A cartoon with an emphasis on animation!

Rating: Null/10 (11 September 2005)

From an artistic perspective the animation in this film is spot on! It especially exudes allot of colour, particularly the primary variety. This is markedly illustrated well in the scenes in Madagascar. It is by putting emphases on the colours of the animals' natural habitat, we as viewers suddenly are made aware of nature and all of its beauty and wonder! This not only serves as a means to prick our conscience over our denigration of the natural environment, but makes us want to live a less man-made lifestyle, so to speak! However, as exemplified by the formally captive animals inadvertent visit to Madagascar, it is very difficult to adapt back to nature,after the supposed pampered Western lifestyle. But of course the Western lifestyle, which by default we humans have been trapped into, is not that much of a pampered one,and has, if not the same, more stresses than those lived in an authentic natural environment. Indeed, the stress lies in the fact that we live in a man-made environment, as opposed to a natural one. Moreover, the natural environment has become almost alien to humans, which in this film have not managed to spoil Madagascar's natural beauty, due to their exclusion from the island. This is noted by the indigenous animals of the island, who it seams hold humans in contempt for their potential to denigrate their natural habitat, as has been illustrated all over the world!
It is fair to say that the writing in this animated film is adequate, but not enthralling! What we see here in this film is a tendency to dilute the story in favour of concentrating on the animation. In this respect the story and plot are secondary to the animation. Ironically, it is by applying the story to it, that undermines and weakens the strength of the animation. I think it would serve Dreamworks well to look at Disney for inspiration. Although the animation produced by Disney was and continues to be paramount,it is nevertheless applied to the plot as opposed to vise versa. A very good example, where the plot has been superbly applied to the animation, as opposed to vise versa is Disney's adaptation of Snow White (1937). In fact this particular adaptation of Snow White should serve as a blue-print for all good animated films.
As to the voice-over acting, it was good. I think David Schwimmer deliberately played the giraffe character as he would Ross in Friends, which it could be said made it work!
On the whole, this is a pleasant family film.