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Madagascar Our rating: Rate this movie   MPAA rating: PG (for mild violence, crude humor and some thematic elements) Theater release: May 27, 2005 by DreamWorks SKG Directed by: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath Runtime: 1 hour 20 minutes Cast: Chris Rock (Marty the Zebra), Ben Stiller (Alex the Lion), David Schwimmer (Melman the Giraffe), Jada Pinkett Smith (Gloria the Hippo), Andy Richter (Mort), Cedric the Entertainer (Maurice), Sacha Baron Cohen (King Julien) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Apparently, a 10th birthday is a big thing for a zebra. As Madagascar opens, Marty the zebra (Chris Rock) is celebrating this milestone, complete with presents from his three best friends, a lion named Alex (Ben Stiller), a hippo named Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith), and a hypochondriacal giraffe named Melman (David Schwimmer). This special day makes Marty reflect on his cush life in the Central Park Zoo—where he and his friends enjoy a lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous existence in between entertaining the good folks of New York City—and wonder what lies beyond those gates.

Melman the Giraffe, Marty the Zebra, Alex the Lion, and Gloria the Hippo

This wanderlust is fueled in part by the penguins, who put fanciful ideas in Marty's head about the "wilds of Connecticut" while trying to dig their way there themselves with plastic spoons and Popsicle sticks. When Marty shares his birthday-candle-blowing dream of going wild with his best buds, they don't get it. After a bit of birthday brooding, he decides to trot out the door on his own after lights-out that night and take the subway north toward adventure. When his friends stage an intervention, they all get caught and shipped to Africa. On the way, the penguins stealthily commandeer the ship and set their sights on Antarctica, a sharp change of course that knocks our four crated friends overboard, only to wash ashore in Madagascar.

Up to this point the pace and premise have been pleasing. Marty is relatably wistful as he wonders if there's something more to life. Alex is endearingly brash as the zoo's "mane" attraction. Melman is laughably neurotic as he traipses the mean streets of New York with Kleenex boxes on his feet to protect him from the grime. And Gloria is the lovable fly-girl hip-o who keeps them all in line.

Chris Rock provides the voice of Marty the Zebra

But unfortunately, the ship isn't the only thing that loses course partway through the movie. As soon as they land on Madagascar's sandy beach, the momentum peters out and we're left with bathroom humor and animal in-fighting. The fearful foursome eventually stumble on a lemur colony, headed by the self-appointed King Julien the 13th (Sacha Baron Cohen, a.k.a. Ali G), an Indian-accented party animal who tries to woo Marty and company to stay and protect his dance-crazy tribe from the menacing Foosa predators. And in a strange plot twist, Alex starts wanting to snack on his friends as his more feral tendencies surface in the wild. Thinking he's turning into a monster, Alex abandons his buddies for the "dark," meat-eating side of the island and creates a cage for himself so he doesn't go feast on his friends. There are many circle-of-life messages that get confusing at best.

Alex the Lion, featuring the voice of Ben Stiller

Though it might seem nitpicky to note plot flaws in a cartoon, all I really want is a moral to the story—a pretty standard element in kid flicks, no? In Finding Nemo: Don't let fear rule your life. In Shrek: True beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. In Madagascar: well, I'm not really sure. Don't eat your friends? Be a vegetarian? Don't stray too far from home because your more animal instincts will take over? Deny your natural makeup for the good of your friends—and society at large? What's unfortunate is that there was great plot potential—our four-legged protagonists could have used their New York chutzpah to make their way in the wild, Marty and friends could have learned there is more to life than pampering and the bricked-in environment of the city, or this wide array of animals could have learned to appreciate the diversity of friends old and new.

The plotting penguins might be the funniest part of the movie

There are other problems as well. We don't get enough of the precocious penguins, who steal every scene with their conspiracy theories and Mission Impossible-like adventures. And while there are clever references to American Beauty, Cast Away, and Chariots of Fire, there's also too much low-brow hypochondriac humor (bladder infections, rectal thermometers, and poop references) and not one, but two tranquilizer dart drugged-up delusion sequences. As the movie progresses, the humor threshold gets lower and lower.

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