Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a new look at MADAGASCAR, the Dreamworks animated flick. The review is very positive, but our spy, David Aames, does admit that the plot is pretty thin. I guess they all can't be THE INCREDIBLES, eh? At least it sounds better than that turd-sucker Dreamworks released last year...

Hi Harry:

David Aames here. Saw "Madagascar" last week in San Francisco. Looks like Dreamworks has another animated hit on its hands. Quick review: much better than "Shark Tale" but not on par with "Shrek 2."

Long review: "Madgascar" is about four zoo animals - a lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), a zebra (Chris Rock), a hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) and a giraffe (David Schwimmer). Marty the zebra is bored with zoo life and longs for the wild. The penguins - who STEAL the show - are also looking to bust out and head to Antartica. But Stiller, Smith and Schwimmer are happy with being pampered at the Central Park Zoo. So Marty breaks out one night and the three go looking for him. They all get busted at Grand Central Station and are sent back to their cages. After a PETA-like protest, they're put on a ship to a wildlife preserve in Kenya. The penguins hijack the ship and the gang accidentally gets thrown overboard, where they float to the shores of Madagascar (hence the title). There they run into a group of lemurs, led by King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen a.k.a Ali G). He does such a bang-on Indian voice that you'd friggin' swear he was channelling Peter Sellers from "The Party". At first the lemurs are afraid, but then they welcome the group (especially Alex the Lion) in hopes they will protect them from all predators.

The plot is fairly weak - they should have established a villain in the story. The subplot about Alex the lion discovering his primal instincts and fighting the urge not to eat his friends will probably scare the little tykes (he sees them as steaks like those old Tex Avery cartoons). There is also a scene where cute and cuddly animals get devoured in the wild. But after "Revenge of the Sith" this probably seems like a picnic to the kids.

Overall, there is enough here to entertain pretty much everyone. The animation is nice and crisp.Stiller loses most of his neurotic habits while voicing Alex. As I said, the penguins steal the whole frickin' show (I say sequel with the penguins). There's a nice mix for both kids and adults. And hey, what animated movie do you know that pays homage to "American Beauty", "Castaway" and "The Planet of the Apes"?

Pack the kids in the wagon and check it out.

David Aames