Wed talk about animation style in the film, so we set out from the very beginning this very broad style with squash-and-stretch. The other technological challenge was driven by a creative, Darnell says. And we were going, Oh, really? How are we going to stage this? And theyd come back a week later and go, WE CAN TOUCH ALEXS MANE! Wooooooo! We can touch Alexs mane! Theyd go cheering off and wed (exhale sigh of relief). (They would say,) Alex cant touch his mane. And then theyd come back and go, Yeah, we can do it. Says McGrath, So many times we were asking, Can we do that? And theyd go, Well get back to you.

To create a system that would be believable but would also work in the design of the film (its not photorealistic water, either), and also be controllable that we could use it to help tell our story, were huge challenges for the technology folks. Water is always difficult in computer animation, because while nobody quite knows how to make it look right, everybody knows when it looks right. But no way could we do that four years ago. We knew we had a big organic jungle with four million leaves blowing in the wind, and thats finally what we were able to achieve. So a big effort went in to develop the systems that would allow us to do that. For example, in the beginning, we could only get four or five furry characters on screen at one time, and we needed 500. In our case, the creative kind of drove what we did technologically. Regarding CGs technological advancements, Darnell says, People arent working on great pieces of technology unless there is a need. The advancements that PDIs had since Shrek, we were able to take this world, stylize it and actually use the aesthetics of 2D in a 3D world, so you get the best of both worlds. Thats one of the things that CG can offer. Eric really wanted to tell the story in a fantasy world that actually was tangible, that you could step into. I learned a lot from Eric as well as PDI. With my background, theres a little bit more to 2D, he says. Madagascar marks McGraths debut as a feature director. Once I got involved (my own interest is in CG), it was easy for me to motivate it and steer it in that direction. That kind of stuff, at least in those days, came out of development as what made the most sense, with the story that we were telling.

When Madagascar was developed, I dont think it was pitched as any particular medium, he says. Darnell, who previously directed Antz, relates that production began four-and-a-half years ago, when hand-drawn animated features were still in vogue. Madagascar, the latest animated comedy from DreamWorks, was directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath, and written together with Mark Burton and Billy Frolick. Can four domesticated animals from New York survive in the wild? And when nature rouses their primal instincts, can they survive each other?

Whats it like outside the zoo? His quest entangles his three friends in a madcap misadventure, which, ultimately, results in their arrival on a remote island. To the four Zoosters, their home is a paradise. Theyre groomed, well-fed and hundreds of fans adore them. At the Central Park Zoo, Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Gloria the Hippo and Melman the Giraffe are the star attractions.

Lion zebra cartoon