Madagascar - Review

The original film poster

     Here it is everyone! The review to the first Madagascar film has arrived, and boy did I enjoy every second of watching this movie! The DreamWorks Animation film Madagascar was released on May 27, 2005 to mixed reviews. The film made an astounding $532, 680,671 at the box office with a reported production budget of around $75,000,000. Quite the success if you ask me, bad reviews or not. Madagascar was also the first film to receive the sequel treatment from DreamWorks Animation besides Shrek; the start of a sequel monster. But that's a blog post for another day! Let's move on to one of the most important factors in any movie, the characters.
Characters and Story: Madagascar has a great cast of characters, each with their own unique set of personalities and qualities that make them memorable. The film does a great job of introducing us to the characters. The first to we meet are Alex, a lion who is selfish and self centered, and Marty, a zebra who dreams of running free in the wild and is Alex's best friend. The story focuses heavily on these two characters while everyone else acts as sidekicks. That would have to be the one problem with the characters in this film, two much time was spent on Marty and Alex and not enough on the other two main characters, Melman and Gloria. 

Alex and Marty fighting per usual

       
     It's not a big deal because we needed to see Marty and Alex's friendship and see them grow apart and come back together in adversity. All of that made for fantastic character growth from the both of them, Alex became less selfish and cared for Marty and not himself. Marty learned to understand and except Alex and be willing to adjust for him. In many a sub-par animated film, characters never grow and that's one of the biggest reasons they are sub-par. Both Alex and Marty and great character growth with one great example being when Alex was at an extremely low point and Marty just wouldn't give up on him. These characters were believable, had fun personalities, and had growth. Thus, they made for a great duo to be at the center of this film.

Melman and his many medications

       However this is a film with four main characters, not two. Melman and Gloria are equally rich and funny characters, yet they don't have any growth in the film. They just kind of followed Alex and Marty around. Melman is an amazingly funny character who has a fear of getting sick and is a hypochondriac; adding some hilarious situations in both New York, and Madagascar. Melman is constantly trying to avoid germs by wearing tissue boxes on his feet while walking through New York, and complaining about how he needs his medicine when they are in Madagascar. But by the end of the film, he is fine with being there, no longer scared of germs or of getting sick. At one point he even "drinks" ocean water without any concerns! There was no explanation to this; a scene that showed Melman overcoming his fear of germs would have added so much to his character and probably add quite a few laughs as well! Alas, we are left not knowing how or why he is no longer a hypochondriac.

Gloria holding Mort with motherly love

       
     Gloria got the shortest stick of all in that she has the least amount of laughs and character development. She is still a great character though, and that's why it's so unfortunate that she didn't get more screen time. Gloria is the mother of this odd little family and is constantly trying to keep them together, yet when Alex draws a line in the sand separating Marty from everyone else, Gloria and Melman have no problem leaving Marty when Alex seemed like a better choice and vise versa. This could have been the perfect place for a scene showing how much Gloria was not okay with them being apart and that she was having a hard time choosing a side.

The hilarious trio of lemurs, King Julien, Mort, and Maurice

     As if our cast of main characters did give us enough laughs, we have a whole ensemble of hilarious characters. The funniest of all  has to be King Julien, the self proclaimed King of the lemurs who loves to party and thinks he is a genius, despite his stupidity. His companion Maurice is the real smart one, but is ignored by Julien. Mort is another lemur who is adorable and hilarious in his squeaky voice. King Julien is also very well known for popularizing the infamous song, "I Like to Move It". I personally like this song and don't find it as annoying as some other people might. I think it's a fun scene showing how Julien likes to party and isn't a responsible King. The most hilarious moments with King Julien are when he is devising a plan to get rid of the fearful Fuza who eat and terrorize the lemurs. He thinks he is so smart and is always complimenting himself about it. It's hilarious to see all the stupid things he does (telling ever one to be quiet, questioning why it isn't quiet yet, and then realizing it's because he is the one still talking) and then complimenting himself for being a genius! We also see some character growth here as Julien realizes that he didn't have a good plan, because Alex is a carnivorous beast, and admits he was wrong to Maurice.

The Penguins rest after a successful mission

     We also have the penguins who gained their very own TV show from being so awesome and hilarious. The four penguins, Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private, run their own secret spy operation. They are resourceful, agile, and a force to be reckoned with. They too wanted to escape the zoo but they wanted to go to Antarctica. They were able to take over an entire ship controlled by humans and direct it to Antarctica. Skipper is at there lead, and some of the funnier moments come when he is slapping Private around and telling him that he probably won't make it.

Concept Sketch of Marty

Visuals: As far as the visuals go, the film doesn't start of to well. Those few opening moments in the zoo were not good at all and looked as if they were unfinished. The backgrounds looked extremely unpolished and the characters just looked very weird to me. Although I did view the film as a standard DVD on a Blu-Ray Player and HD TV, I wouldn't say it's the DVD, just rushed animation. I'm glad to say that it's only in the zoo that it appears this way, everything else looks fantastic! The jungles of Madagascar are lush, colorful, and beautiful, making a wonderful world to watch our characters interact in.
     
     One of the things I love about this movie is that it has such a bold visual style that fits the film perfectly. It's not your  typical photo-realistic animated film; it has it's own unique and quirky style which works on a number of levels. The visual style is heavily influenced

Visual Development on the jungles of Madagascar

 by African art, it's very angular and is impressionistic. It doesn't worry about being 100 percent accurate or detailed, yet you can still tell what things are. The spirals on Gloria's elbow in the picture above are a great example of this sort of African impressionism. That's kind of how everything else in the movie is so it makes for a amazing art style. 
    
    The character design for each of the characters is perfect, such as Alex's well groomed and compact model showing his confidence. Compare that to Melman's bent neck and weak knees, which show his unsure view on the world. Each design has great personality animation; the design compliments and presents each characters personality. Many films fail to capture this in the characters, but Madagascar isn't one of them. The characters have amazing facial expressions and movements throughout the entirety of the film, and they have beautiful backgrounds to compliment them. The jungles of Madagascar are full of color and life that truly brings a living, breathing world to the screen. 


Conclusion: All in all, Madagascar is a great film and one of DreamWorks Animation's best. The film's humor is some of the best I have ever seen; I laugh harder at this movie than I do most others. It's characters are full of life and energy and are each unique, packing some amazing character designs as well. The other visuals of this are beautiful with some of, if not the, best visual style of any CG film to date. All of the characters have depth, and the two main ones go through great character developments. Every character is lovable, with the exception of the monkeys. These two characters are definitely targeted at children. Luckily, they only speak in about two scenes.

The entire Madagascar ensemble

    There are a few hiccups in the animation and the character growth of the other characters, but these are minor flaws in a great film. It packs humor, story, and heart and is one of the better animated films out there. Many people find it annoying and feel like it caters towards little kids, but if you accept the quirky, cartoon world it has created, you will find that it has many of laughs and fun adventures for you and your children. I can honestly say this is a film adults will enjoy if they just give it a chance. As King Julien would say, "What is a simple bite on the buttocks among friends? Here, give me a nibble."