Wild Side of Comedy
Madagascar Finds Laughs in the Jungle

Take two of the funniest (if not irreverent) men in show business and hide them behind the animated faces of a lion and zebra in a children's comedy. Ever since Pixar's groundbreaking Toy Story, animated films have become a veritable who's who of superstars. So why does the thought of putting Ben Stiller and Chris Rock into starring roles in Madagascar seem like a risky venture?

The off-the-wall comedy of Stiller has a huge following in the teen demographic. His comedies like Starsky & Hutch, Dodgeball, and Meet the Fockers were strong films last year. Likewise, Rock has been riding high this year after hosting the Oscars. Yet, neither of these actors seem like a likely candidate for an animated feature aimed at kids. The question is, can they be animated and still be true to their brand of comedy?

In Madagascar, Stiller plays Alex the Lion, king of the New York Central Zoo. His neighbor and best friend, Marty the Zebra (Rock), has just turned 10 and is feeling a mid-life crisis. He wonders about the world outside the zoo and outside the city of New York. When the local penguins (led by their Skipper, Tom McGrath) make a break for it, Marty follows their lead and sneaks out of the zoo. Alex and Marty's other friends -- a giraffe (voiced by David Schwimmer) and a hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) -- set off to bring him back.

The adventure in New York City is short lived, naturally, but humorous. It's amusing how little attention wild animals get on the streets of NYC. Once the animals are captured, however, they are put into cargo containers and shipped back to the wild. A brief glimpse of the media circus convinces us that setting the animals free was a "humane" response to their desire to escape the zoo.

The comedy really gets rolling on the island of Madagascar, where the zoo quartet accidentally ends up after their crates fall overboard following a penguin mutiny of the cargo ship. (The penguins, incidentally, are trying to get to Antarctica.) The comedy gets more broad, more zany, and ultimately even funnier. The crux of the island story deals with the very real nature of animals in the wild. As Alex finds himself hungry for the first time (he was used to daily steaks at the zoo), he begins to succumb to his animal nature and sees everyone else as lower parts of the food chain.

Some kids may not understand why Alex has suddenly decided that eating friends might be okay, but they should understand the comedy inherent in it. Those of my generation remember old cartoons where characters stranded at sea or on a desert island were hit by hunger and friends became chicken drumsticks or sizzling steaks. Certainly Disney's The Lion King has helped us all understand the "Circle of Life." Even so, Madagascar certainly isn't Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom (although the theme song does pop up). There aren't any carcasses or "thining of the herds."

While Alex and Marty seem like toned down versions of Stiller and Rock, they are loveable characters. Schwimmer's giraffe Melman is a hypochondriac (old joke), so he has some running gags about medicine and allergies. Pinkett Smith's Gloria is more of a caricature of African-American women than a hippo. It is the King of the Lemurs (Ali G's Sacha Baron Cohen) who has the most charisma -- although his second-in-command, Maurice (Cedric the Entertainer), is clearly the brains of the operation.

Much of the humor is physical (spitting out seawater cocktails, for instance) and aimed at younger audiences. Still, there are moments of side-splitting laughter for adults too. A couple of gags that play off old science fiction stories had me laughing out loud. Unfortunately, the really funny moments are too far between to make this film on par with Dreamworks Animation's flagship franchise Shrek. Even so, Madagascar will be a welcome addition to the DVD collection someday.

MY RATING: 7 out of 10.

RATED:
RUN TIME: 86 min.

Wild Side of Comedy Madagascar Finds Laughs in the Jungle

Wild Side of Comedy
Madagascar Finds Laughs in the Jungle