Madagascar (2005)
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Reviews Counted: 185
Fresh: 102 | Rotten: 83
Though its story is problematic in spots and its humor is hit-or-miss for the adult crowd, Madagascar boasts impressive visuals and enough spunky charm to keep children entertained.
Average Rating: 6/10
Critic Reviews: 40
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 24
Though its story is problematic in spots and its humor is hit-or-miss for the adult crowd, Madagascar boasts impressive visuals and enough spunky charm to keep children entertained.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 906,963
My Rating
Movie Info
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
Cast
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Ben Stiller
Alex the Lion -
Chris Rock
Marty the Zebra -
David Schwimmer
Melman the Giraffe -
Jada Pinkett Smith
Gloria the Hippo -
Sacha Baron Cohen
King Julien -
Cedric the Entertainer
Maurice -
Andy Richter
Mort -
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All Critics (188) | Top Critics (41) | Fresh (108) | Rotten (85) | DVD (31)
Lame scatalogical gags and worn pop-culture parodies abound, but the CGI animation romp is somewhat redeemed by the scene-stealing appearances of several supporting characters.
Lame scatalogical gags and worn pop-culture parodies abound, but the CGI animation romp is somewhat redeemed by the scene-stealing appearances of several supporting characters.
Top CriticIt paints itself into a very bizarre corner because at first, they are all friends and then all of a sudden they revert to being more like real animals. How do you do that and make it funny? Well, you don't.
Madagascar is great good fun, not only because the filmmakers have enlisted some wonderful voice talent but also because the visuals truly are marvelous.
The fact is, apart from certain superficial visual distinctions, virtually all of the recent studio-produced, star-voiced computer-animated movies feel like they could have been produced on different assembly lines in the same factory.
What makes it good is that the story is a kind of parable that suggests some seriousness beneath the surface, even sadness.
Very much in the tradition of Looney Tunes and Termite Terrace.
A foursome of digitally animated zoo animals escape the inner city confines of Manhattan's Central Park Zoo in search of freedom that's not be all it's cracked up to be in this well-defined children's comedy.
The character design is ugly; the main characters are often annoying; the humor is generally weak; and the computer-generated animation is often soulless.
A shallow attempt at filmmaking and humor.
...a pleasant picture, with excellent voice characterizations and charming graphics. (Blu-ray Edition)
...an engaging little diversion that maintains its charm with repeat viewing.
Amiably entertaining.
A group of animal friends escape from the Central Park Zoo.
A promising premise, a top voice cast and a studio with an impressive track record sets up expectations that Madagascar just can't fulfill.
A likeable and loose-limbed addition to the ever-growing CGI family.
Too kiddie-oriented to keep the parents coming back like they have for the likes of the vastly superior Shrek, Nemo and Incredibles films.
I wanted a moral to the story. In Finding Nemo: Don't let fear rule your life. Shrek: True beauty is on the inside. Madagascar: Don't eat your friends?
Audience Reviews for Madagascar
Super Reviewer
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- Alex the Lion: Marty!
- Marty the Zebra: Alex!
- Alex the Lion: Mar-
- Marty the Zebra: Alex?
- Alex the Lion: [angry] MARTY!
- Marty the Zebra: Oh suger honey ice tea!
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- Melman the Giraffe: I just counted twenty six invade health violations.
- Marty the Zebra: I don't know, this place is crack a liking.
- Melman the Giraffe: Twenty seven!
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- King Julien: [shows dead human] Don't you just love the people... Not a very lively bunch though.
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- King Julien: Everyone [shush noise] that's right [shush noise] how's making that noise! Oh it's me again.
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- Melman the Giraffe: [coming out of public bathroom] Oh you guys wont believe it in there, they got these neat little drinking spots, and look [shows to have urinal shop cleaner on his tongue] free mints.
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- Alex the Lion: Now I'll have to compeat with Smaou, and is smug little grin, I can't top that... Can't top that.
Discussion Forum
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Latest News on Madagascar
March 29, 2011:
DreamWorks Plans Madagascar SpinoffThe "Madagascar" penguins are getting their own movie, with "Megamind" writers Alan J. Schoolcraft...
August 15, 2008:
Weekly Ketchup: Kung Fu Panda 2, Wheel of Time and moreThis week's Ketchup bottle brings news about Kung Fu Panda 2, Madagascar 3, development news about...
June 7, 2007:
Release Dates Set for "Shrek 4" and "Shrek 5"Well, release years anyway, according to Jeffrey Katzenberg.
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A curious blend of ideas really, the whole film is made to look quite sensible in terms of how things should look in reality. But there is a kind of Tex Avery/Chuck Jones feel to the main characters that is quite nice but also someone childish compared to the backgrounds and vista's we see. You then have the set up that the animals can all talk to each but not to humans, yet they can perform human acts without question.
The film slides from slightly emotional to sensible to most of the time outright off the wall. The plot is childishly simple naturally but it works OK, it actually gets a little twisted once 'Alex' the lion goes savage when his animal instinct kicks in. Problem is once the animals break out from New York the film becomes very average very quickly. Seeing how the animals live within their city dwelling was pretty good and made for some good clever laughs, nothing hilarious I might add but it worked.
The animals using the subway and at one point getting kicked in the nuts by an old lady does push the boundaries of even this fantasy. Unfortunately even that can't top the dreadful Lemurs they encounter on Madagascar, their leader for some reason given an Indian accent which is hideously unfunny.
The penguins were by far the best of the bunch for me as a small squad of military types led by 'Skipper' who sounds remarkably like 'Zap Brannigan' from 'futurama'. I can see why they got their own spin off. The rest of the animals are voiced well by a good team of big names but they aren't overly interesting really. Rock is plain annoying and that's the end of it, whilst Schwimmer is surprisingly well matched as the hypochondriac giraffe. Stiller does what he does in pretty much everything he's in, its fine.
Overall a very bright start but it just fades into a bland generic mess that includes a god awful hip hop sequence. The animation is fair, some smart visual gags here and there and the penguins are a great success but apart from that its all very meh. The impression I got was no one was sure which way they wanted to go with this film, so many alternative ideas colliding, bit of a mess.