Madagascar (film)

Madagascar is a computer-animated film produced by DreamWorks Animation, and released in movie theatres on May 272005. The film tells the story of four Central Park Zoo animals who have spent their lives in blissful captivity and are unexpectedly shipped back to Africa, getting shipwrecked on the island of Madagascar. The voices of Ben Stiller, Jada Pinkett Smith, Chris Rock and David Schwimmer are featured. Other voices include Andy Richter, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Cedric the Entertainer.

Madagascar was released on DVD on November 15, 2005, along with the short film, The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper.

Story

Alex the exuberant lion, Marty the starry-eyed zebra, Melman the hypochondriac giraffe and Gloria the "hip" hippo have a pampered life at the Central Park Zoo in New York City where they can show off to the crowds and generally enjoy themselves. But Marty, celebrating his tenth birthday, is longing to see the rest of the world and dreaming of life in the wild. When he learns that the zoo's penguins are planning to escape he decides to follow suit, and return by morning. He has a vague notion that the wild can be found in Connecticut, so one night he sneaks out of the zoo and sets off on foot for Grand Central Terminal, where he hopes to take the Metro-North Railroad to Connecticut.

When the others find him gone, they head for Grand Central Station via the Subway to try and get him back. Arriving at Grand Central, they scare away most of the passengers (except for one determined old lady who leaves Alex on his toes) and catch Marty. They then manage to wreck the information desk before being shot with tranquilizer darts, along with the penguins and Mason and Phil, two chimpanzees who also escaped. Anti-zoo campaigners use the incident as evidence that animals should not be locked up. Because of this, all the animals soon find themselves in wooden crates aboard a cargo ship to Kenya.

The penguins succeed in taking over the ship and changing its course, following their initial plan of making their way to Antarctica. During the ship's turning, the crates containing Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria fall overboard and they become separated on the ocean. Alex is washed ashore on a tropical beach. All night he is alone, but in the morning finds Melman stuck in his crate. Gloria and Marty soon wash ashore on the beach too. At first Melman assumes they are in San Diego, and Alex is upset that he will be outshown by Shamu, but when they discover a large tribe of lemurs led by King Julien XIII (voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen), they realize they are not in the United States anymore. They are actually in the wild, on the island of Madagascar.

Alex is furious with Marty, blaming him for the group's situation. He divides the island between them and forces Gloria and Melman to help him build a beacon-holding Statue of Liberty lookalike. His plan is to ignite the beacon, making them easy to notice for the boat, which Alex believes is coming to rescue them. However, Melman accidentally sets the whole statue on fire and destroys it. Gloria and Melman then join Marty, and Alex soon decides that he has been a jerk to his friend and joins the others to live on Madagascar.

Meanwhile, the penguins arrive in snowbound, windswept Antarctica and decide that "well, this sucks".

Julien hopes that the lemurs' new friends, whom he calls the "New York Giants", will scare away the fossa, enemies of the lemurs who have been preying on them. Despite the protests of his advisor Maurice (who thinks that Alex, as a carnivore, might be dangerous), Julien convinces the lemurs to welcome Marty and the others to their own little corner of paradise.

Unfortunately Alex, who has only ever eaten pre-cut steaks until now, is beginning to regain his natural predatory instincts. After losing control and attacking Marty, he is considered too dangerous to be a friend to his zoomates, or to any of the lemurs. Julien admits that Maurice has some sense in fearing Alex, and banishes the lion to the side of the island dominated by the fossa, just before everyone ends up running for their lives. Alex came to his senses for a time after a knock on the head by a coconut, and made the decision to leave his friends behind rather than do something he'd later regret. Marty, now completely aware of the predatory factor of the wild, is devastated at the realization that this is happening to him.

