Dreamworks #10: Madagascar

Madagascar - 7.3/10

This is essentially a fish out of water story with a twist. The twist is that the fish are actually in the water, but they don’t like it. Or something. 

The four main characters are animals from the Central Park Zoo that are so accustomed to domesticated life that they don’t see themselves as any different from humans. A lot of the humor comes from them trying to interact with people in the way that any New Yorker would, and the people in turn freaking out because they’re wild animals. Well, animals.

Everything changes when through a few misunderstandings and penguin-operated shipping freighter, they wind up on the shores of Madagascar (initially thinking it’s the San Diego Zoo). When they realize where they are, they have mixed reactions. Marty the zebra is excited, Alex the lion just wants to go home, and the other two are somewhere in between. They meet a local group of Lemurs (ruled by eccentric Julien, played by the outrageously brilliant Sacha Baron Cohen), and begin to adjust to life in the wild. That is, until Alex starts to adjust too much and begins seeing his friends (and everyone else) as food. Alex is horrified by his primal instincts and runs off. Meanwhile the novelty begins to wear off for the others as they witness firsthand the kill-or-be-killed nature of…well, nature.

As I said before, most of the humor comes from the animals behaving like humans despite their surroundings treating them like animals. It’s actually quite funny. When the film deviates from this and tries for pop-culture references is when it falls flat. Thankfully that only happens a few times, so the result is a fairly amusing flick.

The performances were good, but nothing special. All four lead actors played their parts well, but just that. There was nothing outstanding like you might expect from such a star-studded cast. The lone exception was Cohen, who stole every scene he was in and chewed so much scenery they likely ran out. The penguins were pretty funny too, but while they did have solid performances like everyone else, I attribute their success to good writing. 

Aside from some good laughs though, there wasn’t really much here. The film was surprisingly short, and most of it felt like set-up for a payoff that never came. When the movie ended, it caught me completely off-guard, as I was expecting at least another twenty minutes worth of stuff. And there could have been more of what they did have, too. For instance, the animals’ dependence on humans was mostly played for laughs when it was brought up, but I thought that was a theme that could have been much more powerful if they’d delved into it a little more. Like when Alex is afraid of his true nature and builds a zoo pen for himself out of rocks and sticks to keep him away from everyone else. I want more of that!

Anyway, it was funny. A trifle unsatisfying in the way that three potato chips are when you wanted a full bag. I hear the sequels are good though, so maybe I’ll have better luck next time. 

“Nature! It’s all over me, get it off!”