Madagascar

Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath build Madagascar around zoo animals being shipped into the wild, a situation that ought to keep a comedy well supplied. There is plenty to enjoy in its exaggerated movement and the supporting animals’ antics. The main story, however, is surprisingly short of things worth following, and the central quartet rarely gets the funniest material. At 86 minutes, it is a decent family diversion that still finds time to dawdle.

The early New York zoo scenes have a bustle that the rest of the film struggles to sustain. Production designer Kendal Cronkhite gives the film a bright, angular look, with characters whose shapes are funny before they do anything. These computer-animated animals look pleasingly drawn, and their exaggerated proportions suit the physical comedy. There is something to enjoy in the way they move even when the joke itself is weak, which happens often enough for that to matter.

Ben Stiller voices Alex, Chris Rock voices Marty, David Schwimmer voices Melman and Jada Pinkett Smith voices Gloria. They give the central quartet plenty of vocal energy, but too often a recognisable delivery has to do the job of a properly shaped joke. We wanted more for these characters than a succession of mishaps, especially when the film asks us to take their predicament seriously. The performers keep things companionable; the writing seldom gives them anything particularly surprising to say.

We laughed at the tranquilliser-dart sequence, where the effects of the drug become an excuse to distort the image. It is a more inventive joke than much of the slapstick surrounding it, and a welcome opportunity for the animators to take charge. The penguins and lemurs also benefit from being allowed to get on with being ridiculous, without carrying the central story. Sacha Baron Cohen voices King Julien, and his performance supplies some of the comic oddity missing from the principal quartet.

Editors H. Lee Peterson, Mark A. Hester and Clare Knight keep the individual comic bursts reasonably nimble, although the later stretches drag. The film can be busy without seeming to get anywhere, and its short running time does not prevent that from becoming tiring. Hans Zimmer’s score helps keep the mood buoyant without making the thinly written relationships much more engaging. The musical passages provide welcome changes of pace, and we would happily have traded some of the less inspired slapstick for more of them.

The screenplay is credited to Tom McGrath, Eric Darnell, Billy Frolick and Mark Burton, and its chief weakness is how little the central situation develops. A family comedy need not teach anybody a lesson, but it does need fresh things for its characters to do. The early zoo business benefits from having a particular place and way of life to play against. Later, too many of the jokes feel as though they could be moved into another cartoon without much alteration.

There is enough visual invention here to keep the evening agreeable, provided expectations remain modest. The broad shapes and loose comic movement offer pleasures that the dialogue does not always supply. Children who enjoy animal slapstick have a better chance of getting their evening’s worth than adults hoping for equally sharp verbal comedy. Choose it for that audience, and accept that the penguins will be missed whenever they leave the screen.