Madagascar (Widescreen Edition)
by Tom McGrath, Eric Darnell, Gary Trousdale
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Actor: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tom McGrathDirector: Eric Darnell, Gary Trousdale, Tom McGrath
Brand: DreamWorks
Writer: Tom McGrath
Writer: Eric Darnell
Writer: Billy Frolick
Writer: Mark Burton
Writer: Michael Lachance
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Animated, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 86 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-11-15
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Dreamworks Animated
DVD Reviews of Madagascar (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: More enjoyable as time goes on...
Summary: 3 Stars
UPDATE - Jan. 2007
Well, you never know...
A while after that first viewing (described in the review below, from September 2005), this movie came on cable, so I taped it "just in case." Well, it feels a bit different on the small screen, and our kid liked it -- although some reassurances were still needed at first to get past worries about the biting, clawing, and so on.
By the second or third viewing, we were all enjoying it about equally, and the inherent "violence" of the food chain had been accepted because our child was a bit older, and had learned more about science, nature -- the circle of life, so to speak.
I still do not think it is appropriate for most kids 5 or under, but now that time has passed, we like this a lot more than we did after that first movie viewing, and we've watched it frequently. One finds a lot of details on repeat viewings that one misses the first time, and there are plenty of jokes that work different ways for adults and kids. By the party music during the final credit roll, we are all dancing!
I'm leaving the original review intact, because it was an honest assessment of the film at that time, and a description of a real experience.
"Reasonable entertainment one time but not worth owning"
I saw this in a theater full of five-year-old kids at a birthday party. If ever there were a setup for a great response to a movie, that would have been it. Well, the movie started, then went on... and on... the kids didn't laugh much and hardly moved except perhaps to squirm in their seats. The movie would get going occasionally, the kids would respond, then the story would drop to low gear again. Yawn.
Sure, there were high spots of interest, and our kid particularly liked the King Lemur and his silly song and dance. But none of the main characters made a true, lasting impression on our child, nor were we asked for Madagascar toys afterward. THAT is a real indicator, I think.
We have toy lions, giraffes, hippos and zebras -- and when playing, our 5-year-old never reassigns them to play the characters in this film. By contrast, the lion toys are often used to act out "The Lion King" for one good example. If Madagascar had really made an impression, we'd have seen it being re-enacted at home. But it never happened.
I'm a huge fan of Chris Rock, and I like Ben Stiller. I wanted to see this movie succeed not just because I like those performers, but also because as parents, we can always use another good kid movie for the home collection, to stretch out the repeats of other stuff we've watched a zillion times. But I do not think this one fits the bill.
Parents of young kids should note that PG rating. Yes, folks, there really IS a difference between "G" and "PG" and the PG means your kids are depending on your guidance for what they see. This film is a little rough around the edges with some mildly scary violence, crass jokes and so on. Other reviewers always mention the penguins, but frankly I think most young kids will not get that humor at all. The stuff the penguins do is funny to grownups, but kind of mystifying to little ones.
The setup -- the animals wanting to get out of New York -- will also make a lot more sense to older kids and adults than it will to young ones. The "humor" revolving around captive animals having to adjust to life in the wild? Kindergartners can understand stuff like that if you talk about it, especially when applied to real animals and so on. But I do not think they can pick up that this problem is a motivating plot force in this movie.
The animals are escaping from the zoo, yeah, and that's easy to grasp. But this is not just about escaping. This movie is about four characters learning how to return to a natural existence, and how to keep their relationships intact in the process. If that sounds HEAVY, well, you're right -- it is! I don't think the producers really understood what film they were making, or that the theme described above is too subtle and intellectual a concept to serve as the foundation for an animated comedy.
And some kids will probably be a little wigged out by the way Alex, the natural carnivore who never had to hunt when he lived in the zoo, struggles not to turn his friends into a meal as he gradually adjusts to the wild life on Madagascar. In other words, the change in these relationships makes sense to adults, but might confuse and bother a young child.
Maybe older kids might dig this more. Maybe not. As for parents who think this is better than Shark's Tale, I totally disagree.
For a long time, I tried to avoid letting our kid see Shark's Tale when it came on TV, because I thought it would be too violent and that the humor might be too adult. One night we ended up watching some of it by accident, and our child was fine with it, to my great surprise.
All the mafia jokes in Shark's Tale were completely over the head of our five-year-old, of course. But the writing was so ingenious that those scenes still worked great for a kid's film. It had a clearcut, obvious story, with a clearcut, obvious central character, who has a clearcut, obvious plot resolution. And it has physical humor that is carefully paced throughout the film, in ways that keep kids attentive.
Madagascar has none of those things. And as much as I like the actors in this film, the voice work does not come ANYWHERE NEAR that of Shark's Tale, or most other good animated films that you might consider. Many parents will want to like this film for reasons I've already mentioned -- but I really believe that its creators were thinking like adults -- not kids -- when they wrote it and produced it. A good children's movie has to be *charming*, not just hyperactive. This one, unfortunately, lacks that charm.
Description of Madagascar (Widescreen Edition)
A pack of not-so-wild animals experience some serious culture shock when they move from the Big Apple to the Mighty Jungle in this computer-animated comedy. Alex (voice of Ben Stiller) is a lion who enjoys a charmed life as one of the leading attractions at a zoo in New York City's Central Park. While Alex and his pals Marty the Zebra (voice of Chris Rock), Gloria the Hippo (voice of Jada Pinkett Smith), and Melman the Giraffe (voice of David Schwimmer) are happy with their lot in life, they occasionally have a certain curiosity about the outside world, and when the zoo's penguins decide to make a break for it, Marty follows them into the city. Alex, Gloria, and Melman set out to find Marty before he gets into trouble, but they're a bit too late, and soon the zookeepers have decided that the animals are restless and need to be returned to the wild. Soon the critters find themselves living on the coast of Madagascar, where they quickly discover they aren't quite suited for living in the wild. Madagascar also features the voice talents of Cedric the Entertainer, Andy Richter, and Sacha Baron Cohen (aka Ali G).The penguins steal the show. In the sprightly Madagascar, a mid-life crisis inspires Marty 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 (Jada Pinkett Smith), and Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer)--then escape to bring him back. Unfortunately, their attempt at damage control persuades zoo officials that the animals are unhappy, so all four get shipped to an animal preserve in Kenya...only a squad of maniacal penguins change the destination to Antarctica. The quartet end up on an island where, in addition to meeting some hedonistic lemurs, they learn about the food chain--and that Alex is a different link on the chain from the other three. Madagascar doesn't achieve the snappy perfection of a Pixar movie, but it tops most other computer-animated efforts; the collision of friendship and predator instincts makes for an unusually gripping conflict. The vocal performances of the central characters is serviceable, but Sacha Baron Cohen (Da Ali G Show) provides topnotch lunacy as the lemur king, and the penguins--voiced mostly by the animators themselves--are the best thing in the movie. --Bret Fetzer
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