Ok, i’m trying really hard not to take all these bad reviews on Madagascar personally. But when Ebert makes a comment about Alex the lion being a cannibal for eating his friend Marty the zebra… you have to wonder what he was smoking when watching the film.

I have always maintained that there were problems with the story.. but these reviews are going really far to slam Dreamworks. This film is such an obvious step up from their usual faire… what is going on? In the first paragraph of the Wired article it goes out of its way to say how Katzenberg can’t compare against Pixar in quality so it’s going for quantity. Did they even see the film? I admit it’s not perfect… but damn. If you take one look at the animation you have to see an improvement from Shrek?

And that leads me into another pet peeve. If I see one more review comparing us to Pixar I’m going to blow my top. I love Pixar films. Its obvious that their stories are better, more appealing and original. But so what? Why compare? In live action there are plenty of studios who make awsome movies, and crappy movies. Do the critics constantly compare Sony films with Warner Brothers? Why can’t there be room for a few animation studios, as opposed to just one? It boggles my mind. And it gives me a bad taste in my mouth. Instead of comparing us to Incredibles… how bout comparing us to Shrek2? Or SharkTale? If you can sit back and tell me that Madagascar isn’t a drastic improvement from those two films.. i am convinced you have a brain tumor.

That all said.. i am still really proud of this film. I loved working on the characters and the style of animation was really fun. I fell in love with these characters early on. And I pity the fools who prefer to be “cool with pixar” and can’t see the film for what it is; an honest attempt at upping the quality of our animation and an honest attempt at making a decent, funny film.

Ok. So that was a pretty long hiatus. I had plans plans and more plans to update this blog but Life happened. That’s how it goes sometimes; sometimes you have to actually live Life instead of merely record it. So i had a lovely vacation and now I’m back at work and eagerly awaiting the opening of Madagascar. I had to miss the wrap party so i didn’t get to go to the screening. I am actually not sad about this…

Screenings are always exciting but there’s something kind of incestuous about them as well. There’s nothing like going to a packed theater with tons of audience members who had nothing to do with the film.. and then experiencing their reaction. I think this time around I really want the pure experience of that.

Started a new project at work and it’s loads of fun. After all the emotional shots I got on Mad, it’s a huge relief to get to work on some comedy. I’m not complaining about getting emotional, dramatic shots…mind you. But no body ever wants to feel like they are getting typecast in any way, and there was a period of a couple months where my shots were really starting to depress me. Not because they were bad shots… but because there were so… heavy. Now at least I’m getting shots I can giggle along with.