My Movie Review on Madagascar (2005) · 3:54pm Jul 3rd, 2020
Yo, what's up, Kemosabes?
This is your friendly film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.
Today, for my 165th film analysis, I'm gonna give you guys my take of Dreamworks's "Madagascar".
Here's the summary of it:
Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Gloria the Hippopotamus, and Melman the Giraffe are a quartet of friends who have been living in the Central Park Zoo for just about their entire lives. After turning ten years old, though, Marty wonders if there's more to life than just staying in a zoo, and so he decides to leave and go on a quick trip to Connecticut. Not wanting Mary to get caught by people or hurt, his friends decide to quickly go after him.
But, the quartet are caught outside of the zoo by the authorities, and are taken on a ship to be transferred to Africa. That is, until they accidentally fall off the ship and get stranded on Madagascar.
Will the four friends ever go home to New York? Or will they forever be stuck in the wild and be unable to adapt?
In all honesty, this is another Dreamworks movie that I've been wanting to review for quite a while. I had also grown up with the Madagascar film series since I was a child, so reviewing it became so tantalizing because of that. And yes, I'm pretty aware of the mixed critical reception this film received, but...I LITERALLY CAN'T FIND ANYTHING WRONG WITH IT!
Even now, I find "Madagascar" to be a gem of an animated film, and I can see why Dreamworks made a franchise based on it too.
For instance, the direction by Tom McGrath and Eric Darnell, and the story by McGrath, Darnell, Mark Burton, and Billy Frolick, were fantastic!
The concept that the team came up with was deeply original, because I don't recall many other movies having a story like it. The gang struggling to survive in the wild actually displays something that people advocating for animals to be released from the zoo to the wild seem to overlook. Because of being raised in the zoo, the four of them didn't know how to take care of themselves or what being in the wild came with. The decision to use the island of Madagascar as the setting for where the four animals are stranded helped the film be all-the-more unique.
Along with that, the comedy aspect of the film was hilarious! I really can't recall a single joke that wasn't funny, because I laughed my socks off every step of the way. The tone even had a great balance of being frenetic and calm in terms of being comedic. Plus, there was a surprisingly wonderful amount of emotion and heart, with the friendship and loyalty between the four friends being particular boosters in that regard.
The animation was astonishing, if I may add. Dreamworks and Pacific Data Images may not have taken the visuals to the biggest of heights, but they were still awesome in their own way. I especially enjoyed the comic book feel and style they created, and the animation used with the waters of the ocean and river was perhaps the most impressive of the animated elements.
The music by Hans Zimmer was magnificent as well. The film may not have showcased one of Zimmer's strongest scores, but Zimmer's musical touch helped the score make a positive impression all on its own. Plus, the incorporations of "Boogie Wonderland", "Stayin' Alive", and "What a Wonderful World" were spectacularly spot-on, and the film's rendition of "I Like to Movie It" was an absolutely fun part that I could never forget even if I tried.
Finally, the performances of the cast, casting, characters, and character development were incredible!
It was amazing how into their characters everyone appeared to be, and they sounded like they were having a lot of fun being a part of the film. The most astounding thing was that it felt like the performers weren't just supplying the voices of the characters, and the comedic-chops and personalities they incorporated helped the characters wonderfully come to life. The character development in articulation was deeply strong, as it helped the characters be as three-dimensional as the animation.
I'm not gonna lie, the four penguins (Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private) and King Julien the ring-tailed lemur stole the show every chance they had, and Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights, and Sacha Baron Cohen portrayed their characters with lovably laughable style. Plus, Ben Stiller and Chris Rock were phenomenal in the roles of Alex and Marty, and their characters had the most dynamic of developments.
In conclusion, "Madagascar (2005)" is a Dreamworks film that is an undeniably large gem. Perhaps even one of their most underrated considering the mixed critical reception it received. It's funny, original, the vocal performances and characters were brilliant, everything! It was likewise amazing how Dreamworks was able to make what was obviously a small motion picture enormous.
So, I rate "Madagascar (2005)" five out of five stars.
Before I conclude this post, I'd like to show you guys a video that I made to promote my review of this movie on YouTube:
So, what do you guys think? Of the film? My review? And the video I made?
Awesome movie and it helped to introduce us to the scene stealers that are the Penguins of Madagascar and King Julien. Plus, Gloria’s big booty is the best!
I agree, I just love this series. ANd yeah, I like how it touches on the BIG differences between an animal raised in captivity and one raised in the wild.
I alway enjoy this movie when I was young. Not my favorite, but it one of the best movie I saw in my childhood