Madagascar

Formal Name: Republic of Madagascar.

Short Name: Madagascar.

Term for Citizens: Malagasy.

Capital: Antananarivo.

Date of Independence: June 26, 1960.

Size: 587,040 square kilometers.

Topography: East coast has lowlands leading to steep bluffs and central highlands; Tsaratanana Massif in north with volcanic mountains; west coast with many protected harbors and broad plains; and southwest with plateau and desert region.

Climate: Two seasons: hot, rainy from November to April; cooler, dry season from May to October; southeastern trade winds dominate; occasional cyclones.

Of course, the above information were not quite documented in the movie "Madagascar", whose title can be a little deceiving.

The only thing that may be correctly depicted are the palm trees swaying in the wind, sandy beaches, and the lemurs present.

Nothing else on Madagascar was mentioned. Even the first half of the movie was set in New York.

Hence, it is indeed baffling to see that the title of this movie does not match much of its contents.

Otherwise, this is an entertaining movie, if you wouldn't mind a few lame and cheesy jokes every now and then. The jokes sure tickled the funny bones of the 8 year-olds in the theatre, but I won't guarantee the same effect on teenagers or adults though. To appreciate the jokes made in this movie, kindly lower your intelligence and maturity to match that of the 8 year-olds, which I am sure many of you would be reluctant to do.

Well, this is an animated movie whose targeted audience isn't people of my age, so I didn't really expect much and the movie turns out to be what I had expected. Not much of a disappointment was experienced, I'd gladly declare.

Some reviews claimed that the entire movie was a reminiscence of other movies or programs. To me, I found certain scene vaguely resembling Mark Burnett's "Survivor", when the "castaways" (the four animals were stranded on Madagascar, they weren't born there!) had to make fire, built a shelter and construct a SOS signal. At the instant the giraffe was whining about how hard it was to build a fire, I knew this scene appeared somewhere in some reality T.V. shows. I guess such reminiscence was an attempt to capture the adults' attention and laughter, but instead it turned out to be a corny product lacking originality.

Friendship is the "main" theme of the plot, but it was weakly weaved into the story and was only brought up superficially. Just as one was beginning to feel the warmth of friendship embracing, the story moves on to another set of lame jokes, creating an anticlimax. Other than friendship, I don't see any other values being integrated into the movie.

Moreover, besides a weak plot and theme, I could sense racism in this movie. The discrimination was more apparent than the theme of friendship! The "chief" that the four animals met on the island had a heavy Indian accent and guess what? This "chief" is actually a skunk. well, you get my point....

Its ending was awkward and most of the audience was quite surprised that the movie ended so soon. I felt that the ending can be handled better. The movie's "surprise" and abrupt ending had indeed caught off my guard, but at the same time I was given the impression that the movie ended hastily just to meet the production's deadline, and that, in my opinion, is totally unacceptable and irresponsible. Hopefully my speculation can be proven otherwise!

If you are into reliving your childhood memories, or you just need a breather from your hectic work schedule, you might consider spending $7 and 80 minutes of your time during weekdays to catch this movie. Otherwise, don't bother wasting your time and money, especially on weekends.

Overall rating: 2 / 5
Credits given to the joy and laughter it had brought to me.