2005 children's movieRating: 9/20 (Emma: 17/20; Dylan 11/20; Abbey 12/20)
Plot: A zebra is bored with life at a big city zoo. He tries to convince his friends--a hypochondriac giraffe, a vain lion, and a hippo without any personality at all--to flee with him to the wild, but they don't like the idea. He manages to escape on his own. They go after him, and an adventure begins!
I hated this. The animation is ugly and strangely flat, the characters are unlikable, the humor wasn't humorous, the attempts to entertain adults with pop culture references were forced, and the story was lame. At times, it seemed like this was written and directed by a child. Not even a very smart child. This never slows down and lets you take a breath, and instead of keeping a pace that is exciting and fun, it actually becomes really boring as a result. Madagascar is a movie that actually made me a little dizzy. I'm not sure how long the Dreamworks people spent on this, but they needed twice as long.
You're going to love this, but I like this movie. It could be that after about 20 viewings (my kids like it) I have simply become numb to it's flaws but I think it is fairly entertaining with a few great scenes. The lemur king's "I Like To Move It, Move It" and the military penguins are terrific. The characters are fleshed out and have many funny moments. I didn't have an issue with the animation. By the way, the Penguin Christmas short in the special features is brilliant. It seems that you often give generous grades to movies with no expectations and are extra-critical of mainstream films. This doesn't compare with the very best animated movies but it easily merits a 14.
ReplyDeleteOn a different issue, I agree that "Ratatouille" is better than "I don't know" but it is still inferior to "The Incredibles". The way you run elections leads me to believe you must be a Republican.
On a third topic, happy belated birthday. No one told me, or I would have sent flowers. Well, maybe not.
Oh, man...
ReplyDelete"I Like to Move It, Move It" is a perfect example of why Dreamworks animated features rub me the wrong way.
I'm not a Republican. I'm apolitical.
And yeah, thanks for the flowers...geez. Only thing I wanted for my birthday was for you to send some flowers, and I can't even have that.