AllMovie

Dreamworks' animated films are either staid, serious, boring affairs like The Prince of Egypt and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron or hyper, frenetic, visual and aural assaults like Shrek 2 and Shark Tale. Madagascar is certainly one of the latter. The ceaseless camera moves, the ADHD editing style, and the turned-to-11 sound mix add up to such a cacophonous muddle in some sections of the film that viewers may simply tune out due to sensory overload. That said, the times when the film does slow down, it shows interesting signs of life. Sacha Baron Cohen's King Julien is a first-rate comic creation. His rapid-fire delivery actually contains some very funny moments that make it worth paying attention. His is the kind of performance that gets an actor work in animated films for decades. The combination of the vocal performance and the character design makes it possible to believe that the character is actually saying these funny things. Chris Rock as Marty the Zebra displays dimensions he has yet to explore in any of his live-action efforts. The film approaches some interesting themes when Marty's best friend Alex the gentle lion, who loves being the most popular animal in the zoo, begins to submit to his primal instincts the longer he stays in the wild. If the film had followed through on the emotional ramifications of wanting to eat your best friend, Madagascar might have had a chance to match the depth of a Pixar film. The film shows a certain trust in performers that marks a great deal of progress, but its constant barrage of jokes, images, and sounds reveals that Dreamworks still has little trust in an audience wanting to pay attention to one of their films.