Call of the mild ...

Rating: 3/10 (2 May 2007)

Since all modern animated features apparently have to deliver some sort of edifying message, MADAGASCAR has a moral as well. The message, however, is painfully obvious, though MADAGASCAR does illustrate it quite well. The message is: penguins are funny -- and lions, zebras, giraffes and hippos aren't. Unfortunately, it takes an hour and half to get this message across, the bulk of which is wasted on a lion, a zebra, a giraffe and a hippo, while four clever, adorable and delightfully humorous little penguins barely get any screen time at all. They nevertheless steal what little there is worth stealing in this woefully pointless cartoon.
The film begins in New York City, in the Central Park Zoo, which oddly enough only seems to have about ten animals in captivity. In addition to the lion, the zebra, the giraffe, the hippo and the four adorable little penguins, there is also a pair of monkeys, who might have been funny as well, if they weren't given even less screen time than the penguins. The plot finds the four little penguins plotting to escape, which leads to a tedious series of events that ultimately finds the lion, the zebra, the giraffe and the hippo shipwrecked on the African coast where their pampered existence in the zoo leaves them ill prepared to live in the wild. When you get right down to it, MADAGASCAR is really only about the lion and the zebra, the Dreamworks studio apparently thought it necessary to pad the story with other unnecessary characters because the giraffe, the hippo, the four penguins, the pair of monkeys and an assortment of African creatures would supply the company with more characters to potentially exploit in merchandising tie-ins as stuffed animals, Happy Meal action figures and various other toys.
And as a commercial for such items, MADAGASCAR certainly is adequate, as if that were enough. Like most Dreamworks CGI cartoons, the art work is colorful and detailed. But that is where the creativity stops; the screenplay begins with an okay idea, but is not otherwise well written nor does it have a point. The characters are either smart or stupid, depending on which posture is necessary in the scene, thus they supposedly know nothing about life outside the zoo, but when required they have a detailed knowledge of world geography, can commandeer a massive seafaring freighter or belt out showtunes. And the use of music in the film is particularly atrocious: the tiresomely uninspired use of standards ("Staying Alive," "Born Free," "Chariots of Fire," etc.) seems obviously designed to slap together a golden oldies soundtrack album. And, of course, celebrity voices are used as a substitute for creative character animation.
As a comparison, some versions of MADAGASCAR include an animated short subject, "The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper." In it, three of the penguins go on a military-style mission to rescue the fourth, who has been accidentally mistaken for a stuffed animal and is destined to be a dog's chew toy. It is as nicely animated as MADAGASCAR, but its story is clever and concise and the penguins are blessed with vivid personalities and at 11 minutes it is infinitely more fun. Though obviously derivative of the work by Dreamworks rival Pixar ("Toy Story" 1 and 2, in particular), the penguin short is at least borrowing from the best, rather than settling for being just adequate.
But MADAGASCAR does deserve a bit of credit, however, for challenging the prevailing notion in the movies that romanticizes nature to an absurd extreme. Movies perpetuate the environmentally friendly, though logically foolish, idea that, if it weren't for man, all of God's creatures would live in perfect harmony. The obvious reality is that for most wild animals life is a day to day struggle to survive, both to find something to eat and to avoid being eaten. But the law of the jungle is not PC.
In MADAGASCAR, the lion named Alex (voiced by Ben Stiller) and the zebra named Marty (voiced by Chris Rock) are buddy-buddy pals in the zoo, where they are star attractions and all their basic needs are met. But in the jungle, Alex's carnivorous tendencies must come to the surface in order for him to survive -- and as such Marty, his main man in the city, begins to look more like his main course in the wilderness. Thus the film does create an artistic and philosophical dilemma for the filmmakers: how to maintain the illusion of an ecumenical brotherhood between the species and also accept the not-so-pleasant reality that sometimes cute animals are not born to be free, but born to be lunch. The film finesses the problem with a technicality -- fish apparently aren't considered animals -- which should please everyone except PETA. Though the viewer might be inclined to root for Alex to eat Marty just to be spared any more of Chris Rock's gratingly unpleasant performance. Now, to me, that would be a happy ending.