Hey folks, Harry here with a look at MADAGASCAR - which it seems I somehow missed a screening for, but that I'm sure to take my nephew to this Sunday. Should be fun. Here ya go...

Caught an advance MADAGASCAR screening tonight (for Hewlett Packard employees) in Redwood City CA. A mostly spoiler-free review follows.

All in all, a fun movie. Yes, yes, not as good as Pixar flicks, but that's not a very good comparison -- in spirit this was far closer to the sillier bits from the Shreks, which I guess shouldn't be too surprising.

Ben Stiller and Chris Rock were both great , although both of them are so recognizable (in both voice and personality) that I sometimes felt I was watching the actors themselves in really strange looking suits. Stiller does a great job of channeling the more likeable aspects of the egomaniac villain from Dodgeball -- maybe more of a smart Zoolander, if that's not too much of an oxymoron. He ends up being the main character in the latter half, although at the beginning the film belongs to Rock. (When it's not nearly stolen out from both of them by the crack team of borderline psychotic Mission Impossible penguins.) Jada wasn't used too well as the Hippo, but some of the best jokes revolved around "Ross" as a hypochondriac giraffe. His various contortions also made for decent physical comedy -- look out Mr. Fantastic!

The animation was an odd mix of very cartoony action with some hyperrealistic effects thrown in for good measure. The main characters themselves are very stylized (I couldn't stop staring at their manifold nostrils, for some odd reason), but they at least took the care to muss up the lion's perfect coif after a couple days in the wild. Some of the water shots (waves, from above) outdid anything similar in Finding Nemo, remarkably enough. Just don't let those shots trick you into thinking about the *plot* in a realistic manner -- this is a story meant to be enjoyed, not considered.

I expected things to pick up when they actually got to Madagascar, but things still proceed at pretty much the same pace. The lemur scenes were a bit overwhelming -- must have been a real challenge to render some of the crowded party scenes -- but apart from the three lemurs that were actually given voices we don't really get a chance to look at the rest of them as individuals. Would have liked at least a few other lemurs/primates to gawk at for more than a few frames. Funnier lines might have helped, too.

Kudos to Dreamworks for the scenes that actually show what happens to some adorable critters out in the wild. But anyone want to guess whether the lion, delirious from hunger, actually tears into one of the surrounding tasty morsels and has a snack? Even if some of those morsels are actually real threats to his buddies and the lemurs? Nah, that would have pushed it up to NC-17 -- modern lions just have to go hungry, I guess.

So who is this movie for? Purportedly everyone, if the various movie references are any guide; not too many kids out there who have seen American Beauty, for example. But I'm hoping the gratutitous "reference" joke is nearing extinction -- it's getting to the point where entire sequences seem to be set up for a silly Shaggy-Dog-type payoff, with the only cleverness involving how to reference the few remaining classic movie shots that haven't been riffed on already. On the other hand, I get the impression that the audience for the poo-flinging and butt-biting jokes never seem to get tired of *those*... so like I said, something for everyone.

And, as a bonus, this movie contains what is I believe the first computer-rendered cartoon scene in Antarctica. Not exactly a money shot, but priceless all the same.

If you use this, call me Sifaka.