Ehhh... Uneventful with a handful of good laughs

Rating: 3/10 (22 June 2005)

3D animation seems to be all the craze since Toy Story and Shrek came about so successfully. Well, at this point I believe it has gone overboard. The only cartoons you see anymore are either 3D, like this, or anime... I guess I prefer the old stylings, due in part to the poor story lines that come along with many of these 3D animated films packed with 300 celebrities a piece yet feature overused cliché jokes and do-nothing plots. Small children may be entertained by the same jokes we've all seen a million times before dumbed down for them, but thats only because its the first time they saw them.....
This film in particular introduced nothing I haven't seen before with some parodies of old films that only adults could find funny, but since they're not good parodies, adults won't find them funny. No one will. Such as the lion's rant on the beach, "Darn you! Darn you to heck!" He says............ All I say is, "WOW.... That was lame..." And the corny Beaches parody complete with "Chariots of Fire"! Wow, I've never seen a comedy feature slow motion running to that music before!!! Oh wait, I have, multiple times. And when you've heard a joke a million times before, suddenly, its not so funny.
The animation style also is nothing that great. The various lemurs and penguins look very nice, I'll give them that. Each one of them fits the style nicely and conveys a nice comical appearance, especially Cedric the Entertainer and Andy Richter's lemur incarnations. However, the four main characters are just atrocities. The zebra and giraffe are just plain ugly. Their awkwardly big lips and triangle shaped features make for unappealing characters. The lion's mane is also a bothersome polygon. Overall, the style is really blocky and, as much as I can appreciate stylized work, this style really just comes out as lazy and unappealing.
The storyline is also quite the bore. Basically, the animals leave the zoo and through an unimaginative twist of fate, they wind up in Madagascar. Then... nothing happens. There is a minor conflict between Rock's zebra and Stiller's lion but its far too drawn out for what it is, which is surprising seeing how this movie is only an hour and twenty minutes.
The movie does have its pros though. There is some good humor from a handful of the characters. The scheming penguins are a joy to watch as are the idiotic lemurs. Cedric the Entertainer, Sacha Baron Cohen (of Da Ali G Show), and Andy Richter play three very funny lemurs with many comedic parts. Even David Schwimmer (of Friends) gives a overall funny performance as the Giraffe. However, Chris Rock and Ben Stiller, who you've come to expect more from, give pretty drab performances, due mostly to the drab lines, and since they're what you see most of time, the laughs are few and in between and you're left wanting more from the other characters, and basically more characters in general.
The movie doesn't live up to what it could have been, an immersing and fun movie full of colorful characters and situations. But this doesn't happen, and anyone looking for something more than a sad rehash of every comedy ever made will be disappointed. I was much more pleased with the movie "Robots", which really catered to the situation and took advantage of the fact that they were robots and brought a lot to the table. This movie could have been done with anything and doesn't take advantage of what it is at all.
Overall, its one you can miss, and I look forward to when the fad of 3D animated goldmines lacking the imagination cartooned films used to have dies down.