Review: Madagascar

Directed by: Eric Darnell & Tom McGrath

Written by: Mark Burton, Billy Frolick, Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath

Starring: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen

Rating: [2.5/5]

While zoos provide entertainment for those looking to get the opportunity to view animals they would never naturally see in their habitat, they certainly restrict the lives of the animals held within them. Usually not for the better, unlike what Madagascar would like the audience to think through its story of this quartet of animals fighting between the domesticated as opposed to what it would look for them to return to the wild. 

Living a lavish lifestyle in the Central Park Zoo, Alex (Ben Stiller), the lion, has everything he could ever want from steak dinners and adoring visitors who come to watch him roar. His best friend, Marty (Chris Rock) while appreciative of this life yearns for something more, wishing he could go back to the wild and live that experience. When an escape attempt by Marty has all of these characters outside of the zoo, they get subdued and shipped to Madagascar. 

The life of luxury as opposed to scavenging for survival will pose a question to anyone as to what they prefer that would make them side with either Alex or Marty feel about their particular circumstance. On one hand, being free and living the way any animal would want comes with its perks but makes them susceptible to the well-known circle of life and the food chain. Living within the zoo provides these animals all of the comfort they could want but without a sense of satisfaction that makes them feel whole. This all plays out satisfyingly and remains the central push and pull happening between these animal characters. 

We see this with Alex and Marty specifically in their diametrically different viewpoints on the matter but also Melman (David Schwimmer), the hypochondriac giraffe. He has a laundry list of pills he requests to deal with afflictions he does not have but insists he does. Having to live outside of the zoo deeply frightens him given he would not have access to his zoologists and pills. This makes the reality of him being fine on the island all the more telling of what being locked in a cage actually provided him physically other than some placebo impact for him. 

Their ventures on the island changes the dynamic of how these characters now interact given they have entered an environment where the food chain is actively utilized. Therefore, Alex finds himself starving for some food without readily available steaks provided to him, meaning he needs to find nourishment somewhere. The reality of him serving as the predator in this circumstance makes him go a bit crazy but it makes for the funniest moments the film has to offer on top of shedding the truth of how they must now survive in the wild. 

Following this quartet of animals displays the fun we came for, but then we get stuck in all of the nonsense with King Julien XIII (Sacha Baron Cohen) and all of the ring-tailed lemurs. A group of animals that justify their existence by the incredibly catchy song “I Like to Move It” but everything else involving them just becomes a pestering experience with little to no exception. They push the narrative along, especially when they directly display how they must operate their world as prey to the fossa, who seek to eat them. However, each time we pan back to these lemurs, it just takes away from the very real and fun adventure of these main four characters trying to figure out what their remaining days will now look like outside of the zoo and now fully out in the wild. 

Utilizing some decent animation in bringing these characters to life and a distinguishable voice cast giving them personality, Madagascar has elements that certainly work that drive home some entertainment value. It does lose its way as we get into the second and third act but as we spend time with this quartet of animals, we see how they differentiate in personality and what it means for them to leave what they have considered home for most of their lives and live out in the wild as they should. Plenty of laughs to go around and will certainly get the job done for its target audience.