Madagascar

I could not disagree with those who are calling this movie boring more. Is it a perfect movie? No. But it is fun, fast-paced, and highly entertaining. A theater full of children laughed almost non-stop, and even my husband (who honestly wanted to see the latest "Star Wars" movie) grudgingly admitted it was pretty good.

The plot is basic: four animals must try to survive in the wild, and along the way learn more about themselves. But the visuals are hilarious, the music is fun, and the interludes with the psychotic penguins? Priceless.

The only part of this movie I disliked was the casting of David Schwimmer. Although he did a fine job, the entire time I felt distracted by his voice- I was reminded too much of his Ross character from "Friends." So, don't go expecting an Oscar-worthy film, or even the next "Shrek." Instead, go to enjoy a piece of indulgent yet funny animation that will keep you laughing.

Madagascar is a movie produced by Dreamworks under the direction of Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath, who undoubtedly achieved the perfect fusion between 3D animation and comedy, deriving as a final product a film for all audiences full of funny moments, moving music and really good animation for 2005, when watching the film you could tell just by seeing the characters their feelings and expressions that the animation team led by Shannon Jeffries as art director wanted to portray them to us.

The story of the film begins in the New York zoo, where there's a very diverse group of friends, consisting of a lion who is the protagonist (Alex), his best friend, a zebra (Marty), a hippopotamus (Gloria) and a giraffe (Melman). It all begins when Marty, on his 10th birthday, regrets how routine his life has become, which is increased by his desire to know what there is outside the walls that keep him captive, this dream of changing his life, combined with the ideas of a group of penguins which act as a squad of soldiers, leads this group of friends on many adventures.

The film is very entertaining, since its mixture of fiction and reality along, with some moments of dark humor, keep the audience focused on what will happen next during the film's 82 minutes, additionally, it instills important values like friendship and the anthropomorphic behavior of the characters will make us feel even more involved in the story that is presented to us.

I just love this movie. It's funny I don't care. This is a movie from my childhood that I still love.

Let's face it, it's hard to put out a good animation movie that is equal to Shrek, The Incredibles or Finding Nemo. Those are hard movies to follow but Madagascar is by no means a bad movie. In fact, I will still rate this pretty high, as I enjoyed it without watching the clock.

The plot was very easy for children to follow while not so simplistic that adults become bored in the middle. The simple plot was that 4 animals raised in a zoo venture out into the wild and quickly realize how easy they had it back home in the New York Zoo.

There was quite a few humorous scenes in Madagascar, but my favorite has to be the "distinguished" chimps who get offended that the thought of looking or smelling like a monkey is bad. An honorable mention is the penguins who also got more than they bargained for in Antarctica.

While some of the graphics are sub-par to other movies I've mentioned, like Alex the Lion (voiced by Ben Stiller) for instance. At times they look sort of like clay-mation or something, and other they look positively life-like. The scenery and the lemurs stand out as the most beautifully rendered parts of the movie.

This movie is great for getting the kids out of the house and not too bad if the normal adult wants to get away and enjoy something more suitable for the family as well.

I took my 8 yr old daughter and a friend of hers to see the movie last weekend. We had a blast. The humor is one of Dreamworks best. It was sutle enough on some of the jokes that the younger kids did not catch on but you could hear the adults chuckling.

My personal favorite was Melmen. He was very funny and I think that everyone can relate to knowing someone like that. (Sick all the time)

I would not recommend kids under the age of 6 to see it though. Their where quite a few little ones in the theater and all you heard was "what are they doing now? Why are people laughing?" etc.

A lot of fun and a lot of laughs. We will definitely own this when it comes out on DVD.