“Madagascar” is the story of four pampered Central Park Zoo pals who end up stranded on the remote, jungle island of Madagascar and must adapt to the unfamiliar surroundings. Led by Alex the self-absorbed lion (Ben Stiller), the group - consisting of Marty the restless zebra (Chris Rock), Gloria the no-nonsense hippo (Jada Pinkett-Smith), and Melman the hypochondriac giraffe (David Schwimmer) - gets shipped off to an African nature preserve after Marty’s botched escape attempt convinces a vocal group of New Yorkers that keeping these non-native animals locked up for display is morally abhorrent. 

While Marty takes to the wild with unabashed enthusiasm, Alex is more hesitant. The plot thickens when the lion’s long-repressed natural predatory instincts surface and suddenly he sees his friends as food. Why the filmmakers chose to focus on a quasi-cannibalistic “friend vs. food” storyline for a children’s animated film is a mystery to me, but what is clear is that by doing so they missed a great opportunity to update the country mouse/city mouse story.

Not only does the film spotlight the rather unique and disturbing dilemma of whether or not it’s okay to eat your friends, it does a terrible job of getting there. The whole film feels like set up material. And even though the characters travel from Manhattan to Madagascar, they don’t really seem to go anywhere or do anything. I really wanted to like this film, and I continued to give it every benefit of the doubt, but all it gave back was more and more set up.  First they’re in the zoo, then the city, then a boat, then the island. Just when you think the film is finally going to pick up, the credits scroll at the 80-minute mark. I was stunned at how almost nothing interesting happened. Even the characters and their high-powered celebrity voices remain static throughout; Marty loves the new life, Alex wants to go back, Gloria keeps them from fighting and Melman takes some pratfalls. Though the scenery changes drastically, Alex and Co. fail to be affected by any of it. 

Once on the island, the city-brewed buds sort of befriend a group of lemurs led by self-proclaimed "King of the Lemurs," Julian (Sacha Baron Cohen a.k.a. the delightfully irreverent Ali G). I say “sort of” because the film is too concerned with Marty and Alex’s back and forth relationship to establish any connection between the party-happy lemurs and the fish-out-of-water New Yorkers. Their emotional distance diffuses any hope for excitement, especially since the Lemurs have no purpose to serve other than to be silly and cute. Unfortunately for “Madagascar” the most memorable characters in the film are also the most scant.

The sophisticated yet scatologically inclined monkeys and the delusional penguins are by far the bright spot on this film; it’s too bad they disappear for most of the action.  Most of the time I despise it when films bring back supporting characters merely for convenience, yet here I was cheering. The pleasant characters add a breath of fresh air whenever on screen, as opposed to the frustratingly dull main cast.

The filmmakers handle the ending dreadfully, adding another disappointment in the "con" column. The film takes its sweet time starting the story then cuts every corner, and defies all logic, to reach its abrupt and ambiguous end. I can actually smell a sequel.

“Madagascar” will probably make tons of money in box office sales and merchandising, but it seems like the studios have it backward; just because the masses clamor for sequels and toys for great animated features like “Toy Story” or “The Incredibles” does not mean we’ll accept second-rate look-alikes released solely to cash in on the animated film tide of tie-ins (i.e. “Robots” and “Madagascar”). My only solace is that, perhaps rather than go down the predictable sequel road, DreamWorks will realize who the true stars are in this franchise and produce a more intriguing spin-off.    

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