Several animated movies are released every year now. I tend to go see most of them because I still enjoy animation. I wanted to see Madagascar after the first time I saw a preview for the movie even though I was a bit disappointed with Shark Tale, the last animated movie that DreamWorks made.
Marty the zebra lived in the Central Park Zoo in New York City. He daydreamed about being in the wild while he used his treadmill. Alex the lion was the main attraction at the zoo and his picture was on all kinds of merchandise. He loved all the attention he received. Melman the giraffe was a hypochondriac and took all kinds of medicine. Gloria the hippo seemed to act sort of like a mother with the others. The penguins were planning to escape and go to Antarctica. Marty decided that he wanted to leave the zoo and go to Connecticut. He left on his own since the others didn’t want to go with him. Alex, Gloria and Melman went looking for Marty. They were all captured in Central Station and then shipped off to a wildlife preserve in Kenya. The ship went off course and Alex, Gloria, Marty, and Melman ended up on an island that was inhabited by lemurs.
Since Shrek was released and became a huge hit, many people tend to compare the animated movies from DreamWorks with the ones made by Pixar, the studio that created the first full length computer animated movie. I have liked all the movies made by both studios, but I like the ones made by Pixar a bit more. Something seems to be missing from the DreamWorks movies. The plots and the characters don’t seem to be as well developed to me. I do think DreamWorks did a better job with those elements in the Shrek movies than have in some of their other movies. I was really disappointed with Shark Tale, the movie that DreamWorks released in the fall of 2004. I do think that Madagascar was a bit better than Shark Tale, but I felt it still had some problems. It was entertaining, but I felt it wasn’t as good as Finding Nemo or The Incredibles.
I thought that Madagascar had a plot that was more original than some of the other movies DreamWorks has made. Even though the Shrek movies were about ogres, they were still fairytale stories and pulled several things from other movies. Shark Tale just seemed too much like Finding Nemo even though the basic plot was different. Shark Tale also had elements that were pulled from several other movies. There were so many references that it did get a bit annoying. That wasn’t done as much with Madagascar thankfully. The animals ended up outside of their element and they had to adjust to a new way of life. That has been done in many different movies before, but it worked for the most part in this movie. Alex was really the only one of the characters that changed significantly once they were in the wild. It was shown how he had to handle his natural instincts to hunt since he wasn’t being fed steak daily anymore. Marty was thrilled to be in the wild and really didn’t have any trouble adjusting. Not enough was shown about Gloria before to really know how well she adjusted. It was set up that Melman took all kinds of medications, but it really wasn’t shown how he managed to cope without the medications and doctor visits. I liked Melman and would have enjoyed there being more about how he dealt with what was going on than most the focus being on Alex.
The trailer for Madagascar was very funny and got me excited to see the movie. After seeing the movie, I feel like the funniest parts were in the trailer. The movie did make me laugh, but it wasn’t as funny as I had hoped it would be. I tried not to get my expectations up too much after Shark Tale, but I was really hoping Madagascar would end up being much better. It was better than Shark Tale, but I was still disappointed by some things. Considering the length of the movie, it really wasn’t that funny overall. I did laugh at different things in the movie, especially Melman, but there were long stretches when nothing funny happened. I think that some of Alex’s antics were supposed to be funny, but I didn’t think they were. For the most part, I thought Alex was annoying. Not as much as Oscar was in Fish Tale, but he still annoyed me. Marty said some things that were probably meant to be funnier than I thought they were as well. He did annoy me a little in a few scenes. I thought that Melman was the funniest character in the movie. He was the only one that really cracked me up. The lemurs added a little humor to the movie, but King Julian seemed more wacky than funny. Some of what was done for humor was a bit crude, like when Alex was kicked in the crotch more than once.
The animals had an adventure after Marty decided to leave. Alex, Gloria, and Melman decided they had to go looking for Marty and stop him from going to Connecticut. That didn’t go the way they planned and they were shipped off and ended up in Madagascar. There were a few other adventures for the animals there. There was some action shown, but not too much. When the animals were captured at Central Station, someone with animal control used a tranquilizer gun. That might upset some children. Later in the movie, after going several days without steaks, Alex started to act differently and even chase his friends thinking they were food. Alex did get a little ferocious then. The parts where Alex was acting like that could scare some younger children. There was one very young girl in the theater that loudly told her mother that Alex was scaring her. The movie was rated PG, so there is some stuff in there that could upset younger children.
Madagascar was created with computer animation. It seems that most animated movies are being done this way now. The animation was beautiful and very well done. People were shown in a few scenes early in the movie. The animation for the people looked fine. The scenes in the streets of New York looked really good, though I don’t know how accurately the area was depicted. The ocean was shown several times after the animals were shipped off from the zoo. The water was done well, though I’m not sure if was as good as what Pixar has accomplished in some of their movies. The scenery did look good. The animation was well done, but nothing really stood out as amazing like has happened the first time I’ve seen some of the Pixar movies.
Alex and Marty seemed to be the most developed of the characters, though they could have been developed more. Marty had a good life in the zoo, but he yearned to be in the wild. He seemed to be the only one that wasn’t upset when they ended up in the wild. Chris Rock provided the voice for Marty. The voice worked ok with the character, but he was a little annoying sometimes. Madagascar actually opened on the same day as The Longest Yard, another movie that Chris Rock was in. I thought that movie was more entertaining. Ben Stiller provided the voice for Alex. Most of his movies, like Meet the Fockers, aren't meant for children. The voice Stiller did was fine for the character. Alex was the star of the zoo and he loved all the attention he received. Alex seemed to have the most trouble adjusting to life in the wild. The character was a little annoying at times, but it wasn’t so bad that I ended up hating the movie. Gloria tried to keep the peace within the group. She did get upset about the situation they were in, but she didn’t take it out on Marty like Alex did. She stayed calm when some of the others were panicking. Gloria tended to act a bit like a mother in some scenes. The voice that Jada Pinkett Smith provided fit the character.
Melman thought he had all kinds of medical conditions and took many types of medicine. He didn’t want to leave the zoo but was persuaded to go help look for Marty. He was a bit neurotic and freaked out once he realized he was in the wild and had no supply of medicines. I did think he was the funniest character. Part of that was the way that David Schwimmer did the voice. It was perfect for Melman. Cedric the Entertainer did the voice of Maurice, one of the lemurs. He had a small part in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, a family movie from 2004. Maurice seemed to be the assistant to King Julian. Sacha Baron Cohen did the voice for King Julian, a sort of wacky character. He was entertaining. The only other lemur that did much was Mort, the mouse lemur. His voice was provided by Andy Richter. The expressions on Mort’s face did remind me of Puss in Boots from Shrek 2 a few times. The penguins were cute and devious. They had all kinds of plans for getting to Antarctica.
VOICE TALENTS
Cedric the Entertainer - Maurice
Sasha Baron Cohen - King Julian
Christopher Knights - Private the penguin
Tom McGrath - Skipper the penguin
Chris Miller - Kowalski the penguin
Andy Richter - Mort
Chris Rock - Marty
David Schwimmer - Melman
Jada Pinkett Smith - Gloria
Ben Stiller - Alex
Conrad Vernon - Mason the chimpanzee
I enjoyed Madagascar though I did think it could have been better. The characters didn’t seem to be as developed as others have been in Pixar movies. It was still an entertaining movie and is worth seeing if you like animated movies.
Move it! Move it! for Madagascar, the #1 Family Comedy of the Year, from the studio that brought you Shrek and Shark Tale. When four pampered animals ...More at Buy.com
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