Disenchanted zebras and dancing lemurs come alive

There’s something to be said for simplicity.The latest DreamWorks cartoon could have fallen into a pit of another hackneyed talking zebra movie or an illustrative directive about the dangers of civilization, but instead it is a self-disciplined, clear-cut tale of four city “folk” (a lion, zebra, giraffe and hippo) who become fish out of water when they find themselves stranded in an African jungle.Complete with nihilistic spoofs alluding to “American Beauty” and a cameo by “Spaulding,” who is presumably of some comical relation to Wilson from “Cast Away,” “Madagascar” takes these clean-living New York City zoo animals and gets them in touch with their instincts.

Alex (voice of Ben Stiller) is your basic, attention-loving metrosexual … and king of the Central Park Zoo. He loves basking in artificial UV rays while he sleeps, revving up the crowd by flexing his biceps and twitching his tail, and getting all the T-bone steaks he can eat every night on a silver platter.Melman (voice of David Scwimmer) is a hypochondriac giraffe who is perpetually getting cat-scans and being placed on various high-quality antibiotics. Gloria (voice of Jada Pinkett Smith) is a graceful hippo, content with her secondary performance role of twirling in the swimming pool. But Marty the zebra (voice of Chris Rock) has a bit of a life crisis on his 10th birthday, when he’s not only unsure of whether he’s black with white stripes or white with black stripes, but feels less than ecstatic about the prospect of another year in the concrete jungle. Not even the snow globe of the Big Apple and various “We Love Alex” paraphernalia given to Marty by his golden friend can cheer him up.With some fancy detective work from a pack of amusingly serious penguins, Marty discovers an escape route from the zoo, and after being advised of the fastest route via public transport, Marty finds himself at Grand Central Station, bright-eyed and ready to relocate to the wild and beautiful landscapes of the most accessible non-urban landscape he’s heard about: Connecticut. When Alex, Melman and Gloria intercept him at the station, they scare everybody right out of their heads and right off of the subway before getting themselves tranquilized and shipped, thanks to animal rights activists, to the wild jungles of Madagascar.

While Marty is immediately drawn to the Rastafarian party fueled by the local pack of fun-loving lemurs, Melman is wondering who’s going to fill his numerous allergy prescriptions, Gloria is ambivalent and Alex is in a full-fledge panic that he has been so abruptly removed from his life of pampering and stardom. As withdrawal from T-bone steaks transforms into bloodthirstiness, the plot takes a vague turn towards “Lord of the Flies.”As reminiscent of and allusive to contemporary classics as this film is, it really could have been a lot more profound if it had wanted to be. It could have taken on a very clever social, emotional or political undercurrent, as many recent children’s films have done (“The Incredibles,” “Robots,” etc.). Instead it regards the concrete jungle as just an alluring an option as the wild jungle and it presents the inhabitants of the wild jungle as torch-bearing, leaf-wearing party animals. It’s cute and entertaining, with some “Shrek”-like humor involving butt-biting and adorable animals getting mauled by predators. Funny, light-hearted and simple, if not chalk full of substance, “Madagascar” is about as wild as the attractive jungle mural at the city zoo.

Staff Writer Shauna Farnell can be reached at 949-0555, ext. 610, or sfarnell@vaildaily.com.Vail, Colorado