Merry Madagascar (2009)

Urgh. I tried to give this the benefit of the doubt. And at the beginning, it actually seemed like it might be good.

And then the “jokes” started.

Another sub-par mess from Dreamworks. No big surprises there. With the notable exception of the Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special, which is excellent, I don’t think anything we’ve seen from Dreamworks for this blog has been very good.

This tried. It had moments of greatness, but the sum total wasn’t even good.

The plot runs as follows: Santa gets shot down over Madagascar by the crazy Lemur army (that part was definitely the highlight), bumps his head and gets amnesia, and the main characters take it upon themselves to deliver the presents and, on the way, deliver themselves home to New York for the holidays. It comes close to being funny a few times, it comes close to being sweet, but most of it was dull as dishwater and as predictable as paint drying.

The characters are divided neatly into categories: funny and heartwarming. Never shall a character be both (except maybe Santa, and his heartwarming scenes sucked almost as much as his funny scenes). Neither monolithic tactic makes for characters who are anything other than flat and bland.

Avoid this one. Go see the Kung Fu Panda special again. Or Prep and Landing. There’s plenty of good animation, no need to suffer through this.

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