Escape from the concrete jungle

Once every couple of years, a computer-animated film comes along that is so jaw-droppingly amazing, it makes us forget whatever came before it. Madagascar, the new CGI offering from Dreamworks about animals escaping from the Central Park Zoo, is not that movie.

Of course, not every CGI flick can be Shrek or The Incredibles, just as not every live-action film can be Citizen Kane or Casablanca. But in its own wacky, irreverent way, Madagascar satisfies by just being funny.

Marty (voiced by Chris Rock), a zebra at the Central Park Zoo, has been feeling a tad restless lately. After talking to his best friend, Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), he realizes what’s missing in his life: He’s never been in the wild. Later that night, using a tunnel dug by some diabolical penguins, Marty makes his break.

The zebra’s plan was to take the train to Connecticut – not exactly the Wild Kingdom – and come back the next morning before his absence is discovered, but Alex thinks his amigo has bolted for good. The lion enlists Gloria the hippo (voiced by Jada Pinkett Smith) and Melman the giraffe (voiced by David Schwimmer) to find Marty before he gets in trouble. When they finally catch up with him at Grand Central Station, the animals face an overzealous SWAT team armed with tranquilizer guns.

The mammals are returned to the zoo, where their keepers figure they need a change of scenery, so they send them on the first boat headed for Africa, their natural habitat. The ship is hijacked by the penguins – who seem to turn up in the darndest places – and the animals fall overboard. Coming ashore in Madagascar, the gang faces a bigger challenge than ever before as they discover what it’s like to be free.

After experiencing the realism of CGI movies, the look of Madagascar takes some getting used to. The lion’s mane resembles overlong, brown Astroturf, and the other animals look like caricatures of zoo animals, not the real thing. Then, about 20 minutes into the movie, you realize, "Hey, wait a darn minute here. This is a
cartoon."

In a compact 80 minutes, Madagascar uses some modern techniques and also pays homage to the chaotic cartoons of another era.

Many of the jokes don’t quite hit their mark and other bits, like the tranquilized Alex in a psychedelic haze, have been done before and done better. But the film’s devil-may-care attitude keeps things fun. One protracted gag, involving a tribe of rave-attending lemurs who may or may not be on ecstasy, will keep you chuckling long after you’ve left the theater.

Madagascar doesn’t break any new ground in the rapidly growing field of computer animation, but it does give you and your kids reason to break into a silly grin.

Madagascar
PG
Starting tomorrow at area theaters
Two and a half out of four

Recommended rental

American Graffiti (Collector’s Edition)
PG
Available Tuesday

Quick trivia question, kids: For what film did George Lucas – whose Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith grossed $16.5 million in just one midnight show – receive his first Oscar nominations for writing and directing? That would be American Graffiti, a movie that many film buffs believe to be as good as the original Star Wars, if not better. The film, based on Lucas’ own experiences growing up in California in the early 1960s, centers on a group of teens on the eve of their high-school graduation. Graffiti, which was the forerunner of Happy Days, began the whole movie soundtrack craze.