Dreaming and Waking

Yep, Julie and I saw Madagascar yesterday afternoon too - really good concept, but the execution faltered a bit. I found the ending weak (yes, I know it's a kids cartoon, but it lacked a certain amount of cleverosity I've come to expect - spoiled by Shreks and Incredibles I guess). The penguins totally stole the show! The lemurs grew on me too. I was pleased to see the major voice actors creep a little bit away from their normal personas. Normally I don't particularly enjoy Ben Stiller, and David Schwimmer I could take or leave. They were still pretty much their charicature-selves, but they stretched it a bit, which made it enjoyable. It was little stuff, like Chris Rock's characteristic inflection was juuust a hair different than it is in everyothermoviehehaseverbeenin, enough for it to be Chris-Rock-playing-Marty rather than Chris-Rock-playing-Christ-Rock-playing-somebody. I loved all the references and homages to other movies - I giggled heartily at the Planet of the Apes bit. All in all, quite enjoyable.