Madagascar

I went into this movie expecting it to be fairly decent, with at least four or five lines and spoofs that would make me laugh out loud. Thankfully I wasn’t disappointed, although I also wasn’t surprised.

Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock), Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), and Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer) are all best friends and inhabitants of the New York City Zoo. While Alex loves zoo life and all the free steaks and attention that come with it, Marty dreams of living in the wild. Inevitably, they are shipped off to an African wildlife preserve after Marty makes an escape attempt, and from there they find themselves stranded on the island of Madagascar.

What I did find interesting about this movie, being that is geared toward a younger audience, is that the filmmakers did not ignore the fact that Alex is a meat-eater and eventually needs to hunt something cute and furry. While Marty, Gloria and Melman dine on seaweed and other native vegetation, Alex grows hungrier and more irritable. As he has been fed steaks at the zoo his entire life, he has no idea that in order to survive in the wild he must actually hunt and eat a living creature. I expected the movie to glaze over this essential fact of life, but instead it becomes a major plot point aside from the characters’ desire for rescue.

The movie itself does provide the expected humor—in various spoofs of movies, dialogue and even the characters themselves. Everyone seems to agree that the penguins were entertaining, but I also enjoyed the very brief lines that the monkeys received. I laughed hardest at their diametrically opposed human sophistication and core animal nature. I’m sure that most of the humor I enjoyed will fly over the younger audience’s heads, but that is of course what the filmmakers are shooting for in order to appeal to adults. I’ve no doubt that kids will find this movie highly entertaining, as it also provides the necessary slapstick moments that appeal to them.

As I said, there aren’t really any surprises in this movie, as it is funny in a lighthearted way, and doesn’t get too serious with the very real theme of survival in the wild, so I enjoyed it for what it was. If you like most animated films of this type (Toy Story, Finding Nemo, etc…) then you will also likely enjoy this one as well. I give it four stars as an animated film, but for those who aren’t into the animation genre then this movie probably falls closer to three stars.