For Tom McGrath, co-director of DreamWorks' new computer-animated feature "Madagascar" and a native of Lynnwood, ambition has been measured in penguins.

"I met my directing partner, Eric Darnell, on a project called 'Rockumentary,' " McGrath explained on a visit to Seattle. "It was essentially 'A Hard Day's Night' starring penguins as the Beatles. The film was shelved, and we swore we'd work penguins into 'Madagascar' somehow."

Not only did McGrath (whose animation credits include Ralph Bakshi's "Cool World," Joe Pytka's "Space Jam" and the TV series "The Ren & Stimpy Show") get his way, he provides the voice of a paranoid penguin leader who utters "Madagascar's" funniest line. In a sprightly movie featuring vocal performances by Ben Stiller and Chris Rock as New York City zoo animals lost in the wilds of an African island, that's an accomplishment.

But so is McGrath's career. He discovered his love of animation as a child and later pursued his passion under the tutelage of Hollywood masters. His work in traditional two-dimensional hand-

drawn animation is notable, but he has successfully followed the industry's trend toward concentrating on computer-generated features.

McGrath's promotional stop here ("Madagascar" opens in theaters Friday) seemed a good occasion to bring this top animation director face-to-face with select members of his audience: kids with classroom experience in creating claymation movies, gaming environments with computer software and other forms of rudimentary animation.

McGrath, a Meadowdale High School graduate, sat down with five animation buffs from Edmonds Homeschool Resource Center, including my son, Kevin Keogh, for a lively, rather sweet discussion about his art, childhood and the truth about the elusive Cryptoprocta ferox, aka the foosa.

Nick Day, 10: What was your favorite thing to do when you were 10?

McGrath: I had GI Joes, and my brother and I got a camera that could do stop-motion animation. We would take the GI Joes and make them walk. Just playing with these toys became my first step into the world of animation.

Kevin Keogh, 8: How did you decide on the movie's characters and who should perform their voices?

McGrath: We wanted to create characters who were like people we might know. So we gave them all traits. Melman [the giraffe] is a hypochondriac, afraid of germs. We thought, who would be a great person to play that? We didn't look at actors — we listened to them instead. We listened to David Schwimmer's voice on "Friends," and it sounded really neat. We thought he'd make a great Melman.

Ben Stiller was the first actor we asked to perform, and we knew we wanted his character, Alex, to be a big performing lion with a vulnerable side.

Marty [the zebra] is a guy who thinks there might be more to life than what's in the zoo. We wanted his character to be energetic, so we listened to Chris Rock.

We had one female in the film, Gloria the hippo, and we wanted her to be strong and confident, but also be really sweet. When we listened to Jada Pinkett Smith, she just had that confidence and sweetness. We took samples of these actors from different shows and cut their voices together to see how they sounded as a group.

Michaela Hensley, 14: What's the difference between computer animation and traditional animation?

McGrath: Animators used to draw out the characters, frame by frame, over and over again. And now the computer lets you draw the characters like puppets. An animator can take and manipulate them, frame by frame ... It's almost as if you could walk into this world you're creating.

Elliott Day, 8: How long did it take to make the movie?

McGrath: Four years. It really is amazing how the process works. Movies have scripts, with dialogue and action. Then a bunch of people draw out the film and visualize it, with temporary images of the characters. We film those and cut them together and add sound effects and music. We watch it like a movie that's all drawings, and cut out or change parts that aren't working very well. The last year-and-a-half is actually animating everything on computers.

Kevin: How do you become a director of animated movies?

McGrath: When I was your age, I used to draw all the time. Seattle weather, as you know, keeps you indoors. So I would just draw cartoons. Later on I heard about the California Institute of the Arts, where you could learn from old Disney animators about hand-drawn animation. So when I was 21, I went there and loved it. Hal Ambro was my main teacher. He had done really great stuff on "Alice in Wonderland." Then I started getting jobs animating cartoon characters.

Kevin: Cool!

Jonah Perez, 8: How did you get the music? Did you borrow it from a CD or a tape?

McGrath: Like a particular song?

Jonah: Especially "I Like to Move It, Move It." (The kids break into a spontaneous version of the highly danceable 1980s track by Reel 2 Real. The interview disintegrates into laughter.)

McGrath: Oh, I love that. Well, we tried to think about the personalities of the wild animals on "Madagascar." Wouldn't they just love to dance all day long? One of our editors pulled up this old rave dance song by Reel 2 Real. By the way, do you guys know where Madagascar is?

Nick: It's near Africa.

McGrath: It's the [world's] fourth-largest island off East Africa. There are creatures that live there and nowhere else. Millions of years ago, Madagascar was connected to Africa, and then it moved out into the water. Since these animals didn't have big predators, it kind of stayed the same for millions of years. So really Madagascar has animals that Africa used to have, but they evolved differently.

Elliott: What the heck is a foosa?

McGrath: Foosa are like these 35-pound weasels. They're just this weird animal.

Michaela: Are you planning your next movie?

McGrath: Eric and I are thinking about what else we can do with the characters from "Madagascar." Half the battle of making a movie like this is that you're starting everything from scratch. So if you've got your characters developed and know what the world they live in looks like, the next time it's much faster.

Tom Keogh: tomwkeogh@yahoo.com