don't listen to the naysayers on this board, it's a good movie

Rating: 8/10 (30 May 2005)

I just went to see Madagascar with my parents and two younger (9 and 12) cousins. I have to say in all honesty, I'm really blown away at how many awful reviews of the movie there are on this board. The movie was straight forward and simple, yes. It didn't have have any great overarching message, or achieve the emotional impact of other films such as Shrek or Finding Nemo, I agree. The story, as people are mentioning, definitely could have used some work. I am not one of those people who automatically bash anything that's not produced by Pixar (and there seem to be a *lot* of those people out there), but you have to wonder when Dreamworks is going to realize that the story should carry more importance than signing big name stars to voice characters.
All that being said, however, the movie was truly funny and enjoyable. My parents and my cousins loved it, I enjoyed it well enough. One thing that I don't think many people are mentioning is that the movie is *absolutely* visually stunning. The color palette that's used, especially once the characters reach the island, is phenomenal! The character animation in this film is some of the best computer animation I've ever seen - the film's look and feel is an awesome mix of photo realism applied selectively to things such as water and plants, combined with animation that incorporates elements of the old Warner Bros. 'bend and stretch' style that's not really been seen much in CGI films. I thought that aspect of the movie was amazing, and I think that it's great that the studios are finally starting to apply some 'old-school' animation styles to CGI films and actually try something different. This movie is a lot like an old-school cartoon - it gets in, makes you laugh by making th impossible happen, and gets out. I think many reviewers missed the whole vibe the directors were going for with the 'bend-and-strecth' animation and the characters doing impossible things - that's how cartoons used to be, and that's how this one tried to be. Maybe the directors didn't do a good enough job of getting that across, but that's how it seemed to me.
There are a lot of moments in this movie that are laugh-out-loud funny. As other reviews have mentioned, the penguins and Ali G as the Lemur King absolutely *steal* every part of the movie they're in. I would love to see Ali G do more voice-overs, he was unreal. I thought that the voices (other than the obvious stand-outs I just mentioned) were pretty decent. Ben Stiller was OK - not great, but not bad, either. Chris Rock was good, not great, and David Schwimmer was really good as the giraffe. Jada Pinkett-Smith was OK when she was used (which was not much). Still - you have to wonder, how much money did Dreamowrks spend on getting those big-name voices that were just 'good' (not great), that could have been spent on making this an *amazing* movie, instead of just an entertaining one?
I guess it's hard for me to listen to all the people on this board who say that anyone who posted a good rating of this movie must be a 'studio plant', when I watched this movie in a packed theater, and the place was booming with laughter. It's not going to win any Oscars, that's for sure, but it's a fun movie that looks great, and I think it's a great movie for kids that won't bore their parents, either. The last time I had accompany small children to the theater, it was to see 'Home on the Range', so I can't even begin to tell you how big of a step up this seemed to me... =)