Probably not, since the reality of life in the wild is something that this movie, like others of its kind, treats with anxious timidity. One of the apparent aims of Madagascar is to promote interspecies harmony as a metaphor for multicultural tolerance, a sweet enough idea complicated by the fact that perfectly nice animals often kill and eat one another.
Alex's regression provides the only suggestion of dramatic tension in the movie, which is otherwise smilingly innocuous, with an occasional gesture toward mild naughtiness. It has neither the wit and pathos of Chicken Run nor the emotional sweep and adventurous spirit of Finding Nemo, though it limpingly follows them for a plot point or two.
Instead, it condescends to both its audience -- who it figures will be satisfied with cuteness, flatulence, movie-star voices and bright colors -- and to its characters, about whose lives and aspirations it could hardly care less. Madagascar arouses no sense of wonder, except insofar as you wonder, as you watch it, how so much talent, technical skill and money could add up to so little.
RSS