Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
Four animal friends get a taste of the wild life when they break out of captivity at the Central Park Zoo and wash ashore on the island of Madagascar.
Madagascar is a breezy, entertaining DreamWorks animated comedy that coasts on charm and strong voice performances from Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, and Sacha Baron Cohen, but doesn't distinguish itself in most categories. The plot is fairly thin and formulaic — fish-out-of-water zoo animals discover the wild — with minimal stakes or depth. The animation was competent for its era but not groundbreaking compared to Pixar contemporaries. The ending resolves somewhat abruptly and unsatisfyingly, leaving things open-ended without much payoff. The film's real strengths are its comedic energy and the voice cast's delivery, particularly Baron Cohen's scene-stealing King Julien. Novelty is low; the concept of pampered zoo animals encountering nature had been explored before and the film doesn't bring a singular vision to it.