Madagascar

General

Madagascar is a 2005 computer-animated survival comedy film, produced by DreamWorks Animation. It stars 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, and Andy Richter as Mort. In this film, Alex and his friends unexpectedly find themselves stranded on the Island of Madagascar.

Plot[]

At the Central Park Zoo, Marty, the zebra is daydreaming until Alex comes along to surprise Marty celebrating his tenth birthday, but has grown bored with his daily routine and longs to experience the wilds of nature following that the zoo opens up with boogie wonderland With the first appearances of Melman and Gloria Marty's overprotective best friend is Alex the smart and very lovable lion, who enjoys showing off for the public and his celebrity status as "the king of New York". Alex attempts to cheer Marty up, but Marty, still unsatisfied, gets some tips from the zoo's agent penguins—Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private—who are trying to escape the zoo, and then later that night it was dinner time and Marty’s birthday party as the other 3 animals sing happy birthday one syllable at a time Marty makes a wish before going to bed When Melman wakes up Alex to hear Marty is gone They complain scared meanwhile Marty is out in the city jamming to Staying Alive so now the other 3 follow them out. Alex, Melman the giraffe, and Gloria the hippo head to the subway station and Melman is out of the Mens restroom before the Subway arrived with the animals on the subway the people hid terrified until they arrived at grand central station to find and pursue Marty in an attempt to convince him to return. The four, along with the penguins and two chimpanzees named Mason and Phil, find themselves at Grand Central Station, where The Penguins are also hiding following that Alex gives a speech but to humans lions can’t talk and a terrified dartman succeeded on darting Alex’s but and after he gets tired he slept with the song the candyman can ending with Gloria throwing blue stars he wakes up with sad news from the zoo then after they realized that Alex woke up they quickly sedated via a tranquilizer gun with a faster version of the candyman can when Alex's attempt to communicate with humans is mistaken for aggression. The zoo, under pressure from anti-captivity activists, is forced to ship the escaped animals by sea to a Kenyan wildlife preserve. During their travels, the penguins escape from their enclosure and take over the ship, intent on taking it to Antarctica. Their antics on the bridge cause the crates containing Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria to fall overboard and wash ashore on Madagascar.

The animals are soon able to regroup, initially believing themselves to be at the San Diego Zoo. Upon exploring, however, they come across a pack of lemurs, led by King Julien XIII, with the song "I like to move it, move it". The predatory fossa attack the lemurs, only to be scared off by the fearsome appearance of Alex. After they managed to comfort a yougn mouse lemur named Mort after Alex tried to make a good impression but scaring him, the lemurs came out of their hidings and introduce themselves. Alex asked where the people are but Julian said that they don't have any people, only skeletons. His adviser, Maurice complained if they had real people, it wouldn't be called the wild. Finally, horrified and devastated where their location is, Alex runs in panic, wanting himself to go back home, but Gloria angrily stops him. Melman has a panic attack, as his face was covered in leaves. Gloria, removes the leaves from Melman's face. Melman looks happily, but still lost, he hides his head in panic. Gloria claims Alex and Melman, that they're going to find their way to get back to Central Park Zoo.

Meanwhile on an old plane, King Julien held up a meeting for all the lemurs and tells them that with Alex protecting them, they will be safe. Maurice, concerned wonders why the fossa are scared of Alex and thinks he might be even worse. Julian dismissed him and promised all the lemurs that they will make sure the zoo animals will wake up in paradise.

Later that night, Marty had built himself a makeshift hut and finds the wild to be exactly what he was looking for, with Gloria and Melman soon joining him in enjoying the island. Alex eventually comes around, but, deprived of the raw steaks he was provided with at the zoo, his prey drive begins to show as hunger kicks in. Meanwhile, on a tree, King Julien and Maurice watched as the king admits that Alex was "grooming" Marty, but Maurice thinks that Alex was not grooming him but tasting him. King Julien ignored Maurice's concerns and waited until the next day.

Meanwhile, the penguins are in Antarctica and Private says, "Well this sucks".

As the Zoo animals woke up, King Julien showed them their paradise in Madagascar which Marty realized this landscape is just like his mural back at the zoo. Later, the animals started to party as Alex commented that he felt like a king again, much to King Julien's jealousy. Marty insisted that Alex should show them his moves which he agrees. Later, Marty shows the Lemurs his celebrity as King Julien commented where Alex's crown is. The lemur's worship him but later, Alex, compelled by hunger, attacks Marty and bites him on the butt. Shocked, everyone scolded Alex what he has done, and Maurice declared that Alex is a threat, because their friend is a hunting lion and eats steak. Finally, King Julien admitted Maurice's concerns, feeling selfish that he never listened and banishes Alex to the far side of the island where the fossa live. Feeling his predatory instincts kicking in, Alex started to attack, causing all the lemurs and zoo animals to run away. Seeing what has happened to Alex, and how difficult it is to survive with so many predators around the island, Marty begins to regret his decision to leave the zoo and blamed himself for losing Alex. Melman wondered what they should do, and Gloria said that they are gonna find a way to help him. Suddenly, they heard a sound of a boat's horn, realizing the boat is coming back for them. It is revealed that the penguins, who have been to Antarctica finds it inhospitable and land their ship here.

Seeing this as a chance to return Alex to New York, Marty rushes after his friend against the wishes of the others. Melman and Gloria took notice that Marty ran back for Alex and the penguins decided that they should help Marty with a plan.

On his way to fossa territory, Marty attempts to convince the now grizzled, starving Alex to return, but Alex refuses out of fear of attacking Marty again. Marty pleaded that he can’t leave without him. But to his horror, the fossa started to close in and started chasing the zebra The penguins, Gloria, and Melman managed to find Marty but they can't fight all the fossa. At the last minute, Alex overcomes his predatory instincts and scares the fossa away from the lemur territory forever. The lemurs regain their respect for Alex, and the penguins help him satisfy his hunger through sushi. Just as the lemurs throw a farewell celebration for the foursome, the penguins decide not to break the news that the ship has run out of fuel and they also smile and wave.

Cast[]

Additional voices[]

Tom McGrath as Skipper
Christopher Knights as Private
Chris Miller as Kowalski
Jeffrey Katzenberg as Rico
Conrad Vernon as Mason
Elisa Gabrielli as Nana
Tom McGrath and Eric Darnell as the fossa and miscellaneous lemurs

Reception[]

Critical Reception[]

The film gained mixed reviews from critics; on Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a 55% approval rating based on 178 reviews. On Metacritic, the film scored 57%, falling under the "Mixed Or Average" category.

Box-Office[]

Despite the mixed reviews from critics, the film was a commercial success.

Songs[]

"I Like To Move It" - Sacha Baron Cohen
"Born Free" - Tabernacle Choir
"Boogie Wonderland" - Earth, Wind & Fire
"Stayin' Alive" - the Bee Gees
All About You - McFly
"The Candy Man" - Sammy Davis Jr.
"What a Wonderful World" - Louis Armstrong