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Madagascar is an animated comedy film released in 2005 and made by Dreamworks.
~What's it about?~
The animals in the New York Central Park zoo - Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), Marty the Zebra (voiced by Chris Rock), Melman the Giraffe (voiced by David Schwimmer) and Gloria the hippo (voiced by Jada Pinkett Smith - live a happy and pampered life - they are fed regularly and enjoy putting on shows for the hoards of daily visitors. On Marty the zebra's tenth birthday however, he begins to feel down, and wonders if there is more to life than living in the zoo. When a group of penguins trying to escape to Antarctica accidentally dig their way into his pen, they tell him all about 'the wild' and he decides to escape there.
Marty tries to persuade his friends to break out with him, but they are not so sure it's a good idea and they try to talk him out of it. Marty will not be swayed, and one night escapes from his cage
and marches off towards Grand Central Station determined to catch a train to Connecticut, where he believes the wild is. Realising he has run away, the other animals follow him, but are soon caught by the humans and returned to the zoo.
Following their escape there is a public outcry from the people of New York, as they feel sure the animals have left because they are unhappy living in cages, and Marty and his friends are swiftly loaded onto a ship heading for Africa, so that they can live in their natural habitat. After the ship crashes en-route the animals are washed up in Madagascar.
How will these pampered animals cope in the wild? Will they manage to survive without the zookeepers bringing them food several times a day? And what will Alex the lion do, when he starts to think of Marty the Zebra as dinner rather than as his best friend?!
~What I thought~
I really liked this film, I thought it was very funny and the humour suitable for both children and adults. The opening dream sequence had me in stitches and the film had barely begun.
The characters are immediately likeable, and the actors were well chosen to voice each one - especially Chris Rock as Marty, the slightly crazy Zebra. I found it a bit distracting at first listening to David Schwimmer as Melman the hypochondriac Giraffe, as I kept thinking of his Friends character Ross, but after a while I stopped noticing it.
The story was really good and quite engaging, but I thought the first half was stronger than the second. I thought perhaps what the story was lacking was a bad guy. Although there were the foosa, a pack of hyena like creatures which threatened the lemurs, they were only in a couple of scenes, and the lemurs only appeared halfway through the story, so the viewer does not have as much time to build an affection for them in the way they have built an affection for the four main characters. Alex the lion is very self-centred at times, therefore sometimes comes over as being bad, but I think this comes out too late in the film for the audience to dislike him.
Nevertheless I did enjoy this film, it was consistently funny and had some great lines, such as 'Shame on you Maurice! Do you not see that you have insulted the freaks?!' The characters are great and memorable, and I would definately recommend it.
~DVD Extras~
* Mad Mishaps - This section shows sort of outakes of when they were making the animation and things went wrong, for example, when the characters eyes would move all over the page.
*Meet the Wild Cast - This is a section where the actors who voice the characters talk about them, and we see some footage of them in the studio at work.
*Behind the Crates - This section also has the celebrities voicing the characters talking, but also shows how the animation process works.
*The Tech of Madagascar- This is really more of the above, showing the technical processes behind the movie.
*Enchanted Island - A section showing video footage from Madagascar and telling you facts about the country.
The penguins steal the show. In the sprightlyMadagascar, a mid-life crisis inspires Marty ... more
the Zebra (voiced by Chris Rock) to escape from his lifelong home, a New York zoo. His equally pampered friends--Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller), Gloria the Hippo (Ja...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The penguins steal the show. In the sprightlyMadagascar, a mid-life crisis inspires Marty ... more
the Zebra (voiced by Chris Rock) to escape from his lifelong home, a New York zoo. His equally pampered friends--Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller), Gloria the Hippo (Ja...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
At New York's Central Park Zoo a lion (Stiller) a zebra (Rock) a giraffe (Schwimmer) ... more
and a hippo (Pinkett Smith) 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 fo...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
![Madagascar [DVD] [2005]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78493523.jpg "Madagascar [DVD] [2005]")
![Madagascar [2005]-DVD](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/106081111.jpg "Madagascar [2005]-DVD")
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