FILM REVIEW 'Gascar is a gasser

Beyond a simple plot, 'Madagascar' takes 3-D animation to a new level.
By ROGER MOORE
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Are cartoons still for kids? After the culture-skewering wit of "The Simpsons," the off-color colorings of "Family Guy," the showbiz swipes of "Shrek" and the PG-rated violence of "The Incredibles," you would be right to wonder.
"Madagascar" is for children. The best kids cartoon since "Finding Nemo," this dollop of whimsy from DreamWorks is about animals doing what animals do. It's so effortless it makes everything that preceded it from the House-That's-Not-the-Mouse seem shrill, forced and formulaic. "Shrek II"? Shrek who?
Escape
It's a movie about zoo animals who long to return to "the Wild." What zoo animal wouldn't? Sure, they're pampered, overfed and adored. But they're in cages.
And the penguins in the Central Park Zoo have taken a look around.
"We don't belong here," they whisper. "It's just not natural."
They've watched "Stalag 17" and maybe "Chicken Run" a few too many times. They're planning a break.
And Marty the zebra is thinking of his own escape. He's just had a birthday, and the African mural in front of his pen is as close as he's been to the Serengeti. Maybe an overnighter, to say, Connecticut, would do him good.
But his pal Alex the Lion loves his "King of New York" billing, the three shows a day, five on weekends -- the whole showbiz ego trip of it all. Alex and Gloria the hippo and Melman the giraffe try to cheer Marty up, and failing that, they try to track him down when he gets out.
That escape, and TV coverage that suggests maybe "the animal rights wackos" are correct in their criticism of animal captivity, lands the escapees on a slow boat to Kenya. That's when the penguins take over the ship, and Marty, Alex, Melman and Gloria find themselves washed up on the exotic coast of Madagascar -- "the Wild" with a capital-W.
Adapting
Of course, that's not their wild, not equatorial Africa. Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith), Melman (David Schwimmer), Marty (Chris Rock) and Alex (Ben Stiller) are "freaks" to the loopy lemur nation they stumble into. They are "giants" to the lemurs and their assorted furry friends.
Where are they from?
"New York."
"All hail the New York Giants!"
Melman is a hypochondriac.
"Nature! It's all over me! Get it OFF!!"
Gloria can cope, but Alex is a bit lost among his new friends. What's the steak-eater supposed to dine on?
"We're all steak," shriek the lemurs, led by King Julian (Sacha Baron Cohen) and Maurice (Cedric the Entertainer). So much for their plans to have the New York Giants solve their problem with Madagascar's native predators, foosa weasels.
Simply silly
That's a Chuck Jones-simple plot, tame animals wanting to get out of the zoo, wild animals needing help from their city cousins. But of course, the filmmakers cover this vanilla cone with sprinkles.
The penguins are organized mayhem incarnate, a quartet who could easily pull off "The Italian Job."
The chimps are a bickering, latte-drinking Brit and a sign-language speaking savant.
King Julian is a direct descendent of King Louie from "The Jungle Book," a jive-talker with an East Indian accent. Cohen, the face and voice of England's hysterical Ali G., is brilliantly silly. Rock and Stiller are perfectly in character, Pinkett Smith is a stitch and Schwimmer is at his most Schwimmer-like.
The soundtrack is an offhandedly goofy mix of send-ups of "New York, New York," "Born Free," "Chariots of Fire" and "Hawaii Five-O." The pop culture references -- to "The Twilight Zone," "National Geographic Specials" and "Planet of the Apes" -- are a stitch.
But those adult touches are not the movie. It's not really for you. It's a genuine kid's cartoon, something "Shrek" and "The Incredibles" got us away from.
It's also a prettier film. The best 3-D animation has yet to rival the hand-drawn cell animation of Disney's glory days. But the detail, the emerald-green sea, the wind flowing through the lion's mane, the fluid movement in the blizzard of sight gags -- gestures, pratfalls, the like -- take 3-D to a new level.
The messages -- animals want to be free, too; sometimes giving up comfort is worth the risk, etc. -- don't weigh the thing down, either. "Madagascar" is just plain fun.
Take the kids. Find a globe. Do some teaching.
Every child should be able to look at a map and find the Central Park Zoo.