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Madagascar (film)

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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.

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

Contents

Story

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Alex the exuberant lion, Marty the zebra, Melman the hypochondriac giraffe and Gloria the 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 life. But Marty, celebrating his tenth birthday, is becoming restless and dreaming of life in the wild. When he learns that the zoo's penguins are planning to escape he decides to follow suit. 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 are seperated. Alex is washed ashore on a tropical beach. All night he is alone on the beach but in the morning he 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 not be able to compete with Shamu, but when they discover a large tribe of lemurs led by King Julien XIII (voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen in a style reminiscent of Robin Williams), they realize they are not in the United States anymore. Really, they are 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 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 foosa, 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 attacking Marty, he is considered too dangerous to be a friend to his zoomates, or to any of the lemurs. Julien realises that Maurice has some sense in fearing Alex, and banishes the lion to the side of the island dominated by the foosa.

The penguins soon arrive in the ship. When Marty goes to find Alex (against Gloria's advice), he ends up deep in foosa territory. The feline predators 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 foosa's natural fear of him, Alex drives the predators away from lemur territory forever. The lemurs rejoice.

Following a celebration dinner, at which Alex discovers that he likes fish, mostly sushi, even better than steak, the friends return to the ship, leaving the penguins behind, and plan a round-the-world cruise. But the penguins haven't told them that the ship is out of gas.

Public response

After release, Madagascar quickly became one of the hottest films to see for the early part of the 2005 summer. Madagascar made about $293.6 million overall in the theaters. However, it is possible that this may have only happened because even though it is technically a "family" film, it appeals more to adults (For example, there are many murder threats and crude jokes).

Hans Zimmer's soundtrack for this film featured the song "Zooster's Breakout", which is played several times throughout the film and on the credits.

Characters

Alex The Lion

Played by Ben Stiller—Age 8.

Alex the lion is the co-star and hero of Madagascar. He was born in Central Park Zoo into a life of privilege. He is a star, an entertainer to visitors, and in his mind the king of his empire – the zoo he has never left. He enjoys his life of pampered luxury at the zoo and has no desire to ever leave. He enjoys eating steaks, but he has no idea that they are made of other animals. He is completely ignorant of his predator nature and that, in the wild, his friends, Marty, Melman and Gloria, would normally be his food.

Marty The Zebra

Played by Chris Rock—Age 10.

Co-staring with Alex, Marty the zebra is the one to blame for getting his friends to 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 and all his friends find out.

Melman The Giraffe

Played by David Schwimmer—Age 11.

Melman Menkowitz 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 medicine.

Gloria The Hippopotamus

Played by Jada Pinkett Smith—Age 9.

Gloria is a hippopotamus with an African-American "tough chick" personality. Born and raised in the Central Park Zoo, she is friendly, energetic, and one "hip" hippo. Strikingly beautiful, smart and independent, Gloria knows what she wants and how to get it. She is always the mothering type, whether it's comforting Mort or preventing Alex from killing Marty. Additionally, she is the voice of reason.

The Penguins

The four penguins are called Joe (more commonly known as Skipper), Rico, Kowalski, and Private. They feel that they are spies, out on a secret mission for a secret government agency, 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 Anarctica they are surprised to see such barren land and turn the ship towards 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.

The

*Played by Sacha Baron Cohen.
*Self-proclaimed King of the Madagascar lemurs, Julien loves to sing, dance, and be the center of attention. 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.
*Played 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 Lemur -- rounded ears and a white stripe on his nose show him to be a Goodman's Mouse Lemur.
Enlarge
Mort the Lemur -- rounded ears and a white stripe on his nose show him to be a Goodman's Mouse Lemur.

*Played 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 Julien is highly annoyed by him.

The Fossa

The fossa are pack-hunting predators native to Madagascar, who look like 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, both the spelling ("fossa") and the pronunciation in the film ("foo-sah") are accurate.

Mason and Phil, the Chimpanzees

Mason (played by Conrad Vernon) is named for James Mason, whose voice inspired the character's portrayal. Phil doesn't speak, but can read English and "speaks" American Sign Language. Both escape from the zoo in the beginning of the movie; for them, freedom means attending a Tom Wolfe lecture "to throw poo at him." 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

Crew

Pop culture references

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is consisted of 12 songs they are:

1. Best Friends

Duration: 2 minutes 24 seconds

Written by: Hans Zimmer, Heitor Pereira, Ryeland Allison and James S. Levine.

Recorded by: Geoff Foster

2. I Like To Move It

Duration: 3 minutes 51 seconds

Written by: Erick Morillo and Mark Quashie.

Proformed and produced by: Erick Morillo

Vocals performed by: Sacha Baron Cohen

Vocals produced by: Al Clay

3. Hawaii Five-O

Duration: 1 minute 49 seconds

Written by: Morton Stevens

Performed by: The Ventures

4. Boogie Wonderland

Duration: 4 minutes 49 seconds

Written by: Jon Lind and Allee Willis.

Performed by: Earth, Wind and Fire

5. Whacked Out Conspracy

Duration: 2 minutes 16 seconds

Written by: James Dooley

6. Chariots Of Fire

Duration: 3 minutes 29 seconds

Written by: Evangelos Papathanassiou

Performed by: Vangelis

7. Stayin' Alive

Duration: 4 minutes 44 seconds

Written by: Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb and Maurice Gibb.

Performed by: The Bee Gees

8. Zoosters Breakout

Duration: 1 minute 39 seconds

Written by: Hans Zimmer

Recorded by: Geoff Foster

9. Born Free

Duration: 1 minute 24 seconds

Written by: John Barry

Recorded by: Geoff Foster

Arranged by: Hans Zimmer

10. The Foosa Attack

Duration: 37 seconds

Written by: Heitor Pereira

11. Beacon Of Liberty

Duration: 2 minutes 9 seconds

Written by: Hans Zimmer and James S. Levine.

Recorded by: Geoff Foster

Score mixed by: Alan Meyerson

12. What A Wonderful World

Duration: 2 minutes 16 seconds

Written by: Robert Thiele and George David Wess.

Performed by: Louis Armstrong

The total time of the soundtrack is 31 minutes 32 seconds.

Trivia

Inaccuracies

Sequels & Spin-offs

Animals Featured

References

Madagascar Motion Picture Soundtrack Booklet

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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