Madagascar a Wild Comedy

For New York Central Park Zoo residents Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer) and Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), life couldn’t get any easier. Their every whim and wish taken care of by a whole cadre of zoo employees, an existence of endless luxury and voluminous applause one they’ve had the good fortune to grow accustomed to since infancy. Alex, in particular, just adores Central Park life, the celebrity lion the zoo’s number one attraction, his likeness plastered on every soda cup, fry box, snow globe and tchotchke.

>>Read our interview with director Tom McGrath.

But when a group of nefarious penguins start making plans to escape back to the wild, Marty’s interest is piqued. The zebra has only dreamt of the wild, fantasized about romping around endless green pastures and swimming in pristine waters with best friend Alex since he can remember. It’s a desire to return to roots he’s never known, and when the opportunity to head down to Grand Central Station and take the mainline to Connecticut appears it’s one opportunity Marty isn’t about to pass up.

Unfortunately his friends don’t see a trip to the wild in the same rose-colored glasses. With Alex leading the way, the trio makes their way out of the zoo and down to Grand Central to stop their black and white-striped compatriot from making a major mistake. Through a compendium of events beyond their control, the animals are captured, boxed up and sent across the ocean to live in an African wildlife refuge. But the penguins aren’t interested in Africa, they want to get to Antarctica, so they take over the ship, turn it towards the south and promptly (if accidentally) dump Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria into the Pacific.

Washing ashore on Madagascar, the quartet soon discover they are not in an African nature preserve and are, in fact, smack dab in the middle of, ‘The Wild.’ They are soon befriended by the island’s indigenous lemur population, the animals believing the friendly and somewhat tame lion will offer them exquisite protection from Madagascar’s carnivore population. What nobody realizes, however, is that now that he’s on his own, Alex’s primal instincts are starting to come to the forefront, meaning, all the lemurs, Melman, Gloria and particularly Marty are starting to look good enough to eat. With nowhere to turn, no humans to provide support, can this happy quartet of perfect friends remain that way when one of their own discovers he wants to eat the others for lunch?

Welcome to Madagascar, a new computer animated comedy from DreamWorks that proves the world really is a jungle, especially if you’re already an animal. This is a funny, old-fashioned cartoon adventure full of surreal and silly sight gags, a crisp storyline and characterizations bordering on perfection. It’s a giggle-fit suitable for the entire family, its wildly over-the-top storyline even passing on a moral or two along the way that young and old alike should find edifying. And, even if it isn’t the end-all/be-all in animated filmmaking, it’s still incredibly enjoyable, easily one of the best comedies I’ve seen all year.

Much of the credit has to go to Mark Burton and Billy Frolick’s ingenious and highly imaginative screenplay. Everything is plotted out so effortlessly, every angle so fresh and alive; it’s hard to escape from smiling pretty much start to finish. Each character is uniquely their own, each move they make completely within in their nature so when all the hijinks start to snowball, you just know each animal will find their own unique way to navigate the chaos. It helps, of course, that each vocal actor is perfectly suited to the character they’re playing, each bringing facets of themselves into their animal’s makeup.

Stiller and Rock prove to be the best of a good bunch. The latter has never had a film role so suited to his talents and mannerisms. Just a rapid-quick metaphysical dialogue about whether or not Marty is, “black with white stripes or white with black stripes,” is enough to get the comic’s juices swirling, each time Rock opens the zebra’s mouth making me sit up straight and wonder what he’ll say next. Stiller’s even better. After a string of performances that have left me cold and wondering why I even liked him in the first place, his vocal work as the mystified and morally conflicted (and just a wee bit self-possessed) Alex is enough to jog my memory. Stiller’s great, riffing alongside Rock with a bouncy ease that’s both amusing and beguiling all at once.

Sure it doesn’t go anywhere all that surprising, but directors Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath (who also hilariously voices the lead penguin) do such a good job of keeping a consistently amusing tone none of the shortcomings (Melman is basically forgotten at the halfway point, the lemurs grow tiresome and the penguins reappear far too late) it’s easy to forgive the occasional misstep. Better, the animation is decidedly old-school for a computer generated picture, harkening back to classic Looney Tunes and Tex Avery creations. It is winning; so much fun I can’t wait to see Madagascar again. Heck, I might even go pick up a stuffed penguin.

Film Rating: êêê  (out of 4)