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Madagascar (Widescreen Edition)
: This is a funny and charming movie. Based on the the story of Marty played by Chris Rock who longs for life outside of the zoo. However Alex and the rest of Marty's friends enjoy the life of luxury at the zoo. Marty decides to venture outside the zoo. And his friends go after him. Subsequently get caught and is sent away. After that it's gets really interesting. I enjoyed the Lemurs. But my only disappointment is that David Schwinner and Jada Pinkett characters was minuscle at best. The penguins were more annoying that cute and cuddly.
The DreamWorks production of the children's film, Madagascar, is definitely a creative and unique look at animals living in the Central Park Zoo in New York City. The movie begins with a quartet of penguins from the same zoo who think and act like military commandos and are attempting to tunnel their way out of the city to Antarctica. Instead, they happen to pop out of the ground (literally) in a penned up area where a zebra named Marty (voiced by Chris Rock) lives and entertains the crowds that come to visit him. Recently, Marty has been wondering what the wild is like and when he hears that the penguins are escaping he gets an idea in his head about heading down to Grand Central Station and hopping a train to the pleasant wilderness that is Connecticut. Nothing goes according to plan, however, when Marty escapes as well and his best friend Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller) and their two friends Gloria the hippo (voiced by Jada Pinkett Smith) and Melman the giraffe (voiced by David Schwimmer) decide to go after him for an intervention. One can imagine how well New York citizens react to a zebra, lion, hippo, and giraffe just wandering around Times Square, a subway station, and Grand Central Station. Due to Marty's curiosity, all four friends eventually find themselves aboard a ship on its way to Kenya, Africa. Yet, once the penguins realise what's happening, thanks to a couple somewhat dignified monkeys who also attempted to escape captivity after the other break-outs, they escape their crate, knock out a few humans and take control. During all of this, Alex is absolutely furious with Marty and is making such a fuss that he ends up knocking all four crates containing his friends and himself overboard where they wash ashore on the island of Madagascar.
This movie's target audience is most certainly children although teenagers and adults would be able to enjoy it as well. However, I doubt that it would be as enjoyable for a teen or adult to watch because whilst they would recognise it as a comedy, they would not be very amused by the animal's antics after watching a decade or so of cartoons with the same sort of jokes and characters. Still, what makes this movie different from the cartoons of a teenager's or adult's childhood is that the characters are much more distinct and have very diverse personalities that do not prevent them all from being friends and interacting with one another despite their differences. For example, Alex, a sociable lion with a satisfying role as the main attraction at the Central Park Zoo is best friends with Marty, an exuberant zebra with a healthy curiosity with the world outside of his enclosure. Instead of thinking of Marty as a meal, he thinks of him as a close friend who he can always cheer up with a rousing lion/zebra rendition of New York, New York. They also happen to be friends with a neurotic hypochondriac giraffe and a hippo with a maternal instinct for her friends and most other creatures she encounters. The characters in this movie are entertaining, slightly educational in that children can learn some basic lessons through their adventures, and interesting.
The animation was particularly impressive considering how difficult it is to create something like this. Whilst I watched the movie, I do admit to being overly critical but then I watched the DVD features labelled "Behind the Crates" and "The Tech of Madagascar", which made me respect everyone who entered into this project and everyone who has worked on past productions like this (such as the Shrek movies). The story for the movie was created mostly for children but the people who put their time and energy into creating the graphics laboured over their contributions to the movie. They were determined to make an enjoyable movie that would hopefully eventually be thought of as a children's classic. If you were unable to enjoy the storyline, I recommend watching these DVD features to get a better understanding of all that went into the movie before you arrive at any sort of set opinion on the movie. It will change your perspective.
In addition to the "Behind the Crates " and "The Tech of Madagascar" features, I enjoyed watching the first ever Penguin Commentary and the twelve minute special entitled The Penguins in a Christmas Caper, which starred the quartet of penguins from Madagascar. It begins with Private looking out a periscope at the surrounding enclosures around Christmastime and noticing that the polar bear is all alone. Private wants to help the polar bear have a nice Christmas, but of course Skipper doesn't want to get involved which causes Private to go behind his back and leave the relative safety of the zoo (at least he's less likely to get slapped about so much out on the sidewalks of New York City, never mind potentially getting stepped on) to go find a gift for the polar bear.
I will end this review now with saying that I enjoyed this movie and found it refreshing as I am used to watching a lot of very poorly made movies that were basically pointless and plot-less. I recommend this movie to anyone with children and to anyone who needs to take a look back and remember that not every movie is disappointing. A lot of thought and effort went into creating this movie and it shows.
Madagascar is a cute and funny movie. Parents and kids were laughing through most of the movie. (there was an little while where the story gets boring.) But, I love the penguins and the fact that they are always so sneaky; they really steal the show from the main characters. If you have kids this is a definite must see, we had kids laughing the whole time and most loved the bright colors, music and especially dancing. You saw a lot of little kids dancing in their chairs. People without kids or older kids will also enjoy the movie as it has a lot of jokes for adults to keep us entertained and laughing; the bright colors are also great for us as well as the dancing and music. I felt this cartoon lived up to its previews and the way it was perceived. My only hope is if they do a 2nd one that they include more of those sneaky penguins.
 This movie had its funny moments. There were times when I almost laughed and times when I thought "how cute," but overall, I just kept waiting for the movie to start...and then it was over.
There is nothing terrible about this movie; I wasn't sitting through it thinking "when will this end?" However, I was thinking "it's going to start the 'main movie' any minute now" and it never happened.
When the movie was over, I felt like I read the introduction to a book and the first chapter and stopped. I had met these characters who were interesting and they got themselves into a situation that was promising, and then "The End." Wait! What happens? Where's the action and humor?
The penguins were pretty funny--though their character type is being done to death lately--and I found the cute lemur...cute. But when I took the DVD out to put back in its case, I couldn't help but feel like I was still waiting to see a movie.
Madagascar is a promise of a movie that never materializes.
 It's official, this movie is WAY better than Shrek, Shrek 2, & Shark Tale. This movie features GREAT acting by Ben Stiller (Alex the Lion), Jada Pinkett Smith (Gloria the Hippo), Chris Rock (Marty the Zebra), and David Schmitzer (Melman the Giraffe). This movie also features some hilarious animals (ex. penguins who are on the run & lemurs who think they're ALL that)! I saw this movie the day it came out, and boy was I glad. So many people are talking about Star Wars III. Well, from what I here, Star Wars III ain't for kids. Madagascar is a great film for kids. It's also GREAT for adults. It has better humor than Shrek & Shark Tale. On a scale of 100%, I give it 100%! It is a great film, and it also takes place in many HISTORICAL landmarks (ex. Central Park Zoo, Atlantic Ocean, and MADAGASCAR)! U WILL LUV THIS FILM! If it does not get #1 on the box office, than something is VERY wrong. This movie is so good it deserves an OSCAR. This movie will totally beat Star Wars III on the box office! All in all, SEE THIS MOVIE! It's totally worth the money! MADAGASCAR-NOW PLAYING!
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