Madagascar (2005)

Madagascar (2005)

6/10

Starring the voices of

Ben Stiller

Chris Rock

David Schwimmer

Jada Pinkett Smith

Directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath

The Madagascar film series has been for me a hit after hit. The animation has been well tuned to make you fall in love with the characters movement and the script are packaged to be funny without holding back.

It is hard to think of the country Madagascar, without the movie coming to mind. It packs a punch with memorable characters like the Penguins with their 007/Mission Impossible style of performance. Then there is the egotistic King Julien XIII with a voice I can’t forget in a hurry and a role that is weird to think of less.

The animation's lead characters are a Lion (Alex), Zebra (Marty), Giraffe (Melman) and Hippopotamus (Gloria). Funny enough for the movie, it is everyone else that adds to the fun, the leads are there for the path we take to experience the fun.

The four animals are in n Central Park Zoo; and the plot has them celebrating Marty's tenth birthday. Marty mentioned to his friends that he has grown bored with his daily routine. He wants free from the captivity and go to the wild.

Alex, Marty's best friend try to talk him out of it, and cheer him up, but Marty's mind was open to anything if that thing has to do with him getting out of the zoo.

Marty meets with the penguins who are already trying to get out and head to Antarctica. He hears their plan and follows the penguins Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Privat out of the zoo.

Alex, Melman and Gloria went after Marty to convince him to return, but that just further made their whole breakout more intense and they were caught. Some animal activist believing the animals broke out because they wanted freedom, pressured the zoo to set them free.

The animals were then placed in crates and were being shipped to the Kenyan wildlife game reserve. On the ship, a fight broke out between Marty and Alex, while the Penguins take over the ship. The crates of the four friends (Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria) fell off the ship and land in Madagascar.

All this, while the Penguins take over the ship to sail it to Antarctica.

The movie garnered many mixed reviews, so did the other movies in its franchise that followed, but it has been a successful franchise especially with the Madagascar film. The last film, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012) had the highest critical approval and made the most money in the box office, in the entire Madagascar franchise.

The other movies in the franchise have been, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) and Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012). A spin-off movie featuring the penguin characters, Penguins of Madagascar was done in 2014.

The future of this franchise at present (2018) is in limbo, which is sad because I truly enjoyed this franchise. It’s movies, spin-off movie and TV series that it spawned have all been funny and enjoyable.