Madagascar (2005)

Spoiled by their upbringing with no idea what wild life is really like, four animals from New York Central Zoo escape, unwittingly assisted by four absconding penguins, and find themselves in Madagascar, among a bunch of merry lemurs

Directors:

Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath

Writers:

Mark Burton, Billy Frolick,

Stars:

Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer

4 wins & 24 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ben Stiller	...	Alex (voice)
Chris Rock	...	Marty (voice)
David Schwimmer	...	Melman (voice)
Jada Pinkett Smith	...	Gloria (voice)
Sacha Baron Cohen	...	Julien (voice)
Cedric the Entertainer	...	Maurice (voice)
Andy Richter	...	Mort (voice)
Tom McGrath	...	Skipper / Fossa / Panicky Man on Subway (voice)
Christopher Knights	...	Private (voice)
Chris Miller	...	Kowalski (voice)
Conrad Vernon	...	Mason (voice)
Eric Darnell	...	Zoo Announcer / Lemur #1 / Fossa / Subway Car Announcer (voice)
David Cowgill	...	Police Horse (voice)
Stephen Apostolina	...	Police Officer (voice) (as Steve Apostolina)
Elisa Gabrielli	...	Old Lady (voice)

Storyline

At New York's Central Park Zoo, a lion, a zebra, a giraffe, and a hippo are best friends and stars of the show. But when one of the animals goes missing from their cage, the other three break free to look for him, only to find themselves reunited ... on a ship en route to Africa. When their vessel is hijacked, however, the friends, who have all been raised in captivity, learn first-hand what life can be like in the wild.

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Plot Keywords:

zoo | lemur | giraffe | zebra | madagascar | 

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Taglines:

Ton On The Run

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Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for mild language, crude humor and some thematic elements

Details

Official Sites:

DreamWorks [us] UIP [de]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Portuguese Spanish German French

Release Date:

27 May 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Madagaskar

Filming Locations:

Glendale, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$75,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$436,612 (Norway) (16 September 2005)

Gross:

$193,136,719 (USA) (7 October 2005)

Company Credits

Production Co:

DreamWorks SKG, Pacific Data Images (PDI), DreamWorks Animation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

None of the main character animals (lion, zebra, giraffe or hippo) are actually housed at the Central Park Zoo. There are penguins.

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Goofs

The animals take a subway from Central Park to Grand Central Terminal. They are seen on a subway platform on 59th Street and Lexington Avenue, which is the correct subway station that you would take from the south end of east Central Park. However, on the platform, the sign shows that that platform is for the 4, 5, and 6 trains. In reality, the 4 and 5 trains are express trains, and stop at express platforms underneath both the local platforms and a platform for the BMT Broadway Line. So except for during service disruptions, the 4, 5 and 6 would not all stop at the same platform (though late at night, 4 trains run local and use the local platforms). Also, the train is shown to be one of R62 stock cars. However, this stock has two sets of doors on each side of the car. In reality, IRT rolling stock has three doors on each side.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Alex the Lion: Surprise!
Marty the Zebra: Aaahhh! Alex! Do not interrupt me when I'm daydreaming. When a zebra's in the zone, leave him alone.

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Crazy Credits

Various characters dance during the first half of the closing credits.

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Connections

References Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

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Soundtracks

"Dead Already"
from American Beauty
Written by Thomas Newman
Courtesy of DreamWorks SKG

User Reviews

I've Seen Better And Worse. Overall, It Is A Decent Kids Movie That Can Hold Adults Attention As Well.

Let's face it, it's hard to put out a good animation movie that is equal to Shrek, The Incredibles or Finding Nemo. Those are hard movies to follow but Madagascar is by no means a bad movie. In fact, I will still rate this pretty high, as I enjoyed it without watching the clock.

The plot was very easy for children to follow while not so simplistic that adults become bored in the middle. The simple plot was that 4 animals raised in a zoo venture out into the wild and quickly realize how easy they had it back home in the New York Zoo.

There was quite a few humorous scenes in Madagascar, but my favorite has to be the "distinguished" chimps who get offended that the thought of looking or smelling like a monkey is bad. An honorable mention is the penguins who also got more than they bargained for in Antarctica.

While some of the graphics are sub-par to other movies I've mentioned, like Alex the Lion (voiced by Ben Stiller) for instance. At times they look sort of like clay-mation or something, and other they look positively life-like. The scenery and the lemurs stand out as the most beautifully rendered parts of the movie.

This movie is great for getting the kids out of the house and not too bad if the normal adult wants to get away and enjoy something more suitable for the family as well.