message in the movies By Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

    
Madagascar   Rated PG
Directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath. Animated feature.



Photo © Copyright Dreamworks
 

When Walt Disney first created the concept of the animated feature film, it was quite clear that every movie was a labor of love.  The folks at Pixar Animation (“Toy Story”, “Finding Nemo”, “The Incredibles”) seem to understand this, but virtually every other studio these days seems to be cranking out product featuring celebrity voices and scripts that are a mélange of cute looking characters, bad puns, mildly scatological humor, pop culture references (including visual parodies of R-rated films), a couple of semi-familiar recent pop songs, and anything else the filmmakers think will keep both children and their parents amused for 90 minutes.  2001’s “Shrek” was an incredible fluke, since it incorporated all of these elements while still being original and entertaining.  When “Shrek 2” came out in 2004, the charm was missing and the appeal to children virtually eliminated.  So it is with “Madagascar”, which was years in the making and cost many millions of dollars to produce, will likely make a substantial profit, have a short second life of constant play on home video, before eventually fading away into obscurity.  I hope that I am sounding cynical enough about this film, because I believe that children and parents and everyone else deserve much better and that there are creative people capable of making quality animated movies.  Now, for my capsule review of “Madagascar”: Cute characters that will make nice stuffed toys, a great subplot featuring penguins, about a half-dozen laugh-out-loud jokes (which all seemed to be aimed at adults), some totally inappropriate movie references (including “American Beauty”!), and a bare bones plot that eventually arrives at a very uncomfortable premise about whether or not talking cartoon animals will revert to natural savagery when released into the wild.  Forget “Madagascar”.  Go to the video store and rent Disney’s 1941 classic “Dumbo”.  It will make you laugh, make you cry, and remind you about how great films with talking cartoon animals can be.

 

Pitchfork Rating: Two halos. (An occasionally entertaining film that is ultimately disappointing for both children and adults, although it is certainly colorful and nice to look at.)  One pitchfork. (Some mildly crude jokes and some potentially upsetting premises.)

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