It’s OK, without being anything worth seeking out. Four animal friends in a zoo go out on a limb to save the fourth from utter and catastrophic disaster which leads all four in being shipped out to Africa, even though they love their comfortable and happy lifestyles. This comes as quite a shock to three of the four, with the fourth, Marty (Chris Rock) the Zebra, delighted at the prospect of living his life out in the wild.

Naturally being an adventure called Madagascar the animals don’t reach Kenya, and instead become lost out at sea and end up on an Island which is eventually announced as Madagascar, occupied by (it seems) only two groups of animals: leemas and hyenas. At least they seemed like hyenas and are called foosas, which shows how patchy my zoology and geography is. Alex (Ben Stiller) leads the pack of New York zoo animals in trying to get back, with Melman (David Schwimmer) and Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) providing support and being pulled between best friends Alex and Marty on what to do next.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with the film as such, my half brother in fact laughed at several moments during the film. There were quite a few jokes made that may sail over the head of the younger generation, though chances are they’re more clued up than they pretend they are. Sneaky buggers. Most of it is pretty much a given though, with the usual gags, dynamic and chemistry. It does have the chemistry factor working for it, though Schwimmer and Pinkett-Smith are rather redundant by their very presence, and even without the film wouldn’t have lost anything. Proof of low quality casting?

Animation is interesting, deviating slightly from the norm with chunky, cuddly graphics. Characters are more square and robust looking than the usually round and fluffy, with the animators seemingly being more adventurous in how they present the characters. This only really applies to the two leads, with the support falling short of the slight adventure in design. The visual gags aren’t very strong, and again feel more than familiar, with little movement from the straight and narrow path of “safe entertainment”.

With a mixed cast, an average script and some ok performances, Madagascar offers enough laughs for the young folk, but little for the adult. There’s worse out there, but it’s yet another typical animated feature that rarely offers the sort of magic that 2d animated films offered in the past. Unless Hollywood pulls its proverbial finger out of its ass, we’re all going to end up with derivative animated films where both childrens and adults will become bored with the regular familiarity of it all, and eventually blame film piracy for the lack of audience.

Verdict: A non-spectacular, average animated feature that will humour the young ones for a few minutes