DreamWorks

PG. 92 min

I won't spend a great deal of time on this one partially because I don't think it's all that important and it has been out for a while. But by the time we go to press you will have decided which Christmas presents you need to sneak back to the mall and exchange and that might present the problem of what to do with the kids. There are a few movies geared to young people that the adults can probably enjoy almost as much.

Even though I did enjoy PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR I do believe it will appeal more to the kids, especially little boys.

I will warn you, however, that the name Madagascar in the title is a little bit misleading. When I see an animated film about Madagascar I expect to see lots of lemurs of which there are very few and only at the very end, like Sean Connery's cameo at the end of Kevin Costner's ROBIN HOOD .

But enough about that.

Everybody loves penguins and that, friends, is the basis of the plot. Did you ever wonder how the other animals in the zoo felt when all of a sudden penguins were all the rage? Imagine being a formerly top selling rockstar watching teenage girls lighting up for Tiny Canadian Pussy Douche tickets! Imagine how badly you would hate Tiny Canadian Pussy Douche!

(Well I guess it's not that hard to imagine...)

In this case it's the octopus that had once been the star of the show and now forced to play second fiddle to the wobbling flightless birds.

To paraphrase the Bard, or somebody, hell hath no fury like an octopus scorned. The eight legged antagonist has devised a ghastly machine that will turn the cute and cuddly birds into horrible ugly creatures. That set the stage for a heroic handful of penguins and a dashing array of animal heroes to save the day. Don't worry about it, it's all fun.

There's plenty of action for the kids and a nice smattering of puns to make grown-ups chuckle. Here's an example: as Professor Octopus calls to a pair of his cohorts, "Drew, Barry!! More power!!"

Also, and maybe this is a DreamWorks phenomenon, the voices are done by talented yet relative unknowns with the exception of Dave the villainous octopus who is voiced by John Malkovich. That's one way to keep the production budget down and little kids don't care about big stars anyway.

But it's fun and not a bad flick to take a little person to.

B

WSS