Madagascar (Blu-ray Disc)

Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer) and Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) have lived their entire lives in confinement at the New York Central Park Zoo. After Marty gets it in his head he should go back to the wild, through a series of increasingly outlandish events the quartet inadvertently find themselves stranded on Madagascar with virtually no way to get back home. Surrounded by a passel of timid lemurs and assisted by a group of conniving penguins the group works to plan their escape back to civilization, the wonders and the dangers of the wilderness far more than any of these city-raised animals can handle.

With a sequel only a couple of months away, it only makes sense that DreamWorks has come out with a new Blu-ray special edition of their 2005 box office smash Madagascar. As one of the handful critics who actually enjoyed this movie upon its initial release, I admit to being perfectly pleased about this. The bottom line is that this film makes me giggle pretty much start to finish, and as far as CGI animated kid comedies go that's one trait I'm not about to take for granted.

If only this new version wasn't so underwhelming. Sure it looks great, but show me one computer animated picture that doesn't look amazing when transferred over into 1080p high definition? While I still get a kick out of the film itself I can't really say the disc is worth it, the extras and additional features nothing so incredible to warrant the cost of the upgrade.

None of the features and games blew me away or made me take notice. Worse, in the case of the "I Like to Move It, Move It" music video and "The Penguins in a Christmas Caper" they actually drove me completely up the wall. More, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa looks positively dreadful, and even those like me who enjoyed this one are going to have one heck of a time defending the new one if it ends up resembling anything close to the messy and sophomoric trailer.

Thankfully, for me at least the movie itself is as delightful as ever. This is a funny, old-fashioned cartoon adventure full of surreal and silly sight gags, a crisp storyline and sensationally lively characterizations. It's a giggle-fit suitable for the entire family, the wildly over-the-top storyline even passing on a moral or two young and old alike should find edifying. While not remotely the end-all be-all in animated entertainment Madagascar is still a whole lot of fun, and even if I can't recommend buying the Blu-ray I still think families of all shapes and sizes will have a great time giving this one a look.