Madagascar (film)
Tagline: Ton On The Run
Madagascar
Madagascar is a computer-animated film produced by DreamWorks Animation, and
released in movie theatres on May 27, 2005. 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.
A sequel, Madagascar 2 is currently in production and is slated for November 2008.
Madagascar was released on DVD on November 15, 2005, along with the short film,
The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper.
Factual Inaccuracies
Fossa
do not hunt in packs.
Lemur troops aren't led by a male, rather they are usually
led by a female.
Hummingbirds don't live in Madagascar.
Saguaro cactuses
are not found in Madagascar.
Adelie penguins don't live in Africa. This was
mentioned by Skipper and is probably a joke.
The Central Park Zoo in New York
does not own or house lions, giraffes, zebras or hippopotamuses. To see these
animals in New York City, visitors have to visit the Bronx Zoo instead.
Chimpanzees
aren't monkeys.
There are no restrooms in the area on the downtown 4,5,6 Lexington
line subway station.
Many of the female Lemurs that King Julien dances with
are incorrect. Most of them are shown with Male color variations for the species.
This may be because the Males have more distinctive color patterns which make
them look more attractive as females.
Giraffes have blue tongues, but when
Melman sticks his tongue out in the train station, it is pink.
Cast
Ben Stiller Alex
Chris Rock Marty
David Schwimmer Melman
Jada Pinkett Smith Gloria
Sacha Baron Cohen Julien
Cedric the Entertainer Maurice
Andy Richter Mort
Tom McGrath Skipper / Fossa / Panicky Man
on Subway
Christopher Knights Private
Chris Miller Kowalski
Conrad
Vernon Mason
Eric Darnell Zoo Announcer / Lemur #1 / Fossa / Subway Car Announcer
David Cowgill Police Horse
Stephen Apostolina Police Officer (as
Steve Apostolina)
Elisa Gabrielli Old Lady
Devika Parikh News
Reporter
David P. Smith Spider / Lemur #2
Cody Cameron Willie
Bob
Saget Zoo Animal
Plot
Alex the lion, Marty the starry-eyed zebra, Melman the hypochondriac giraffe and Gloria the "hip", slightly chubby hippo have a pampered life at the Central Park Zoo in New York City where they show off to the crowds and generally enjoy themselves. But Marty, celebrating his tenth birthday, longs to see the rest of the world and dreams 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 penguins' takeover, 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 outshone 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 that the ship is out of fuel.
The film was rated PG but
did feature one tongue-in-cheek allusion to two vulgar words. The character, Marty
the Zebra (voiced by the famously profane comedian Chris Rock) uttered the words
Sugar Honey Iced Tea in a slow motion scene on the beach, where he realizes that
Alex the lion is chasing him out of anger. This was subtle enough for most children
which would not have made such connection. Also, Alex uses wood to make a sign
saying, "Help", but the top part of the p falls down, and the last letter
becomes an L, resulting in making the word "Hell".
The line "You
burned it up! Darn you Darn you all to heck!" is a reference to the line
in Planet of the Apes: "You Blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!"
Rico the Penguin only speaks once, while slicing fish. He says "Hai (??,
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. King Julien's exclamation,
"All hail the New York Giants!" is also a reference to the team.
Madonna,
Jennifer Lopez, and Gwen Stefani had also been considered for the voice of Gloria.
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.
The
scene of Alex fighting the fossa is similar to Neo fighting the Agent Smiths from
The Matrix Reloaded.
When people are fleeing from Alex in Grand Central Station,
the "Wilhelm scream" is heard.
During the slow motion sequence in
which Alex attacks Marty out of hunger, the National Geographic theme plays.
When
Alex performs for the visitors at the zoo, he can be seen making the "Blue
Steel" face from Zoolander, a movie Ben Stiller also stars in.
Alex's
steak fantasy scene spoofs the infamous rose petal sequence of American Beauty,
even including part of Thomas Newman's actual score.
When Alex is constructing
"Lady Liberty" we hear him exclaim "Shut up Spalding!" to
a basketball; this is a parody of Wilson the Volleyball from the movie Cast Away
in which Tom Hanks makes a friend out of a volleyball for the duration of his
isolation on the island.
In the scene where Marty and Alex are running toward
each other across the beach, the music from "Chariots of Fire" is played.
Also, the beach setting is reminiscent of the opening scene from the same movie.
In the Northern European versions of Madagascar, the song "What is Love"
is used in the film, ending credits, and soundtrack instead of the song "I
Like to Move It".
The penguins respond, "We killed them and ate
their livers!" when asked what happened to the people on the ship, a reference
to Hannibal Lecter.
When cornered in the railway station, the lead Penguin
states "We've been ratted out, boys," a reference to Jack Nicholson
in Batman when breaking into Axis Chemicals.
When Alex arrives on the island
and starts calling for Gloria, Melman and Marty, he starts slurring and says "Gelman"
followed by "Regis, Kelly" in reference to Michael Gelman the executive
producer of Live with Regis and Kelly, then drawls "Matt, Katie, Al."
When Alex starts to turn savage, he topples down a cliff of saquaro cacti,
and gets one stuck to his back like a crucifix. He then ends up falling over a
waterfall in this state. This is similar to the opening to The Mission, where
a priest is tied to a crucifix and is sent down a river and over a waterfall.
When the Lemurs meet in the plane, one pops up with a book titled "To
Serve Lemur" and screams that it's a cookbook. This scene is a reference
to an episode of the Twilight Zone called "To Serve Man," arguably one
of the most famous episodes of the series.
Skipper's line, "It's been
a pleasure serving with you, boys," is likely a reference to Jim Lovell's
famous quote, "Gentlemen, it's been a privilege flying with you".
When
Alex draws a line across the beach, he says "You're on the Jersey side of
the river"
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