if the trailer easily explained what the film was about? I guess if they did, nobody would see it!