Dreamworks' fall...

Rating: 6/10 (1 September 2005)

A friend of mine told me she went into "Madagascar" expecting something like "Shrek". It comes from the same studio, Dreamworks, which has grown over the years. They had a solid start producing films as the beautiful "Antz" in computer animation, and excellent wonders as "The Road to El Dorado" in 2D. Then came "Shrek", their Oscar and it went all above their head over the last three years, where the best animated film they achieved was "Spirit".
I don't know exactly what it was, but their animated characters started looking like the stars who recorded their voices and those stars' names where all over the poster, kind of with "Shark Tale", or this film "Madagascar". It is a good opportunity for actors to display their voice talents (although some of them have them and others don't), but it is not as funny as "Shrek 2". It is not as original, and the irony and sarcasm that represented the other films is now gone.
There is not even a sign of the peculiar things; it is all very predictable and the quirkiest characters are penguins (very funny penguins though). When I first heard of the film in Dreamworks web site, it looked wild; now I know it only pretended to be that.
It is a shame one of the film's directors is the one who directed "Antz", and what's most shameful is that the main character is voiced by the least talented of the cast in the matter (comedian Ben Stiller). Chris Rock steals the show and seems to be the only one having fun. Jada Pinkett Smith proves, once more, she is very talented, and David Schwimmer delivers a charismatic voice style to the giraffe Melman.
The script is lame, as are the emotive sequences. However, there are some visual sceneries that show that there is still some creativity in the company. I hope the best for the company's next project, and I don't know just what more to say than: "I like to move it move it, I like to move it move it, I like to move it move it, I like toMove it!"