Madagascar [2005] - DVD (Ben Stiller, David Schwimmer, Chris Rock - Dir: Eric Darnell)

The penguins steal the show. In the sprightly Madagascar, a mid-life crisis inspires Marty the Zebra (voiced by Chris Rock) to escape from his lifelong home, a New York zoo. His equally pampered friends--Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller), Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), and Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer)--then escape to bring him back. Unfortunately, their attempt at damage control persuades zoo officials that the animals are unhappy, so all four get shipped to an animal preserve in Kenya...only a squad of maniacal penguins change the destination to Antarctica. The quartet end up on an island where, in addition to meeting some hedonistic lemurs, they learn about the food chain--and that Alex is a different link on the chain from the other three. Madagascar doesn't achieve the snappy perfection of a Pixar movie, but it tops most other computer-animated efforts; the collision of friendship and predator instincts makes for an unusually gripping conflict. The vocal performances of the central characters is serviceable, but Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G) provides topnotch lunacy as the lemur king, and the penguins--voiced mostly by the animators themselves--are the best thing in the movie. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews of Madagascar [2005]

Karen
England
20th October 2008

Hilarious!
A bit slow at first but once it gets going it's hilarious - My favourites are the penquins and the lemurs.

I must have watched this film five times now and I will definately be watching it again.

"Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave". ;-)

Mark Baker
Santa Clarita, CA United States
14th October 2008

Still Waiting for the Laughs to Start
Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock) is having a midlife crisis. He's tired of life in the Central Park Zoo and wants to see what life is like in the wild. When he escapes, his three friends try to chase him down and bring him back. And while Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller), Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), and Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer) do catch up with him, it doesn't turn out quite as planned. Instead, all four of them find themselves headed to Africa. Will they survive when they get there?

I normally steer clear of Dreamworks Animation movies because I find them pale imitations of the Disney Pixar films they are attempting to rip off. But the previews for the sequel looked so entertaining, I had to give this one a try. I should have stayed away.

Yes, there are a few amusing moments. I laughed at several of the movie spoofs. But that was about it. The story was boring. The characters had so much potential. Instead, they went with the easy joke (read bathroom humor) and didn't play out the jokes the premise could have set up. As many have said, the group of commando penguins are the funniest things in the film, but they don't have nearly enough screen time to make much difference.

Then there's the issue of voice casting. Yes, most of the cast did fine. But I couldn't get Ross from Friends out of my head whenever Melman had a line. Trust me, that was very distracting.

Many have dismissed The Wild [2006] as a rip off of this film. That's a shame because, for my money, it is the far superior film. Stay away from this one and get a copy of that film. Instead of staring at the TV screen, you'll be laughing from start to finish.

webbski7
London, UK
31st August 2008

this review is amusing
but not as amusing at Sacha Baron Cohen's failure to maintain an accent for more than one sentence. He keeps slipping unintentionally between Arab, Asian, Indian, Pakistani, Greek inflections. Suddenly 'Miss Gorightry' doesn't sound so bad.

twinz
uk
20th August 2008

exc film!
im not a big fan of animated films but i have to admit this one was brill. cant wait for nxt one!

Stampy
England
17th August 2008

Fun character driven film
In this 2005 DreamWorks animation, a group of animals are left alone on the island of Madagascar after a mishap involving Marty the zebra trying to escape.

Having seen trailers and read reviews, I must be honest and say that I wasn't expecting much more than a good natured fun family film, which it was, but a still enjoyable and funny one with good natured ideologies about friendship and loyalty and a good sense of humour to make it a fun watch.

With an A list cast of voices including Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Sacha Baron Cohen and Jaden Pinkett Smith, the film had created a good hype coming to it's release a couple of years ago, and now the success was expected and a sequel is currently a couple of weeks away, and with the same cast, it will hopefully be as good as the first.

The whole concept of a lion, a zebra, a giraffe and a hippo all being best friends is great to even start, and then we see Alex the Lion dancing and showing off for the crowd and the film starts to live up to the expected family fun genre and we are served heavy doses of slapstick comedy and many humorous references to other films, including Cast Away and American Beauty.

The plot is well written with humour and drama encoded in just the right way. However the whole ideology of going away from the zoo could have been developed better and when on the island, the use of the surroundings could have been used for extra comedy as the humour fades away towards the end, which is quite a big anticlimax and seems very rushed.

Nonetheless the humour is there, and is driven by the different personalities of the animals. The egotistical lion, the open-minded zebra, the luckless giraffe and the stubborn hippo all collide and drive the film forward.

The visual effects are good, though I personally never take them into account to make a film and with the plot and characters, make an enjoyable film with good natured ideologies.

7.5/10