''It's a jungle out there''. Review on Madagascar Movie

Marty is a zebra in Central Park’s zoo who is celebrating his 10 birthday.. Reflecting on how half of his life is spent without a single day in the wild, a mid-life crisis erupts.. and Marty (voice by Chris Rock, Lethal Weapon 4) decides that he will escape to the wild. He breaks this plan to his closest pals – Alex the Lion, Melman the Giraffe and Gloria the Hippo all of whom have only seen their zoo enclosures (except Melman who was brought into the zoo as an young adult, which makes him more worldly wise than the others) in their life and are quite content at that.

Alex the Lion (voice by Ben Stiller, Meet the Parents), is the king of the jungle.. the jungle defined by the four walls of the zoo. He is the star attraction and people throng to see him. He enjoys the attention and would never trade it for anything in the world.

Melman the Giraffe (voice by David Shwimmer, Friends) is a giraffe who eats, sleeps and drinks medicine.. He always thinks he has some incurable/curable disease and pops a couple of pills to feel better (atleast for a few seconds).

Gloria the Hippo (voice by Jada Pinkett Smith, Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions - Niobe) is under utilized and and sometimes you think she is just thrown in for some feminine touch.

At Marty’s b’day bash (at the confluence of the zoo enclosures), Marty’s escape plan is shot down and the others talk about the benefits of the zoo, the wonderful life they enjoy.. Marty agrees, but decides to take the train (yes the New York Subway) to reach the wild. A comedy of errors, with the other three pursuing their friend, they are captured at the Grand Central station and through lobbying by animal activists are placed on a ship to be released in the wild.

Here come the penguins, another highlight of the movie, who make the plan to reach Antarctica and give the ''escape-to-the-wild'' idea to Marty in the first place. They take over the ship (carrying Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman) and things go wrong, washing the four onto the exotic shores of Madagascar. The rest of the plot revolves around their life in the wild.

The penguins are definitely the animals to watch out for - their antics, their plans to escape and the pseudo armymen attitude, will have you in splits.

The film does not boast of the punch/depth as other Dreamworks movies like Shrek, but this movie was never intended as a realistic movie, characters for example are more of 3-D cartoons rather than the real animals. Spoofs are embedded in the movie, like the reference to Cast Away, which is something that only grown-ups get.

Overall, a movie you can watch with your family, or take your kids to. Or watch the movie on your home theatre once the DVD comes out.