Madagascar (2005)
Directed by Eric Darnell
Four animal friends get a taste of the wild life when they break out of captivity at the Central Park Zoo and wash ashore on the island of Madagascar.
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All of it's wasted, really, on another run-of-the-mill slapstick cartoon that, after a marvellous hallucination culminating with a hippo dressed as the Statue of Liberty, becomes a procession of the usual pop-smart references to stuff like Cast Away , Planet of the Apes, The Mission, Chariots of Fire, "Hawaii Five-O", and that "To Serve Man" episode of "The Twilight Zone".
For all the grown-up caregivers who are sitting in the theater, however -- the ones for whom, presumably, all the hipper-than-thou references to HMOs, Tom Wolfe, "Planet of the Apes," "Chariots of Fire" and Washoe the sign-language-using chimp are meant -- it would be nice if the movie didn't insult our intelligence by withholding a real ending in favor of one that, in more ways than one, merely runs out of gas.
A screwball adventure about four animals who escape from their supposedly cushy captivity of the Central Park Zoo and eventually end up lost in the wild, "Madagascar" has good energy, fairly steady chuckles for kids (fart jokes and spit-takes galore), and a few out-loud laughs for adults, mostly stemming from hilarious homages to movies from "Chariots of Fire" to "American Beauty" to "Planet of the Apes."
In short, Madagascar is a violent place kids at the screening I attended were crying and the filmmakers (Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath) layer in lackluster nods to Chariots of Fire, Castaway, and Planet of the Apes that didnt make them laugh.
The plot in "Madagascar," however, is frequently interrupted (or all but overwhelmed) by the gags; halfway through the film's brisk 80 minutes the screenwriters still haven't established where the movie is heading, although they have squeezed in references to Tom Wolfe, "Chariots of Fire," "Saturday Night Fever," "Hawaii Five-O," "Cast Away," "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and one of Earth, Wind and Fire's greatest hits.
If we're not suffering poo-flinging or butt-biting, we get the theme songs from Chariots of Fire and "Hawaii Five-O."
It writes itself into more corners than it can write its way out of, hoping that if it throws enough pop-cultural references at us — “Cast Away,” “Planet of the Apes,” etc. — we won’t notice how frantically it’s trying to figure out what to do.
All of it's wasted, really, on another run-of-the-mill slapstick cartoon that, after a marvellous hallucination culminating with a hippo dressed as the Statue of Liberty, becomes a procession of the usual pop-smart references to stuff like Cast Away , Planet of the Apes, The Mission, Chariots of Fire, "Hawaii Five-O", and that "To Serve Man" episode of "The Twilight Zone".
Many of the tell-tale jokes designed to cater to adult audiences, including lame-o references to Cast Away and Planet of the Apes, will produce more groans than knowing smiles.
The plot in "Madagascar," however, is frequently interrupted (or all but overwhelmed) by the gags; halfway through the film's brisk 80 minutes the screenwriters still haven't established where the movie is heading, although they have squeezed in references to Tom Wolfe, "Chariots of Fire," "Saturday Night Fever," "Hawaii Five-O," "Cast Away," "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and one of Earth, Wind and Fire's greatest hits.
For instance, there's a brief shot of Spaulding the basketball, a reference to Wilson the volleyball in "Cast Away."
On the surface, the film is little more than an ironic fish-out-of-water comedy in which domesticated animals struggle to adapt to their natural habitats, and it’s a relief to find directors Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath keeping poop jokes (such as one involving a rectal thermometer) and of-the-moment entertainment industry allusions (including unnecessary mentions of Regis & Kelly and Cast Away‘s Wilson) to a relative minimum.
The celebrity voices and multiple pop-culture references remain pervasive (ranging from clever riffs on "American Beauty" to "Planet of the Apes"), but they're not as suffocating.
Astute grownups will catch nods to Cast Away, Planet of the Apes and (my favorite) American Beauty.
A screwball adventure about four animals who escape from their supposedly cushy captivity of the Central Park Zoo and eventually end up lost in the wild, "Madagascar" has good energy, fairly steady chuckles for kids (fart jokes and spit-takes galore), and a few out-loud laughs for adults, mostly stemming from hilarious homages to movies from "Chariots of Fire" to "American Beauty" to "Planet of the Apes."
For the adults, there is a non-stop bar rage of cultural references, from "American Beauty" and "Silence of the Lambs" to "The Twilight Zone" and "National Geographic" TV specials.
