- “They weren’t born in the wild... they were shipped there.”
- ―Tagline
Madagascar is a 2005 American computer-animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation, and released in movie theaters on May 27, 2005. The voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith, and David Schwimmer are featured. Other voices include Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, and Andy Richter. It is DreamWorks's tenth animated feature film.
Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, it was a success at the box office, grossing $542 million worldwide against a $75 million budget. It was the Highest-Grossing Animated Film of 2005 and the sixth Highest-Grossing film of 2005 overall.
A sequel, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, was released on November 7, 2008. The third film, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted was released on June 8, 2012. A spin-off sequel titled Penguins of Madagascar was released on November 26, 2014. A sequel, Madagascar 4, was announced for 2018 but it was removed from the release schedule and put on an indefinite hold due to DreamWorks' 2015 restructuring.
Synopsis[]
Alex the lion is the king of the urban jungle, the main attraction at New York's Central Park Zoo. He and his best friends⁏ Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippo, have spent their whole lives in blissful captivity before an admiring public and with regular meals provided for them. Not content to leave well enough alone, Marty lets his curiosity get the better of him and makes his escape, with the help of some prodigious penguins, to explore the world.
Plot[]
Alex the lion, Marty the starry-eyed zebra, Melman the hypochondriac giraffe, and Gloria the “hip” hippo all have a pampered life at the Central Park Zoo, New York City. Here they show off to the crowds and generally enjoy themselves, but Marty, who is celebrating his tenth birthday and having grown tired of his daily routine, longs to see the rest of the world and dreams of life in the wild. Though his friends tried to cheer him up during his birthday party, Marty tells them of his desire to go to the wild, which left them shocked and surprised. Having learned that the zoo’s penguins are planning to escape, he decides to follow suit and return by morning. He has a vague notion that the wild can be found in Connecticut as Gloria told him that there were some wide open spaces resembling the wild. So one night, he sneaks out of the zoo and sets off on foot for Grand Central Terminal where he hopes to take the Metro-North Railroad to Connecticut.
When his friends found out about his departure, they escaped from the zoo and head for Grand Central Station via the Subway to try to get him back. Mason and Phil, two chimpanzees also escaped. While heading to and arriving at Grand Central, the zoo animals inadvertently scared away most of the passengers (except for one determined old lady who violently assaults Alex by bashing his head and his groin with her handbag). The zoo animals managed to catch Marty but they were soon caught and surrounded by authorities and firefighters before being shot with tranquilizer darts, along with the penguins, and Mason and Phil (two chimpanzees who also escaped). The next day, Anti-zoo campaigners and activists use the incident as evidence that animals should not be locked up. Facing pressure from protestors, all the zoo animals are placed in wooden crates and shipped to Kenya, where they will be placed in a wildlife reserve.
After escaping their crate, the penguins hijack the ship and changed its course, following their initial plan of making their way to Antarctica. During the penguins’ takeover, Alex and Marty got into a fight, as Alex blames Marty for their predicament. When the penguins commander the ship to head for Antarctica, the crates containing Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria, accidentally fall overboard and they were left stranded at sea. Later, after night fell, Alex was washed ashore on a tropical island. Finding himself lost and alone, he began calling out the names of his friends which continued on until morning. He suddenly finds Melman stuck in his crate. Soon, the four are reunited. At first, Melman assumes they are in San Diego, California, leading Alex to become upset as he believed that they will be outshone by Shamu, another zoo animal who died in 1971, who is noted by Alex for his smug grin. However, after an encounter with a large tribe of lemurs who are ruled by King Julien XIII (voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen), the group realize they are not in the United States anymore. They are actually in the wild, on the island of Madagascar.
As Alex is still angry at Marty for deliberately ruining the group's lives, he divides the island between them, forcing Gloria and Melman to help Alex out in the construction of a look-alike Statue of Liberty. As Alex also included a beacon on the statue, he plans to ignite it with fire therefore, making it easy for a boat (which Alex believes is coming to rescue them) to know on where they are. Unfortunately, the plan fails when Melman inadvertently sets the whole statue on fire (in a Planet of the Apes parody). Gloria and Melman eventually decided to join with Marty (who is living comfortably on his side of the island), and Alex soon realizes that he has been unfair and selfish to his friend, thus deciding to join the others and enjoy his new life in Madagascar. Later that night, Alex began daydreaming of raw steaks only to find himself licking Marty, as he believes that he is licking at steak. This shows that his prey drive is starting to kick in.
