Dreamworks unleash their latest animation to the world of DVD. Sadly with their increased paranoia with the world of DVD piracy they have became pirates themselves and stolen the main feature from this disc. Yes indeed, hit the play function and you get a trailer for the movie, go to the extras and hit the audio commentaries and hey presto, you get a trailer instead. So what can I say apart from the trailer looks good ?
So please excuse when I try to recall my previous cinema outing for ‘Madagascar’ if my memory seems a little off, but this is the way the powers at be want to play it.
‘Madagascar’ is a fun family movie with loads of laughs for everyone from the grandkids to grandma. Centred on a foursome of animals that live in the New York zoo who seem more human than what their looks would suggest. The main star of the show and king of the zoo is Alex (Ben Stiller), who has his steaks delivered on a silver platter and his main blow-dried. To say spoiled would be an understatement. Marty (Chris Rock) on the other hand is a zebra who dreams of being in the wild, running under the hot sun through the vast grass plains. Melman (David Schwimmer) is a hypochondriac giraffe that downs his vitamins and goes for MRIs, and Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) seems to go with the flow inbetween bouts of basking in the sun and swimming displays Busby Berkeley would be more than content with.
Fling into the mix a group of maniacal penguins hell bent on a great escape (voiced by members of the crew) and a hilarious pair of monkeys who talk of flinging poo at every occasion.
When the penguins dig a tunnel, the temptation is too much for Marty and he follows them into the concrete jungle of New York. The others follow to try and save their friend only to end up being crated and sent off on a cargo ship. The penguins are at it again and the ship losses some of her cargo, the crates carrying the foursome being part of what ends up afloat, then beached on the shores of Madagascar.
Here they meet up with a wise cracking hip-hop dancing lemur colony (with voices from Sacha ‘Ali G’ Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, and Andy Richter amongst others), which look upon Alex and his menagerie as their saviours from the islander’s predators. That is until Alex goes the way of the ‘Lord of the Flies’ and starts seeing all as walking talking steaks. The animal in him starts to come to the surface, his claws spring out and his teeth even find their way to Marty’s backside, much to the zebra’s distress. Its up to his friends to save him and before the day is out the tuxedoed charmers are back for more mayhem.
This movie moves at a brisk pace and the laughs come in from all angles, the 3D CG has been used in a way reminiscing of the old Max Fleischer cartoons as each of the characters get squashed, battered and stretched beyond their normal CG limits. This slapstick is used to great effect and the voices are great too, with perhaps only Smith lacking as Gloria gets very much a supporting role. Schwimmer could have stolen the show, but he does not have the cartoon voicing down to perfection yet, but who else would you get to play a whiny voiced, stick legged, hypochondriac giraffe ? The kids will just laugh away at the mad antics as they unfold and the adults will sit a giggle at the injokes from the likes of ‘American Beauty’ to ‘The Planet of the Apes’ .
The extras too are split as much as the movie is in that there are some aimed particularly at adults and others for the tiny tots. There are two audio commentaries (which, as previously stated, are missing thanks to Dreamworks), the first coming in from the feisty penguins and secondly the crew, some amusing technical goofs and a making of, all of which will appeal to the older viewers. The kids on the other hand will have a field day with everything from games to learning how to draw their favourite characters. Parents will probably dread the music video of ‘I like to move it, move it’ as it will no doubt be getting played time and time again by dancing singing sprogs.
A limited edition is also being released with the penguins in their own Christmas caper, and yes Dreamworks have decided not to send preview copies for this either. So all I can say is that if the movie is anything to go on, then this might be fun too. But if you have been along to see
'Wallace and Gromit' at your local multi-plex lately, then this is the short that precedes that Wererabbit feature.
I have a little difficulty in trying to score a movie I never received, but the menus, trailer and the remaining extras look slick enough, so 3 1/2 it is, but if all was present on the disc it could have been much higher.
'Madagascar' is available now to buy via
Amazon and for pre-order at
AmazonUK .
For more information check details in our
database .
Your Talkback on this Story