Poor Choice of Voice Actors

Rating: 4/10 (30 May 2005)

I'd like my money back - I wish I'd waited for the DVD to rent.
Say what you will about the script and story to the movie, which was always going to be formulaic. My two gripes, however are aimed specifically at the voice overs and the music.
Firstly, regarding the actors and actresses chosen to play each of the creatures, it appears that it is more important to choose them based on their celebrity status as opposed to choosing those who have distinctive voices and/or focus on the voice as part of their skills.
Look back at traditional Disney movies or other animated classics and you'll see what I mean. A poor script combined with a mediocre set of voice actors results in a poor film. This is what we have here, folks. Save your money and wait for Shrek III.
Secondly, the soundtrack is also very weak. We have a classic rave dance track- "I like to Move it" and a few joke tunes such as the theme from Hawaii 5-0, Chariots of Fire and Born Free, but these are clumsily selected and stereotypical of a thrown together movie. With regards to the forest dance scene to "I like to Move It", I fear that the studio was trying to recreate a scene from The Jungle Book. If you're going to add this much music to a movie, at least make some of it original and make sure the rest is in context with the story and theme.