No more, no less

Rating: Null/10 (30 December 2005)

Madagascar works despite its flaw, a strangely incomplete plot that leaves the viewer hanging, wanting more, but not getting it. Yet, as a whole, you would probably have to be three kinds of curmudgeon not to get a decent set of giggles--and at least a view belly laughs--from the nicely animated story of a zebra in a New York zoo that aspires to live in the wild, and the resultant chaos of his friends' attempts to save him from himself.
The movie never goes overboard (if you haven't seen it, you'll hate me for that). There isn't too much of anything--dung jokes and psychobabble come to mind. It's from Dreamworks, not Disney, so you won't find somebody intoning the ubiquitous "Follow your heart!" Madagascar is clipped and fast, funny and gentle, except for the predatory nature of the zebra's closest friend, a lion that winds up in the wild--and there are no zoo workers to toss him steaks anymore.
But for the fact that the middle section of the film isn't fully developed (and the movie makers try to alleviate the truncated feeling by throwing in a hilarious short with four very silly penguins), I'd recommend this computer-animated kiddie show to adults because, even if you aren't in the mood for several giggles and a smattering more, watching the family laugh is worth the rental price.