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And just as the movie runs out of steam, the final credits save the day. While King Julien the 13th belts out the infectious (read: those with small children will hear this lyric nonstop for days) "I Like to Move It," the various characters dance alongside the scrolling names. The best by far is the King and his stoic sidekick Maurice (Cedric the Entertainer) doing the robot dance. Who doesn't love a good lemur-doing-the-robot gag? And the penguins link arms (fins?) and do a little can-can action. Funny stuff. If only they'd spread some of this genuine humor throughout the rest of the movie.

Talk About It

1. Do you think it was right for Alex to feel bad about his naturally carnivorous tendencies?
   
   
2. What do you think was the main message of the movie?
   
   
3. Have you ever, like Marty, wondered if there's "more to life than this"? What did you do about it? What did you learn in that process?
   
   
4. What's the benefit of venturing away from home and experiencing people and places very different to what you're used to? Have you ever done this? What did you learn?
   
   

The Family Corner

Madagascar is rated PG for mild violence, crude humor and some thematic elements. There's a bit of bathroom and belching humor and a couple of lion attack scenes that could scare the youngest viewers, but otherwise this PG-rated flick is reasonably family-friendly.

Photos © Copyright DreamWorks SKG

Featuring a whole zoo full of celebrity voice talents—Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, and more—Dreamworks' latest animated feature, Madagascar, refused to be crushed by the Dark Side of the Force. It scored an impressive opening weekend (approximately $61 million), not far behind Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith ($70 million), which held on to the top spot for the second straight week.

In his first directorial effort since 1998's underrated Antz, Eric Darnell delivers a story about the misadventures of mismatched creature companions who have escaped the extravagant luxuries of New York's Central Park zoo in order to seek their natural habitats. Together, Alex the Lion (Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Rock), Melman the Giraffe (Schwimmer), and Gloria the Hippo (Pinkett Smith) cause enough trouble to earn them a one-way tickets to Kenya. But the voyage runs into trouble, and they wind up in … well, check the title.

Camerin Courtney (Christianity Today Movies) says, "As the movie progresses, the humor threshold gets lower and lower. And just as the movie runs out of steam, the final credits save the day."

She also writes, "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?"

Peter T. Chattaway, a regular critic at Christianity Today Movies, reviewed Madagascar for CanadianChristianity.com. It's a positive review, but perhaps his most interesting observation is that the movie "had me wondering about the place of the food chain in Christian thought. Psalm 104 celebrates how lions 'roar for their prey and seek their food from God,' but Isaiah 11 and 65 say lions will become peaceful vegetarians when the messianic age dawns. To what degree are these passages poetic, and to what degree are they meant to be taken literally? … Madagascar hardly settles these themes, but it explores them in an interesting way."

Jonathan Rodriguez (Christian Spotlight) sees the film as highlighting "the importance of friendship." And he confesses, "Madagascar made me laugh quite a bit, which I wasn't really expecting from this particular animated film. I suspect that parents may enjoy it just as much as their children."

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