The penguins soon arrive in the ship. Realizing this may be a way back into New York, Marty goes to find Alex (against Gloria's advice). He ends up deep in fossa territory where he unsuccessfully tries to get Alex to come with him. The fossa eventually attack him, and soon he, Melman, Gloria and the penguins end up fighting for their lives, hopelessly outnumbered by the hungry creatures. Then Alex appears. At first he seems to have completely returned to his hunting instincts and claims Marty as his own prey. But this turns out to be a ruse: Alex has managed to overcome his predatory instincts. Using the fossa's natural fear of him, Alex drives the predators away from lemur territory forever. Needless to say, Julien made it clear that his original plan was a huge success.

Following a celebration dinner, at which Alex's hunger is finally sated by the discovery that he likes fish even better than steak, the friends return to the ship, leaving the penguins behind, and plan a round-the-world cruise, unaware, as the penguins reveal, that the ship is out of gas.

Characters

Alex the Lion

Voiced by Ben Stiller

Main article: Alex (Madagascar)

Alex is the Marty's best friend he is the most popular in the zoo, he is nicknamed The king of New York.

Marty the Zebra

Main article: Marty (Madagascar)

Voiced by Chris Rock

As the protagonist of Madagascar, Marty the zebra (age 10) is the cause for everyone's adventure on Madagascar. He constantly dreams about the wild and wonders what life would be like beyond the zoo (unlike Alex who is more satisfied with how things are). One night, following the successful escape of the penguins, he escapes and all his friends follow him. When caught, animal rights activists have them removed from the zoo.

Melman the Giraffe

Main article: Melman (Madagascar)

Voiced by David Schwimmer

Melman Menkowitz (age 11) is a hypochondriac giraffe, who was transferred to the Central Park Zoo as a young adult. Because of his previous stay in the Bronx Zoo, Melman believes that he’s a real worldly guy, the most experienced in his circle of friends and the leader of the pack because he’s really been around. He's also on a lot of medication.

Gloria the Hippopotamus

Voiced by Jada Pinkett Smith

Gloria believes herself to be beautiful and acts as a group mediator.

The Penguins

Main article: Penguins (Madagascar)

The four penguins are called Joe (more commonly known as Skipper), Rico, Kowalski, and Private. They feel that they are spies, who naturally have no place in the zoo. To them it's all just a big conspiracy, and they spend their days planning an escape that will lead them back to Antarctica. When the penguins do make it to Antarctica, they are surprised to see such barren land and turn the ship toward what they consider "paradise".

Skipper is the leader of the group, the roundest penguin, and is voiced by the film's director Tom McGrath. Kowalski, the smartest and tallest of the penguins, thinks of plans and takes notes for Skipper. Private is distinguishable by his googly eyes and soft British accent; he is the youngest of the group. Rico is good with knives, has a great fondness for explosives and is the only one of the four seen swimming. Alex considers the penguins to be psychotic, while they think the same of him. Skipper calls Marty their monochromatic friend.

The Lemurs

• King Julien XIII the Ring-tailed Lemur

• Voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen.
• Self-proclaimed King of the Madagascar lemurs, Julien loves to sing, dance, and be the center of attention. He uses a crown made out of leaves, and later a larger crown that features a gecko to denote his royal stature. The other lemurs hang on his every word. He is slightly deranged and overly impressed by his modest intellect. He contrives to use Alex to protect the lemurs from their natural enemy, the fossa, as long as Alex doesn't overshadow his own glory.

Julien speaks with a South Asian (Indian/Pakistani) or 'Desi' accent, which may reflect the fact that there is a large population of people of South Asian origin in Madagascar^{[citation needed]}.

• Maurice, the Aye-aye

• Voiced by Cedric the Entertainer.
• Maurice is Julien's assistant and second in command. He is in charge of announcing Julien to his court, though he finds this task tedious. He is generally less impressed by Julien than the other lemurs. Maurice shows the most intelligence in Julien's court, and is the only one to recognize Alex as a potentially greater threat than the fossa.

