An Unlikely, But Funny, Friendship
Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, and Jada Pinkett Smith lent their voices for the roles of Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe, and Gloria the hippo, respectively. These animals are all neighbors in the Central Park Zoo in New York, and they’ve got it easy; plenty of steak for Alex, meds for the paranoid Melman – it’s a comfy life. That wouldn’t make for a very exciting movie, so in the opening minutes, we see that it’s Marty’s ten birthday, and he’s starting to really think about what else is out there in the world. Alex the lion, his best friend, tries to convince him that he’s got a great life here, and Marty agrees, but wants to know what else is out there.
Coincidentally, four penguins in the zoo are making a break for it and are eager to head to Antarctica. Marty takes the opportunity that night and leaves too, and goes walking amongst the streets as though nothing is strange or wrong at all. Well, it’s not long before his friends come after him, and moments later a massive police force assembles to capture the creatures. They’re crated up and are sent on their way back to Africa, but when those same meddling penguins mess things up, the four friends find themselves washed ashore on the island of Madagascar, along with the penguins. Thinking at first they were transferred to the San Diego zoo, they begin to look for signs of visitors, but find none. Then, they meet the lemurs on the island, and discover that hey, this is for real. After some panic, and hilarious rescue attempts, the four realize that they need to deal with the situation and each other until they get rescued.
While not quite at the level of Pixar’s portfolio, this Dreamworks piece is good for plenty of smirks and some chuckles. I didn’t like the integration of the lemur characters, and some of the music in the film is annoying, but the core group is entertaining, as are the penguins, and the overall premise is funny. Like most animated movies of this caliber, it appeals well to kids and adults alike.
Coming Up Blu
It’s no surprise that the video quality of Madagascar is exceptional on Blu-ray. You’d hardly expect anything different from a recent animated film, but it’s good to see expectations are in alignment with the reality here. It also helps that the director used a wide color palette and plenty of contrast where he could to really emphasize the gorgeous and vibrant colors and textures.
A Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track takes care of business on the audio front. A colorful soundtrack including several 70s artists like the Bee Gees and Earth, Wind, And Fire compliment the Hans Zimmer score.
As far as extra features, there are several, my favorite of which that I enabled before watching the movie was the Trivia Track. In addition to that, you’ll discover:
– Commentary with directors Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath
– The Penguins Christmas Caper – This is a cute little short in HD that runs about twelve minutes and features the Private penguin doing what he can to give a lonely polar bear a great Christmas.
– Behind the Crates – This twenty-three minute feature in SD is a behind the scenes piece that includes interviews of the voice over cast and crew.
– Mad Mishaps – Just about one and a half minutes long, in SD, this shows some of the animation
glitches that occurred during production.
– Penguin Chat – This is a useless feature. It’s about eight minutes long, is in HD, but just shows scenes from the film involving the penguins. The volume is turned down so that the voice actors of the penguins can talk, in character, about the scenes they are in.
– Meet the Wild Cast – In SD, runs about eight minutes, and is about the cast, of course.
– The Tech Behind Madagascar – Also in SD and about eight minutes, this is one of the cooler features and talks a little bit about the hardware and technology involved in creating the movie.
– Enchanted Island – SD, eight minutes, this one is about the island itself and its people, as well as where the directors got some of their inspiration from.
– Music Video – SD, about three minutes, it’s just that incredibly annoying “Move It” song in music video format.
– Learn To Draw – SD, about six minutes, takes viewers step by step to drawing the faces of the four main cast in less than ten steps each.
Conclusion
Madagascar is one of the many good animated films by Dreamworks. I wouldn’t say it’s on par with The Incredibles or Shrek, but it’s worth watching if you haven’t seen it before. This Blu-ray release features the excellent presentation you’d expect, and a fair amount of extras, too.