Madagascar (2005)

Another year, another pile of "hip" kidflick crap from the Dreamworks Animation sludge factory. You have your snark and your pop culture references substituting for actual wit; you have your overdone, obnoxious celebrity voice acting (there needs to be a vanishing point on this shit -- why the hell hire Andy Richter if you have a character with only five or six lines, none of which are intelligible?); you have your Saturday-morning-cartoon life lessons being imparted in the film's final quarter; you have your misuse of irritating pop songs. (This film is especially irresponsible on that last point -- the meerkats' endless grooving to "I Like to Move It" can induce homicidal feelings.) This time around, you can't even ignore the plot and dialogue in favor of appreciating the scenery -- the animation is overly angular, drab, depressing and sinfully ugly. How do kids relate to this shit? I mean, Christ.

Grade: D