Madagascar (2005) Critic Reviews

Dishes up some very corny jokes, but the images have a brighter-than-life vivacity.Read the full review

Despite Madagascar's formulaic tendencies, it's a formula that works, so parents are urged to sit back, relax and enjoy -- the kids surely will.Read the full review

The thin story, which sometimes feels like a series of one-liners strung together, is wisely kept short. But the gags are funny and the characters endearing.Read the full review

Madagascar isn't deep and would have no business being deep. But that it keeps one foot in reality is enough to keep us guessing.Read the full review

Madagascar is a classical gas. It's a good-humored, pleasant confection that has all kinds of relaxed fun bringing computer-animated savvy to the old-fashioned world of Looney Tunes cartoons.Read the full review

The tenor can be shrill, but there's no time to get bored. And on top of that, most of the gags actually work.Read the full review

Antic, cute, scattershot, it's a remarkable-looking but terribly uncertain bit of CGI fluff, with its richest humor off to the sides of the action and a whole lot of average in the middle.Read the full review

Madagascar is funny, especially at the beginning, and good-looking in a retro cartoon way, but in a world where the stakes have been raised by "Finding Nemo," "Shrek" and "The Incredibles," it's a throwback to a more conventional kind of animated entertainment. It'll be fun for the smaller kids, but there's not much crossover appeal for their parents.Read the full review

Eventually, it had to happen: a computer-animated dud.Read the full review