Review #406: 'Madagascar' (2005)

At Central Park Zoo in New York, Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock) hears about the 'wild' from some tunnelling penguins whilst celebrating his tenth birthday. Longing to see the world outside the zoo, Marty runs off to see the sights of the city. Thinking he has escaped for good, Marty's friends Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer), and Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) go after him to bring him back. Mistaking their escape for a desperate plea for freedom, the humans at the zoo ship them off to Africa where a series of mishaps sees them washed up on the shore of Madagascar. The island is ran by lemur Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen), who labels the newcomers as their saviours after Alex unwittingly chases off a pack of hyenas. Yet with no-one there to feed him his daily steaks, Alex finds his primal instincts begin to take over.

Running at around 82 minutes, I only really watched this film as I was tired and fancied something quick, breezy and amusing to see me off the sleep. Well, it was certainly quick and breezy. Like many other Dreamworks animation films, Madagascar finds its comedy in uninspired slapstick and pop culture references, and here is its biggest problem. While the superior Pixar produces films regularly that both children and adults can thoroughly enjoy (and includes some inspired comedy to boot), I tend not to find Dreamworks output actually funny. Here, films references include the likes of American Beauty (1999), Planet of the Apes (1968) and Chariots of Fire (1981) and come across as a lazy way of not actually writing something intelligent (all the jokes have been done before, and better).

One thing that is always up to scratch with Dreamworks is the animation. It perhaps may not be as beautiful as, say, WALL-E (2008), but Shrek (2001) was a charming mix of fairy-tale and the old-fashioned, while the big, bright colours of Kung Fu Panda (2008) evolved into something far more impressive in its sequel. But in Madagascar, the characters are blocky and charmless, and the backgrounds are often still and empty. The story of a bunch of city-animals trying to make it in the wild is ripe with possibilities, but the film remains relatively un-eventful and builds up to a blink-it-or-you'll-miss-it climax. A major disappointment given the voice talent involved, and is only worth watching for Baron Cohen's semi-improvised, self-worshipping King Julien.


Directed by: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath
Voices: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie