Animal crackers

Review by Vives Anunciacion
Inquirer Libre May 31, 2005

Madagascar
Directed by Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath
Written by Marc Burton, Billy Frolick, Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath
Featuring the voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith, David Schwimmer
GP/ 80 minutes
PDI/ DreamWorks Animation SKG
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Talking animals have been a hit for moviegoers since Mickey was introduced in Steamboat Willie in 1928. We’ve been seeing a lot of talking animals in animations lately and Madagascar is no different. Really, it’s your usual funny animation. Operative word: usual.

There’s the crazy gang of dysfunctional animals as main characters, and then there’s the impossibly cute and insane support cast. Madagascar hits gold with the support cast and is lukewarm with the major cast. The good thing is that it’s really funny. The bad thing is that it’s only funny sometimes.

Four animal friends from the New York Central Park Zoo are having a grand time as celebrities. Born and bred in the zoo, Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the neurotic giraffe (David Schwimmer) and Gloria the hippopotamus (Jada Pinkett Smith) are average New Yorkers in many senses of the term.

Marty gets the mid-life crisis the day he turns 10 years old and starts wishing for a life more normal than their captive urban lives. He suggests a wild adventure to his friends, except that they would rather live within the comforts of the zoo than risk life and limb in a habitat completely alien to their own.

But Marty isn’t the only animal in the zoo yearning for its natural habitat. A group of exceptional penguins led by Skipper (Tom McGrath) are already in the middle of hatching “The Great Escape” when Marty stumbles on their elaborate plan. Marty gets the idea that his wish is in fact attainable, and disappears from the zoo in the middle of the night. Alex, Gloria and Melman track Marty down in Grand Central Station, where they create such an uproar that they end up captured, crated and put on a ship for Kenya’s wildlife preserve in Africa.

Still intent on their own plans, the paranoid penguins hijack the ship, throwing the crated friends overboard. Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman are further shocked when they find themselves washed ashore on the beautiful tropical island of Madagascar.

There’s pop references and gags galore in this movie – from Saturday Night Fever to National Geographic even (maybe unintentionally) to Lion King. But just like DreamWorks’ previous animation, Shark Tale, Madagascar is just funny enough and not hilarious as most animations are expected to be. Themes of friendship and unbreakable bonds are dime a dozen. When the jokes work, they really work, but at the end of the show, there’s really nothing much from this “fish out of the pond” tale that we haven’t seen or heard before.

The animation looks stunning and the music is good enough. But there’s just nothing substantial with Madagascar in terms of animation technique, the voice acting or in the narrative to simply make the movie memorable enough beyond a week’s stay in the theaters. It takes time, literally years to create one full-length animation, and it’s disappointing to see all the immense effort get watered down by a very thin narrative that’s only lines away from the premise.

The best parts of Madagascar are with the crazy support cast – the penguins and the deranged lemurs led by King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen). They’re so cute and unforgettable, they take our thoughts and laughs, away from the main cast. Now that just doesn’t sound nice.