Meanwhile, the penguins have arrived on Antarctica only to find it snowbound, windswept and inhospitable. After surveying it for a few moments, they decide that it is not as interesting as they thought it would be when Private says, “Well, this sucks.” Back in Madagascar, King Julien hopes that the lemurs’ new friends, whom he calls the “New York Giants”, will scare away the fossa, the native inhabitants of the island and enemies of the lemurs. Despite the warnings and protests of his advisor Maurice (who is suspicious of Alex's predatory nature), Julien ignorantly convinces the lemurs to welcome the zoo animals to their own little corner of paradise.
During an ensuing welcoming party, Alex begins to regain his natural predatory instinct, losing his sanity in the process. After losing control and attacking Marty, Maurice, confirming his suspicions, considered Alex to be too dangerous to be a friend to the other zoo animals or to any of the lemurs. King Julien, accepting that his plan had failed and realizing the threat Alex has become, banishes him to the far side of the island, which is dominated by the fossa. When Alex hallucinates that everyone is steak, he loses control of himself again (though completely) and chaos ensues. As all the lemurs ran for their lives, Alex soon began chasing Marty with the intention of eating him, but before he could catch him, he was knocked out by Maurice, who threw a coconut at his head, earning him the respect of Julien. Regaining his senses, a remorseful Alex reluctantly makes the decision to leave his friends behind before going into self-exile. Now completely aware of what has happened to Alex and how dangerous the wild can be, a distraught and guilt-ridden Marty realized on what he has done and begins to regret his decision on leaving Central Park Zoo.
The penguins, leaving Antarctica behind, soon arrive at Madagascar with the ship. Realizing this may be a way back into New York, Marty finds Alex (against Gloria’s advice). Unfortunately, he ends up going deep into the fossa's territory, where he unsuccessfully tries to convince Alex to return with him, as his friend believes that he has become a monster. As Marty tells him he is not leaving without him and sings the song to cheer him up, the fossa eventually attack, and soon he, Melman, Gloria, and the penguins (who showed up to save the three) end up fighting for their lives.
When they were outnumbered by Fossa, Alex suddenly appears just before the Fossa could even have the chance of eating their prey. Though it appears that Alex has completely returned to his hunting instincts and he claims Marty as his own prey, this, however, turns out to be a ruse: Alex has managed to overcome his predatory instincts, to the joy of his friends. Using the fossa’s natural fear of him, Alex and his friends drives them away from the lemurs' territory for good At a girly ending, following a celebratory feast, at which Alex’s hunger is finally sushi, which he likes better than steak, the zoo animals return to the ship and began their journey back home. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to the group, the ship had run out of fuel, as the penguins had used the last of it to reach Madagascar from Antartica. When Private asks Skipper, another of the penguins, if they should break the bad news, the latter decided not to and tells his fellow penguins to just smile and wave, thus setting the stage for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.
Voice Cast[]
- Ben Stiller as Alex
- Chris Rock as Marty
- David Schwimmer as Melman
- Jada Pinkett Smith as Gloria
- Sacha Baron Cohen as King Julien
- Cedric the Entertainer as Maurice
- Andy Richter as Mort
- Tom McGrath as Skipper
- Chris Miller as Kowalski
- Jeffrey Katzenberg as Rico
- Christopher Knights as Private
- Conrad Vernon as Mason (Phil is unvoiced)
- Fred Tatasciore and Tom McGrath as the Fossa
- Elisa Gabrielli as Nana
- Bob Saget as zoo animal (animal unclear)
- David Cowgill as Police Horse
- Stephen Apostolina as Police Officer
Reception[]
Critical Reception[]
The film received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a 55% approval rating based on 178 reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes’ “Cream of the Crop,” 37% of critics gave positive reviews based on 35 reviews. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 57 out of 100 approval rating based on 36 reviews, indicating “mixed or average reviews”.
Box Office[]
Despite the mixed response from critics, the film was a commercial success. The film grossed $47,224,594 with $11,431 average from 4,131 theaters making it #1. In the United States, the film gained $193,595,521 domestically and a foreign gross of $348,468,325 adding to a worldwide gross of $542,063,846. As of 2008, the film is the fifth highest-grossing DreamWorks animated feature behind Shrek 2, Shrek the Third, Shrek, and Kung Fu Panda.
Gallery[]
Videos[]
External Links[]
Madagascar on Wikipedia- Madagascar on IMDb
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