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:

Kitty Misses The City.

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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

Director Tom McGrath based his voice of one of the penguins on the voice of friend and composer Shawn Patterson; known for his Charlton Heston impressions and frequent failed use of the "Jedi mind trick".

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Goofs

Fossas are spelled "foosa" in the film. This is actually the way the word is spelled by the natives of Madagascar.

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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 Hawaii Five-O (1968)

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Soundtracks

"Chariots Of Fire"
Written by Vangelis (as Evangelos Papathanassiou)
Performed by Vangelis
Courtesy of Polydor Ltd. (U.K.)
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Wonderful...!

A wonderful movie for all ages.

This films really follows in the footsteps of recent animated blockbusters as Finding Nemo,Shrek, Monster Inc., The Incredibles, Ice Age etc. The story works very well, and it is obvious that the team behind is people who knows their media. It stays on the same course all the way through, something that really is the essence of the success of the animated films these last years, something other writers can really learn from. And that's all the comparison I will do, because it really is its own movie.

A wonderful thing about it is the references to other movies like The Planet of the Apes and American Beauty. Very obvious references I might add. This also means that the filmmakers are aware that a growing number of gross comes from adult audiences as well, and you then have to assume that the story is written for them as well.

The style of the movie is like we are use to in normal cartoons, just put into a new media. And it works very well, you're always aware of it, and yet you sit and really is in awe of the texture of for instance Marty(Chris Rock). The technique is definitely as is to be expected.

Hanz Zimmer, who's becoming a very well known man within the animated world, does a moderate good job, the music is there and really gives the effects it needs, but is just background. Directing is good, and all the characters works in their own way on the screen but are best together. There's a huge deal of very well timed jokes and they all somehow seems to work.

The characters are very amu... sorry, highly amusing. Chris Rock is almost best as voice(like in Dr. Doolittle), where Ben Stiller although he comes through still is more enjoyable as live action. But both of them are easily identified. Jada Pinkett is a bit to anonymous, and David Schwimmer is just great, although his character wins in being a good background joke. Now for the minor characters, as often with these films, the minor characters gets a way with so much attention they deserve a little more attention. The three penguins are awesome, and is the ideal kick starters for this movie. They deliver almost nothing but laughs. The king of the wild Julien(Mr. Ali G) is fun, although without his sidekick Maurice(Cedric) he would be nothing. And then there's the two monkeys also very enjoyable. One minor thing is to me that in seems that the Sabletooth tigers from Ice Age seems to have been copy-pasted into this movie for action, a bit sad but nothing that the movie itself doesn't salvage.

I would rank it among the top ten movies of this year, it is very fun and works very well in most ways. 8/10