‘Madagascar’ missing compelling characters, story

In theaters

MADAGASCAR, directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath, written by Mark Burton and Billy Frolick, 86 minutes, rated PG.

It isn’t a lion, a zebra, a giraffe or even a hippo that should have been the focus of the new computer-animated movie, “Madagascar.” It should have been a herd of sheep up there on the screen, gently hopping from one pretty little cloud to the next, quietly lulling you into the inevitable coma the movie induces.

From DreamWorks Animation, which successfully produced “Shrek” and “Shrek 2” before losing its hook deep into the misbegotten “Shark Tale,” “Madagascar” is another misstep for the studio, a movie that gets it all wrong.

Not unlike “The Polar Express” or the recent “Robots,” two great-looking films that were disappointing duds, “Madagascar” is so concerned with getting the incidentals right – the texture of a lion’s mane, the wiry fuzz of a coconut – that it forgoes what really matters, the characters and the story.

At my screening, the film’s intended audience of tots didn’t exactly look as if they were being entertained by the wild kingdom they were promised in the advertisements. Neither did their parents. Instead, chatter and fidgeting were the order of the day. That says plenty about “Madagascar,” but let’s say more.

As directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath from a script by Mark Burton and Billy Frolick, “Madagascar” is hollow, pointless and lazy, almost devoid of narrative pull. It is good-natured, for sure, but here, that doesn’t translate into laughs.

The film opens in Manhattan at the Central Park Zoo with the 10-year-old zebra, Marty (voice of Chris Rock), longing to bust free from the confines of the zoo for the wilds of Connecticut. There, he believes in his striped heart of hearts that he can be free again, which likely is true since Hans Zimmer’s score begins playing “Born Free” whenever Marty has the urge to be free.

Though his friends – lion Alex (Ben Stiller), giraffe Melman (David Schwimmer) and hippo Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) – don’t necessarily mind the zoo, they nevertheless chase after Marty when he escapes. The idea is that they’re going to bring him back, but thanks to some shifty penguins, they actually end up in the jungles of Madagascar, with the increasingly hungry Alex struggling not to see his friends as their natural link in his food chain.

Finally, you think, some tension. Alex will give in to his instinct and his friends will be in danger. There will be a struggle. Lives will be changed. But no – the film plays it safe, turning Alex’s hunger into an extended joke that needs a defibrillator to give it life.

Disney and Pixar would have played it differently. They would have gone to the dark side, knowing that while part of a computer-animated movie’s wow factor does come down to the quality of the computer animation, none of it means Shrek if the meat of the movie is an ogre.

That’s the problem with “Madagascar.” For all of its easy jokes about poop and flatulence, the one stinking here is the movie itself.

Grade: D

On video and DVD

TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE, directed by Trey Parker, written by Pam Brady, Parker and Matt Stone, 98 minutes, rated R.

The puppet satire, “Team America: World Police,” opens in Paris with a cell of turbaned terrorists plotting to undo us all with their weapons of mass destruction.

Never fear. On the case is Team America, which is eager to storm into any country – especially France – in an effort to bring the terrorists down. And do they ever.

Before long, the handsome, colorfully suited wooden soldiers from Team America are fighting the terrorists in the otherwise peaceful streets of Paris.

It’s a bloody battle that leaves mimes shrieking, baguettes exploding, brie baking in the heat of napalm and our own bombs recklessly toppling the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre in the process.

Within seconds, a culture is destroyed, but is that really a concern considering that Team America has smoked the terrorists out of their holes, killed them, and thus left the world a safer place?

If all of this sounds like dicey, anything-goes moviemaking designed to push buttons, that’s because it is. It comes from “South Park” creators Trey Parker, who directs, and Matt Stone, who co-wrote the script. Like “South Park,” it’s dangerous and edgy, calling out hypocrisy and crushing it with absurdity.

The movie has scenes that are among the funniest of the year, not the least of which involves the film’s now infamous inclusion of puppet sex, much of which was cut to prevent the film from receiving an NC-17 rating, but which was restored for the DVD release. Now, there is plenty of puppet sex, and really, who knew that marionettes could be so tender, crude and aggressive in the bedroom?

Some scenes in the movie go too far in their effort to shock, such as in a musical spoof of the Broadway show, “Rent,” the likes of which can’t be printed in a family newspaper, and other moments just plain drag. Still, those wanting to remove themselves from any trace of political correctness will find gleeful, juvenile release in the ripe satire of “Team America: World Police.”

Grade: B-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, and are archived at Rotten

Tomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.