Madagascar (2005)

Genre

Animation | Adventure | Comedy

Directors

Eric Darnell | Tom McGrath

Country

USA

Voice Cast

Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, Andy Richter, Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Christopher Knights, Conrad Vernon, Fred Tatasciore, Elisa Gabrielli, Bob Saget, David Cowgill, Stephen Apostolina

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.

Opinion

I remember watching this film for the first time when I was a kid, and I remember I wasn't very enthusiastic about it. Ten years later, my opinion hasn't changed a bit.

The promising storyline, the top voice cast, and Dreamworks crumble when facing Madagascar, a barely decent animation flick that may entertain some kids but can't hold the adults attention for too long.

The script is absolutely horrible. The plot, probably the most simple I've seen in awhile, is easy for kids to follow but completely fails in entertaining the adults, that will soon be bored. The jokes do not work. The film tries too hard to make them work, but they barely make you chuckle.

The four main characters are utterly annoying, especially the prima donna lion. And looking at other animation flicks of the same period, it seems like Dreamworks took a step backwards with CGI - visually speaking The Wild was a better film.

Even though I like King Julien, I think the dance scenes were completely inappropriate for kids. I mean, a group of lemurs shaking their butts, come on!

However, there was something good about it. The four cute and cuddly penguins. They were lovable, more characterized than the other animals, and brought some life to the film.