Question: what happens when animated films consistently make hundreds of millions of dollars? Answer: you get crap like Madagascar.

Seeing that certain formulas have worked before, Madagascar seeks to play off these formulas, but proves that Pixar and the Shrek series are more than the sum of their conventions. Madagascar is a weak, corporate, money-grubbing venture. Part of what makes Shrek so fun (and successful) is its ability to appeal to both children and adults. It features fun characters that amuse the kids while throwing in subtle innuendo and scenes that imitate the likes of Spider-Man and Lord of the Rings.

Madagascar also tries hard to hit the adult audience, but it may be trying too hard. It features some crude sexual jokes, hallucinations, and scenes that imitate movies that only adults will have seen, such as American Beauty. Seriously, American Beauty. Is it really necessary to have American Beauty references in a children’s film? But the attempt to appeal to adults fails in its broad attempt to appeal to kids through stupid jokes and slapstick. I want to say the humor is hit and miss, but it’s really more like miss and miss. The only consistently funny characters are the penguins, and they don’t get much screen time.

But beyond Madagascar’s failure to find real humor is its failure to tell a good story. The reason Pixar was so successful with toys and fish is that they are so human. Problems they deal with and the solutions they find are all very human in nature.

Madagascar’s animals do reflect humans in character. Melvin (David Schwimmer) is a hypochondriac Giraffe, Alex (Ben Stiller) is high on himself as the star of the zoo. Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) is a friendly hippo and Marty (Chris Rock) is a snappy zebra. After managing to get out of their New York zoo, they end up in an uninhabited Madagascar. Uninhabited, that is, except by some friendly squirrel-like creatures and some mean hyena-like creatures, who are feeding on the squirrels. Upon the arrival of the zoo animals, the squirrels petition Alex for protection. Except that Alex, who for the first time in his life, is not provided steak, suddenly discovers his own carnivorous behavior and his desire to eat his friends.

I’m not sure that any of it speaks to the human condition. It’s an animal story that could only occur in a world where animals had human attributes and intelligence, such that the story ends up saying nothing in particular about humans or animals. But Madagascar doesn’t care. It doesn’t need to tell a real affecting story as Pixar does. If it can make you think it told a real story it has succeeded. And for most kids, it will probably succeed.

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