Some of these jokes are clever -- "Madagascar," for instance, includes a take-off on the famous "American Beauty" rose petal dream sequence that even incorporates Thomas Newman's familiar score -- and DreamWorks has hired first-class talent to put them over ("Shark Tale" featured the voices of Will Smith, Renee Zellweger and Angelina Jolie, while "Madagascar" boasts the talents of Chris Rock, Ben Stiller and David Schwimmer).
Boom, here comes an adorable zebra, running amok in New York's Grand Central Terminal, then boom, there's a funny lift from "American Beauty."
The pursuit of Marty through New York City feels like the latter half of Toy Story 2 , and the script’s constant reliance on pop culture references, while clever, harkens back to the days of Reebok pumps and Aladdin .
Following the exploits of four pampered zoo animals that must fend for themselves after being dumped on a tropical island, Madagascar features a brisk pace, colorful look, and an emphasis on broad, relentlessly silly jokes - so it seems fairly clear that small kids are the intended audience for the film (ie Toy Story this isn't).
It’s just that the likes of Toy Story, Shrek and The Incredibles have entitled us to expect more from animated comedies these days.
Suspension of disbelief aside, think about the worlds of Toy Story and Finding Nemo and how we were able to sustain the simplest of story points without blinking and able to concentrate instead on the characters and their adventures.
Unlike the vocal talents used in Pixar cartoons (imagine any "Toy Story," "Monsters, Inc." or "Finding Nemo" character, and you can still hear their voices), the celebrities cast in this DreamWorks production bring nothing distinctive to their roles.
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In some ways "Madagascar" is a spiritual descendant of another kind of animated cartoon, clay animation wizard Nick Park's 1990 Oscar-winning "Creature Comforts," which had zoo animals talking feelingly about their lot in life.
A screwball adventure about four animals who escape from their supposedly cushy captivity of the Central Park Zoo and eventually end up lost in the wild, "Madagascar" has good energy, fairly steady chuckles for kids (fart jokes and spit-takes galore), and a few out-loud laughs for adults, mostly stemming from hilarious homages to movies from "Chariots of Fire" to "American Beauty" to "Planet of the Apes."
Boom, there's a gangly giraffe stuck in a pipe, then boom, there's a witty homage to "Planet of the Apes."
In short, Madagascar is a violent place � kids at the screening I attended were crying � and the filmmakers (Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath) layer in lackluster nods to Chariots of Fire, Castaway, and Planet of the Apes that didn�t make them laugh.
All of it's wasted, really, on another run-of-the-mill slapstick cartoon that, after a marvellous hallucination culminating with a hippo dressed as the Statue of Liberty, becomes a procession of the usual pop-smart references to stuff like Cast Away , Planet of the Apes, The Mission, Chariots of Fire, "Hawaii Five-O", and that "To Serve Man" episode of "The Twilight Zone".
The story begins with our obligatory “Born Free” reference (glad they got it out of the way), which initially made me a bit queasy but thankfully segued into a pedestrian early-morning scene in the Central Park Zoo, where our heroes Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock), Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), and Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer) live out their days in pampered metropolitan bliss.
The other music is not quite so old-fashioned as Wall-E's, but it does include snippets of such venerable numbers as "New York, New York," "Born Free," and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."
Madagascar, which opens with a chorus of penguins singing ''Born Free'' (fear not ?
The ads proclaim "From the makers of Shrek and Shark Tale" and that sales pitch tells you pretty much what you can expect: a slick, mildly entertaining animation from DreamWorks that is short on story, long on one-liners and venerable pop culture references, a film of celebrity voices, musical set-pieces and occasional bursts of visual inventiveness that feels as if it has been created from an animator's template.
Somewhere between the fairy tale abuse of Shrek and the retro pop culture of Shark Tale lies the happy medium of Madagascar.
And considering that "Madagascar" is the next CG family comedy from DreamWorks, after the aggressively unpleasant "Shark Tale," the question takes on a little more relevance.
The silly, good-natured "Madagascar" is a significant improvement over DreamWorks' previous animated effort, "Shark Tale."
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He joins giants like Richard Pryor in that no matter what you thought of Stir Crazy, it's a far cry from his seminal work on stage.
The plot in "Madagascar," however, is frequently interrupted (or all but overwhelmed) by the gags; halfway through the film's brisk 80 minutes the screenwriters still haven't established where the movie is heading, although they have squeezed in references to Tom Wolfe, "Chariots of Fire," "Saturday Night Fever," "Hawaii Five-O," "Cast Away," "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and one of Earth, Wind and Fire's greatest hits.