Madagascar (2005) review

(6/10)

To "celebrate" the opening of the new Madagascar sequel, I decide to recap with the original.

PLOT:In this DreamWorks flick, we follow famed Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller), paranoid Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer), sassy Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett-Smith), and longing-for-something-new Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock) from the zoo in New York. When Marty's tenth birthday rolls around, he begins to long for the wild. Everyone else thinks he's crazy, until he escapes the zoo to satisfy his need. When his friends find him, they are caught by the humans, put to sleep, and sent on a boat to a wildlife reserve, but they never get there. A mix-up on the boat (which I choose not to spoil) has them end up on the wild island of Madagascar, which is ruled in part by King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen) and his lemurs. Now the four must try to keep sane and either go home or get used to the wild. It's a simple plot executed decently.



VOICES:The voice acting is pretty well cast. I think Stiller did a stellar job of voicing Alex as did Rock as Marty and Schwimmer as Melman. Each actor seemed to take the role and make it their own by adding his or her own style of acting into it. The only performers that I don't think did as well compared to the others was, surprisingly, Sacha Baren Cohen as King Julien and Cedric the Enetertainer as Maurice. They just seemed to do their jobs with a good voice, but no style whatsoever. Besides the four main performers, the other shiners include Andy Richter as Mort and Chris Knights (?) as Skipper.

SCORE:The score was made up of some pretty well composed themes and a few well-inserted songs; it was decent.

ANIMATION:The animation in here was pretty good. The movements were done precisely and quickly to keep the feeling of the movie going. The character animation was pretty cutesy, but the movements were done very well.



OTHER CONTENT:This isn't one of the better DreamWorks films, but it's not bad either. The humor in here was at times cleverly referenced and actually funny, to more crude and simple. I laughed a couple times, but I didn't appreciate its humor as much as, say "Over the Hedge" or "Shrek". I can only hope this new one has more to offer. The second I didn't seem to care much for.

OVERALL,an ok DreamWorks film with a simple plot, well cast voice acting, decent score, pretty good animation (especially with movements), and some clever jokes, but it was mainly crude and simple anyway.