Madagascar - Blu-ray Review

Four “wild and crazy” animals break out of the comfy confines of the zoo and imagine a more interesting life in the wild.

Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer), and Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) are all residents of the Central Park Zoo.

They lead the good life there and have all their needs catered to. Everyone but Marty is content with their lives in the zoo. When he learns that the militaristic penguins, Skipper (Tom McGrath), Rico (John DiMaggio), Kowalski (Chris Miller), and Private (Christopher Knights), are planning on escaping the zoo he follows them. Mayhem ensues and Marty and his friends find their happy, pampered lives at the zoo over. However, when they’re being shipped back to Kenya the penguins again interfere and the group ends up washing ashore in Madagascar and the lemur tribe of King Julien XIII (Sacha Baron Cohen). It always helps to be the first out, but it also helps when you’ve got a quality product. This was the case with Walt Disney’s the Wild and Dreamwork’s Madagascar. Madagascar beat Disney to the punch by releasing the comedy first and therefore made Disney’s effort look like a pale copy in comparison. Though I would have to say that the Wild was definitely a film that really didn’t have much of a chance since the storyline wasn’t was well done as its competition.

Madagascar definitely outpaces the Wild with its talented voice cast (the Wild did feature a delightfully deranged turn by William Shatner, but it wasn’t enough to save it) who are no stranger to comic timing. The Wild seemed to stretch on and on where Madagascar was a welcome visitor. Dreamworks brings the film out in a spectacular high definition debut. You can see every detail that the animators put into each of the animals, much better than the DVD. Madagascar is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.85:1). Special features include a new trivia track that’s exclusive to this Blu-ray release. All other special features are in high definition unless noted. First up is a commentary from directors Tom McGrath and Eric Darnell. The 12 minute short “A Christmas Caper” features the devilish penguins’ holiday plans when one of their members is “kidnapped.” “Mad Mishaps” is a 1 minute feature about some of the weird animation renderings caused by computer error. The 8 minute “Meet the Wild Cast” looks at the talented voice cast (standard definition). The 23 minute “Behind the Crates” shows how the film came to be (standard definition). The 5 minute “Tech of Madagascar” shows the technology used to make the film (standard definition). The 9 minute “Penguin Chat” talks to the great escapers. The 8 minute “Enchanted Island” looks at the island of Madagascar. The Dreamworks animation jukebox has clips of other Dreamworks films. The Dreamwork Kids section contains some stuff for the kids, but also the “I Like to Move It Move It” music video. Madagascar is a fine animated film that even succeeded in beating the House of Mouse at its own game. The Blu-ray released only really adds a trivia track to the mix; however the fantastic picture will be worth the cost of the disc.