• Mort, the Mouse Lemur

• Voiced by Andy Richter.
• The young Mort is Madagascar's youngest lemur. He is usually timid, but can become quite shrill and vocal when he opens up. The zoo animals find him adorable, but King Julien is highly annoyed by him, eventually shouting "Oh, shut up, you're so annoying!" in response to his inane chatter but Mort responds to this by giggling and looking flattered.

The Fossa

The fossas are pack-hunting predators native to Madagascar, who look like hyenas or half-cat half-dog creatures in appearance. They are the villains of the movie, and are constantly trying to kill and eat the lemurs. According to Julien, "they're always annoying us by trespassing, interrupting our parties, and ripping our limbs off". They are cowards, however, and always flee when confronted by a bigger predator, such as Alex.

Despite appearances, the pronunciation in the film ("foo-sah") is accurate, however the spelling (Foosa or Fousa) is not, as shown in one of the signs on the island.

Mason and Phil, the Chimpanzees

Mason and Phil are the sophisticated chimpanzees at the Central Park Zoo, preferring to "read" the newspaper and enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning; for them, freedom means attending a Tom Wolfe lecture to "fling poo at him." Mason (voiced by Conrad Vernon) speaks with a British accent and plans the daily affairs for Phil and himself, but is unable to read. He is named for James Mason, whose voice inspired the character's portrayal. Phil doesn't speak, making him initially seem less intelligent, autistic, and more primitive than his comrade, but can read English and "speaks" American Sign Language which instills the idea that Phil is perhaps the more cerebral of the two. Both escape from the zoo in the beginning of the movie. They are also sent to the wildlife reserve along with the main characters. Unlike the main characters, they don't wash up on the shores of Madagascar, however they do appear in the background of the final scene in crates. They raid a wastebasket for leftover coffee and a newspaper, and their crate on the ship is full of aluminum cans (in the DVD, it is indicated that they contain root beer, not beer, likely implemented in order to make the film more family-friendly).

Cast

Trivia

• Rico the Penguin only speaks once, while slicing fish. He says "Hai", which is Japanese for "yes". In the Madagascar penguins short, he says two words: "eggnog" and "kaboom."
• Marty, Alex, Gloria, and Melman are known in Madagascar as the New York Giants, a reference to the NFL football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (In the Hungarian version, they are referenced to as "the Gangs of New York".) King Julien's exclamation, "All hail the New York Giants!" is also a reference to the Giants' official cheer.
• Madonna had also been considered for the voice of Gloria.
• A stuffed Alex can be seen in Flushed Away in Roddy's apartment.
• The Old Lady who captures Private in The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper also played a cameo part in this film as the lady who assaulted Alex the lion (and Melman the giraffe briefly) with her bag in Grand Central Station.
• King Julien is in fact a male Ring-Tailed Lemur, whereas in the wild female Lemurs are the dominant gender in the Lemur community.
• There are no lions, zebras, giraffes, or hippopotami at the Central Park Zoo.^{[citation needed]}
• When people are fleeing from Alex in Grand Central Station, the "Wilhelm scream" is heard.
• The Central Park Zoo seen in the movie is based on the zoo before 1984.
• In the movie, one of the lemurs holds up a book that says "To Serve Lemur" and says, "It's a cookbook!". This is a reference to the Twilight Zone episode To Serve Man.
• Melman's wearing Kleenex boxes on his feet after leaving the zoo are a reference to the unusual behavior of Howard Hughes.
• In the scene where Alex curses over the burnt statue, his lines are remarkably similar to that of Taylor in Planet of the Apes, albeit with less vulgar words.
• In the scene where the penguins escape, they use a tactic relating to The Great Escape, espescially when Skipper inquires to Marty, "Sprechen Sie English?"

Sequels and spinoffs

• A short film called The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper was released with the Madagascar DVD, and was theatrically released with Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit in the United States.

See also

• List of films with similar themes and release dates

Reference

• Madagascar Motion Picture Soundtrack Booklet

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