Madagascar Trailer #2 Available

You can check out the new Madagascar trailer by clicking on the link above. I thought I would post my opinions about this thing. I've seen just as much as anyone else of this film, so I can only go by these trailers...

Since DreamWorks likes to make such a big deal out of the voices, I'll start there. Don't get me wrong, I really like Ben Stiller. I find him and his movies funny. However, his voice just is not working for a lion imo. And David Schwimmer? Yarg! I do like Chris Rock and I think his voice could work for this. But man, I hope that this is just a reaction to the trailer and that the voices really do work for the actual film. Right now, I'm just not into them.

I've got to give props to PDI/DreamWorks for the character designs and their willingness to have a different look for the characters. Sort of a strange hard edge design. Somehow I think it looked better in the 2D drawings than 3D, but I like it. However, it appears that some characters fall into one type of design and others fall into another. It is almost like too many styles are being mixed. I like the colorful jungle environments but feel the city environments aren't as good. Perhaps that was on purpose to make the jungle seem like such a better place. Not sure.

I think it may very well be an enjoyable movie. I have a feeling it will be on the level of Shark Tale in the story department. Not bad, not great, just enjoyable. The penguins look like they will steal the show. They seem very funny. I hope they are featured in the movie quite a bit.

From an animation standpoint... I have mixed reactions. Some of it looks good, but some of it looks odd to me. They are obviously making an attempt for more snappy posing, but sometimes it just isn't clear and just comes off jerky. Further, I feel that the positioning/composition of the characters in their poses just aren't as good as they could be. A lot of poor silhouettes. Some actions come across unclear because of it.

Again. This is all based on the trailers and limited animation I've seen elsewhere. I've had even worse reactions to other movies that turned out great. It is hard to make judgements sometimes from just a minute or two of footage.

I'm still looking forward to this movie. But let's just admit it, I look forward to every animated movie. :)