Madagascar
Year: 2005
Rating: PG
Length: 86 minutes / 1.43 hours
DreamWorks movies have always had a harsh comparison to their competition at Pixar. The visuals were never as stunning, the jokes as high-brow, or the plots as thought-provoking. And while Shrek (2001) was an early outlier, enough time has passed that they’ve developed some great movies like How To Train Your Dragon (2010) and The Bad Guys (2022). Still, movies like Madagascar (2005) highlighted everything that made DreamWorks movies distinctly of that studio—and also ultimately “less than” the comparable fare being put out by Pixar at the same time.
Ironically, Pixar explored the whole “predators can’t deny their instincts” plot to a much greater effect in Zootopia (2016). In Madagascar, these four Central Park Zoo animals find themselves separated from the support system that made their life comfortable. Their reactions to being in the titular country are played for laughs through the “fish out of water” trope. And while the frenetic, jerky motions of these characters appeals to children, I found most of the jokes aimed at the adults were amusing at best and uncomfortable to explain to my kids at worst.
The one bright spot in this movie was definitely the penguins. Seeing as these characters eventually got their own dedicated pieces after this film shows that DreamWorks realized what they had with these competent creatures. Acting like Black Ops/Special Forces, it’s criminal that these minor characters didn’t have a much bigger role to play in the driving force of the plot. While I didn’t care for any of the main characters’ quirks, I could watch those penguins again and again just for the smart, quick, and funny dialogue. They definitely save this movie from being worse, but it’s not that great either.
The average DreamWorks movie, I give Madagascar 3.0 stars out of 5.
