Once again, Hollywood has decided to bring the masses another cute and cuddly CGI feature film with, you guessed it, animals! Who woulda thunk that? As has been said in previous reviews, Hollywood sticks to a format that works. Therefore, Madagascar should be no different from “Shrek” or “Robots“. . .
Am I correct? Basically. Madagascar chronicles a zebra (voiced by Chris Rock), a lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), a giraffe (voiced by David Schwimmer) and a hippo (voiced by Jada Pinkett Smith) as they travel, by accident, from Central Park to Madagascar. As is the usual case in the instances of these types of movies, the characters are overly cute and unimposing. After all the movie has to draw the kids into the theater. The movie is vivid and brightly colored, again to attract the young ones. And as always the movie is littered with adult-themed humor. Gotta give something to the parents who, it is safe to say, are only sitting through the movie for their children’s sake.
Madagascar separates itself from previous CGI works in that the dialogue seems especially pointed at the parents. Where typically there may a few fart jokes or topical event humor in an animated movie, the exact opposite can be said about Madagascar. The giraffe is a pill popping hypochondriac. The lion is an egotistical douchebag. The penguins (which steal the movie), are plotting, diabolical characters who abuse humans and dare I say, say the word ‘suck’!
Does it work? Mostly. Obviously children are going to like it, even if they have no idea what the hell is going on. Adults should have a good time too. The next CGI features, I predict, will further cater to the adult audiences. Madagascar is only scratching the surface.
'Movie Review: Madagascar (2005)' have 7 comments
June 28, 2005 @ 10:23 pm Nashtradomus
Okay where do I start, I wanted to watch this movie as an upcoming father, trying get used to the idea watching family oriented animations. After watching this movie, I did realize one thing, these movies are not entirely intended for kids, they have comedy tracks that only an adult can comphrehend and some of these jokes can fly over a 5 year old.
To start out with,the cast is great, what could go wrong with Chris Rock and Ben Stiller being in the same movie? The movie had a good start with good jokes with my wife and myself chuckled a few times, after the first 30 minutes the jokes got a little childish and dull. The voice over acting is good which helps out the lame and rather predictable story, although I will admit that the CGI in this movie were rather good. The movie did have its funny moments notably the Penguins who definitely stole the show. What was unbearable in the movie was hearing David Schwimmer in his whiny ass voice in an animated feature, let alone seeing his stupid hang-dog grill in another one of those incredibly fresh Friends re-runs.
The one thing this movie did stand out was for its unusually large amount of violence between punching, pounding, biting and slapping. I guess this is given on animal movies. The movie also has many references to sex, one scene where Alex the lion is feeling up an imaginary version of a lioness and another is a rather large hippo flaunting in a bikini.
Overall the movie was okay, looking beyond the overdone and tacky scenes, I would rate this movie C.
July 2, 2005 @ 6:29 pm Mr. Lavender
I tend to agree that David Schwimmer is annoying s.o.b., but he undoubtedly fit the part of the hypochondriac giraffe. I think the casting directors were spot on with the voice talent.
July 7, 2005 @ 10:11 am Nashtradomus
Well Mr. Laevnder queer eye for the voice talent, I agree with you that David Schwimmer fit the part well for the hypochondriac giraffe. But still, I had to voice my frustration in having to hear him out.
July 7, 2005 @ 4:55 pm Mr. Lavender
Your voice has been heard. Now zip it or I’ll bring in a tape loop of Friends for you to listen to!
November 24, 2008 @ 11:29 am Raine Radtke
I found the movie to, yes, be very entertaining for an older audience, but I really didn’t think it was necessarily a bad thing. I was glad that it wasn’t another film I was going to dread watching a million times with my younger brother. But what I didn’t enjoy, and what, in fact, I’ve come to hate about Ben Stiller’s movies, is that it was made FOR Ben Stiller. He and his other famous friends are having a good time making a movie because they can, not because they have anything worthwhile to say. In this film, for instance, the jokes catered mainly to the actors personas. It became increasingly obvious throughout the movie that the topic of fatherhood and the necessary bond between children and their parents, was inserted, not believed. Also that the director plays a main-ish character with a large amount of jokes struck me as somewhat vain, but I laughed, so who am I to judge.
January 23, 2009 @ 3:19 pm cat product
I normally don’t like david schwimmer, but his voice fit the part well.
May 12, 2010 @ 2:24 pm Neil
Yeap – somehow David Schwimmer is well suited to playing a Giraffe. If you enjoy this movie you’ll also enjoy it’s sequel (“Escape To Africa”). As General Disdain points out, Hollywood knows how to work a formula well. On this occassion, it works really well.