Dreamworks reputation diminishing...

Rating: 5/10 (29 July 2005)

What a lot of publicity this film received. For what seems like months, my daughter and I have been bombarded with Madagascar TV promotions, food promotions, toy adverts and all the usual hoopla associated with a major kids animated movie release. In a way it's similar to the periodic population explosion which is responsible for the lemming suicide myth. Every now and then, the lemming population becomes so large that they migrate en masse, causing some to die as they flock over a cliff. In this case, the media have waiting too long since Dreamworks last animated epic, the disappointing Shark Tale, so with another 2 years to wait for the next Shrek sequel, they have whipped themselves up into a frenzy over Madagascar. But does it deserve the attention?
In a word, no. Like Shark Tale, Madagascar doesn't really cut it as a winner. A lack of decent jokes is the main reason why the film fails to grab the attention in the way it should. There are some funny moments involving a trio of cunning penguins who have their own escape plan, as well as some good toilet humour, but the laughs are few and far between. After a while the film develops a vegetarian motif, as Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller) starts to return to his wild instincts and craves zebra meat. This is fairly uncomfortable viewing (though this may be for my own personal reasons), as is the heavy-handed patriotism which seems to inflict many films that centre around New York. David Schwimmer's neurotic giraffe is left to provide most of the comic relief, while Jada Pinkett Smith's hippopotamus might as well not be there. There was something odd about the animation which I couldn't quite place, too. It seemed to be too jerky, with characters hopping about so quickly that it was hard to watch.
Madagascar might have the big names and the big studio behind it, but my young daughter wasn't hooked and nor was I.