Lame scatalogical gags and worn pop-culture parodies abound, but the CGI animation romp is somewhat redeemed by the scene-stealing appearances of several supporting characters.
Madagascar is great good fun, not only because the filmmakers have enlisted some wonderful voice talent but also because the visuals truly are marvelous.
The character design is ugly; the main characters are often annoying; the humor is generally weak; and the computer-generated animation is often soulless.
Lacking any meat on its bones, ['Madagascar'] is a cartoon about nothing. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Ebert & Roeper
May 31, 2005
It paints itself into a very bizarre corner because at first, they are all friends and then all of a sudden they revert to being more like real animals. How do you do that and make it funny? Well, you don't.
A foursome of digitally animated zoo animals escape the inner city confines of Manhattan's Central Park Zoo in search of freedom that's not be all it's cracked up to be in this well-defined children's comedy.
