Mod-Blog Mini-Review: MADAGASCAR

Today, I saw the new Dreamworks movie Madagascar with my brother, mother, and an unusual audience segment - a large contingent from the local group home for the mentally disabled. It provided an interesting backdrop for the movie. Before diving into the details, let me say that this one thrilled the group home attendees - both those living there and the nursing staff - and it also provided a good time for my family. It is not a particularly memorable movie, but it is a fun one! and pretty much clean.

A good tagline for this film is "Be careful what you wish for." The movie opens with 4 stars of the New York City Zoo - a lion, a zebra, a hippo, and a hypochondiac giraffe. Each is played by a comedian (Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jade Pinkett, and David Schwimmer respectively) who do a great job of giving life to these quadrapeds. After another day of performing for the locals, the zebra wishes wistfully for a chance to see "The Wild" - an imagined place of open spaces and green grass sadly different from the concrete jungle of NYC. After a brief run-in with some hilarious Mission Impossible penguins, the zebra finds a way out and seeks to find the only "wild country" he has ever heard of in NYC - Connecticut. (For those not in the know, I live in CT. The wild part of Shelton, right under the Route 8 overpass.) Zany adventures, yada, yada, yada... and some animal rights activists decide that the zebra's escape is a sign that the zoo animals really want to go back to the jungle. Well, they get back to the jungle and quickly learn that being "born free" is not all it is cracked up to be... especially when it suddenly becomes apparent that the lion is a carnivore and the other three are... well... carne!

This one is recommended to all viewers, but definitely NOT a must-see in the theater. It will be equally effective on the small screen on DVD. But aside from some cartoon violence and a few words that come close to profanity - close enough that any 8 year old will figure it out - it is a clean and safe family film.