Good Fun For Kids And Adults Alike

Rating: 9/10 (4 April 2009)

There really aren't a lot of movies that can pull off the trick of entertaining both children and their parents, but "Madagascar" qualifies as one of them. This story of four Central Park Zoo animals (Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippo) who get accidentally stranded in the wild is an absolute delight. Marty, celebrating his 10th birthday at the zoo, dreams of life in the wild, whereas the other three are content with their spoiled existence as the centre of attention for the people who visit the zoo. All four get caught up in an outrageous scheme by the psychotic penguins to escape, and their adventure begins. They all discover that life in the wild has its ups and downs. The group are adopted by the local lemur community, led by the outrageous King Julian - as protectors against the "foosa" - who appear to be hyenas. Things begin to go awry when Alex gets hungry and has very limited options to turn to to replace the steaks he loved in Central Park. It's a great deal of fun, offering some pokes at everything from "Wild Kingdom" to "Born Free" to "Planet of the Apes" and several others. A lot of the story I think is over the heads of younger children, who also likely wouldn't recognize most of the stars who offer their voices to the various characters, but that didn't seem to bother my four year old daughter, who found the whole thing hilarious all the way through. 9/10