Madagascar

As with most animated features these days, "Madagascar" is heavy on jokes and light on story. Surprisingly, that turns out to be in its favor.

Running less than 90 minutes, this computer-animated comedy flies by so quickly that you don't have much time to think about its plot deficiencies. And the jokes do hit their targets more often than not.

Obviously, the film doesn't come close to matching the standard set by industry leader Pixar — or even those set by the "Shrek" movies, which were released by DreamWorks, which also released this one.

But "Madagascar" is just funny, brightly animated and manic enough to keep most young audiences in their seats and, despite some brief, vulgar detours, it doesn't leave an unpleasant aftertaste.

"Madagascar" follows four stars of the Bronx Zoo's animal attractions — Marty the Zebra (voiced by Chris Rock), Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer) and Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller).

They're all pretty happy in captivity, especially Alex, who's treated as the zoo's biggest star. But his best pal Marty longs to be in the wild.

His friends aren't nearly as thrilled by this new development, but they try to make the best of their new surroundings. Unfortunately, the jungle starts bringing out the predator in Alex, who has started seeing his friends as food.

Filmmakers Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath, along with two other credited screenwriters, throw so many jokes at the screen that at least a few of them are bound to stick, many of them being gags about other movies. (Homages to the original "Planet of the Apes," "Chariots of Fire" and "American Beauty" will likely go over most heads.)

And they were smart to have the increasingly irksome Rock play straight man to Stiller for most of the movie. Darnell and McGrath also manage to steal scenes as the penguin hijackers, as does Sascha Baron Cohen (a k a Ali G), who voices a lemur "king."

"Madagascar" is rated PG for animated scenes of slapstick violence (and some peril), some crude references to and gags about bodily functions, brief drug content (use of tranquilizer darts) and scattered use of mild profanity (mostly religiously based). Running time: 86 minutes.

E-mail: jeff@desnews.com