OK story, stimulating visuals and music, stereotypes played on

Rating: 5/10 (11 June 2012)

The Madagascar series feels like it is playing itself out, especially with the Penguins TV series being out there.
What makes this movie fun is not the core characters. They are full of the expected dialog. While they try to provide humor, it is of the sort you've seen before (unless you are very young). The core characters are really more of the straight man. The fun in this is almost always injected by the penguins and lemurs, who pull in their off the wall, couldn't see that coming, type of actions and remarks.
The music and visuals are top notch for animation. The way light is used from light sources was particularly well done for an animation of this style.
In Canada, we were confused and a little offended at the penguin remark about our work ethic. In the movie a character states that in France they work 2 weeks of the year and take the rest of the year off, to which another character replies "somebody else has the Canadian work ethic".
To set the record straight, in Canada, the minimum statutory vacation period is 2 weeks annual vacation. It is among the lowest in the world, similar to Vietnam and Guatemala. In the U.S. there is no legal standard. Many countries have 20 days of annual vacation. I can't provide the link here, but look up statutory employment leave in Wikipedia.
Message to the script writer: as an American, do you take pride in the idea that other countries get more vacation time than in the U.S. (and Canada)? I'd rather have the 4 weeks off Australia has, or similar in any European nation. Life isn't work. In addition, work ethic has little to do with vacation time. One can work hard and also enjoy their time off well.