Bird Brain

Its been known to happen before 8211; the showstealers in a movie being one of the supporting cast,and the main leads.

In the DreamWorks Animation film,Madagascar,while the leads 8211; Alex the lion,Marty the zebra,Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippopotamus 8211; were all lovely,fascinating characters,moviegoers fell in love with some of the supporting characters.

The paranoid penguin quartet and the grooving lemur King Julien were,for many,the stars of the movie. Its not surprising then that a television spin-off shouldve been produced,featuring these memorable characters in New Yorks Central Park Zoo,which was the home of the movies protagonists.

How the penguins were shipped back to NYC along with the lemurs is not explained,but the series shows the animals comfortably established at the zoo. The penguins 8211; leader Skipper,his right hand bird Kowalski,the rookie Private and the crazy Rico 8211; seem to have given up their plan of escaping to their true habitat.

Instead,theyve now taken on the task of protecting their home at the zoo and come up with harebrained tactics to do so. Theyre sometimes aided,but mostly hampered,in their efforts by Julian,who has now proclaimed himself as the king of the zoo. Juliens adviser remains the aye-aye Maurice,while the excitable mouse lemur Mort is his devoted slave.

Tom McGrath voices Skipper,like he did in the movies,and just as in those,he does a wonderful job of conveying the characters paranoid and highly militaristic personality. The other characters have been voiced by different people on the series 8211; Danny Jacobs does Julien who sounds almost exactly like he does in the movie is still the one with the most hilarious lines,while Maurice is done by Kevin Michael Richardson,who does as competent a job of conveying the aye-ayes disdain for his leader as Cedric the Entertainer does in the movies.

Also present are the intelligent chimps,Mason and Phil,with the former being voiced by Conrad Vernon. There are a couple of new characters as well 8211; Marlene the otter,played by Nicole Sullivan,is the sole voice of reason,while Alice,the zookeeper is the sole human character.

Whats brilliant about this show is that all the characters have been very well-developed. All the penguins 8211; not just Skipper 8211; have properly etched personalities. While Kowalski is the over-analytical one who never goes for his instinct,Private is the young,idealistic recruit who has more common sense than the others and the mentally unstable Rico,the weapons specialist,communicates only through grunts and squeaks. Also great is the chemistry that Skipper and Julien share 8211; both characters have their own unique brand of lunacy and form one of the best frenemy pair weve seen since Tom and Jerry.

Certain characters shouldve been left on the margins. The dimwitted Mort is one of them. Most of his comedy comes in the slapstick form,which isnt really bad,considering that this is actually a show aimed at children. But in the light of the other characters well-etched personalities,Mort seems strangely one-dimensional.

Verdict:

If you loved the Madagascar movies,you8217;ll certainly enjoy the show.