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      Madagascar

      2005, Kids & family/Comedy, 1h 26m

      192 Reviews 50,000+ Ratings

      What to know

      Critics Consensus

      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. Read critic reviews

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      Madagascar  Photos

      Movie Info

      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.

      • Rating: PG (Mild Language|Crude Humor|Some Thematic Elements)

      • Genre: Kids & family, Comedy, Adventure, Animation

      • Original Language: English

      • Director: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath

      • Producer: Teresa Cheng, Mireille Soria

      • Writer: Mark Burton, Billy Frolick

      • Release Date (Theaters):  wide

      • Release Date (Streaming):

      • Box Office (Gross USA): $193.1M

      • Runtime:

      • Distributor: DreamWorks SKG

      • Production Co: DreamWorks SKG

      • Sound Mix: Dolby SRD, DTS, SDDS

      • Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.37:1)

      Cast & Crew

      Ben Stiller
      Chris Rock
      David Schwimmer
      Jada Pinkett Smith
      Andy Richter
      Tom McGrath
      Jamie J. Silverman
      Hans Zimmer
      Tony Cosanella
      Jennifer Dahlman
      Jamie J. Silverman
      Francois Antoine

      News & Interviews for Madagascar

      Critic Reviews for Madagascar

      Audience Reviews for Madagascar

      • Jan 15, 2022

        While not as smooth and refined as it's sequels or fellow dreamworks films, either in animation or narrative, the first Madagascar still has a charm to it. The characters are distinct, the humor is solid, and there are several consistently quotable lines. The animation isn't great, and the best characters are secondary (all things which would be improved in the sequels), but for what it is it's solid enough.

        michael m Super Reviewer
      • Jan 17, 2013

        From DreamWorks Animation comes the quirky and charming family comedy Madagascar. With an all-star cast that includes Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Cedric the Entertainer, and Sacha Baron Cohen, the film is jam packed with comedic talent. The story follows a group of animals from the New York Central Park Zoo who find themselves stranded in Madagascar and forced to survive in the wild. The animation is a bit crude, but the simpleness of it is also kind of quaint. The comedy is well written, and is full of hilarious parodies. Fun for all ages, Madagascar is a delightfully entertaining film.

        Super Reviewer
      • Oct 20, 2012

        Dreamworks hit back with an animated tale about lovable zoo animals trying to escape to the wild. Always one step behind the mighty Pixar this feature seemed to be an attempt to try and combat the ever increasing list of Pixar classics that just kept on coming. 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.

        Super Reviewer
      • Oct 18, 2012

        Very funny and quite entertaining

        Super Reviewer

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