Madagascar

Madagascar is very much a film of two halves.

The first half features the main characters attempting to escape from a New York zoo, and ultimately succeeding, although rather in spite of themselves. It tries quite hard to please, and is tough to keep up with, if nothing else just because so much of the dialogue gets garbled so quickly.

The second half is when the film really gets going though, as our heroes are washed-up on the island of the film's name, and get broken-in to their harsh natural habitats.

Although you might expect the toughest challenge here to be for the penguins, it's actually the lion and zebra characters who really wrestle with it, particularly when they find themselves wrestling each other.

Yes, Alex the lion has to make the awful choice between either dying of starvation, or eating his friends. It's both unfortunate and a little uncomfortable when this dilemma is eventually resolved by giving him fish to eat, in a world where all the animals can talk.

Outstanding though is the film's musical score. Right from the opening arrangement of Born Free which underpins the story, through to the penguins' funky music, this film sounds much better than its stylised animation looks. I could watch a whole 90 minute film about those penguins.

But then, I already have done...

(available here)
Related posts:

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
Merry Madagascar