An announcement was made to take our seats for a presentation in the auditorium. I made my way in and found a seat. The lights slowly dim and we are thanked for attending by Mireille Soria (Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron) and she introduces us to her producing partner, Teresa Cheng. Soria continues, stating that Madagascar is a story about friendship, the ones we already have and discovering new ones as well.

After also introducing the directors of the film, Eric Darnell (Antz) and Tom McGrath, she presents Jada Pinkett Smith to the audience. Pinkett gives a few comments about how she loved working in the movie and really enjoyed the whole process. Next up is Chris Rock, who takes the stage to wild applause.

"You know, I really enjoyed working on this film and had a fun time drawing Madagascar." The audience by this time was rolling with belly laughs. "I had some ideas of what I wanted Madagascar to look like, so I started to draw them, and then I showed my ideas to Jeffrey Katzenberg. He said, 'Hmmm, not quite yet.' So then he started drawing some of his ideas, and tonight you will see the finished product that we like to call our Madagascar."

Okay, now for my thoughts on the footage we saw. The film is about animals in the New York City Zoo. There's Alex the Lion, played by Ben Stiller, who is the "star" of the group. He peddles everything from Marty the Lion drinking cups to toy dolls. David Schwimmer plays a hypochondriac, narcoleptic giraffe named Melman. Jada Pinkett plays Gloria the Hippo, who seems to be the mother figure of the bunch. And of course Chris Rock, or Marty the Zebra, who "doesn't know if he's black with white stripes or white with black stripes," as Rock put it.

The animation is mediocre at best, what with the recent films like The Incredibles and Robots. It's definitely not of the caliber of Toy Story, but more of Ice Age. The characters are funny, but the writing is far from the clever style of Shrek.

Now, although we did see only forty minutes of the actual film, with some of the animation still being worked on in some scenes, I must admit once the characters got to the island I found myself more interested and was looking to see what would happen next. The part of the film that has me worried are the island characters. Some of them look like Gremlins, or ferrets, and I get a feeling similar to that of the Ewoks being in Return of the Jedi. For some reason, I just don't feel any emotion for them.

I think I'll give Madagascar a chance after seeing those first forty minutes. There looks to be potential with Chris Rock in the driver's seat. With a little help from Stiller, Schwimmer and Pinkett, I think it still might have a chance to shine a bit more than it did tonight. I just hope the island creatures become a little more interesting.