Madagascar

"They weren't born in the wild... They were shipped there."

2005 1h 26m EN

👍

6.9

SOLID

★6.9TMDB · 12,071

AdventureAnimationComedyFamily

Synopsis

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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.

“They weren't born in the wild... They were shipped there.”

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Cast

Ben Stiller
Alex (voice)
Chris Rock
Marty (voice)
David Schwimmer
Melman (voice)
Jada Pinkett Smith
Gloria (voice)
Sacha Baron Cohen
King Julien (voice)
Cedric the Entertainer
Maurice (voice)
Andy Richter
Mort (voice)
Tom McGrath
Skipper / Fossa / Panicky Man on Subway (voice)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Eric Darnell
Writers: Billy Frolick, Mark Burton, Tom McGrath
Languages: English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

86 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $75M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 7.2× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 21 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 5 languages: English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Madagascar Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

264+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Hans Zimmer. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Eric Darnell directs. Hans Zimmer scores. H. Lee Peterson cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

186 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Mid-budget at $75M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
3Made its money back 7.2× over at the box office.
4Released 21 years ago.
5Dialogue crosses 5 languages: English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish.
6Part of the "Madagascar Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
7264+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
8Original score by Hans Zimmer. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
9Editor H. Lee Peterson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
10Ben Stiller and Chris Rock and David Schwimmer carry the top of the cast.
11Marketing tagline: "They weren't born in the wild... They were shipped there.".
12IMDB entry: tt0351283 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
1312,071 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
14Classified under 20 themes, including "friendship", "island", "escape", "africa".

The technical file

Original score: Hans Zimmer
Editing: H. Lee Peterson
Production design: Kendal Cronkhite
VFX supervisor: Philippe Gluckman
Sound: James Bolt
Runtime: 86 min · 1h 26m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $75,000,000
Box office: $542,064,525
Return: 723% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Madagascar (2005)

Part of

Madagascar Collection

Madagascar is an animated film series produced by DreamWorks Animation. Voices of Ben Stiller, Jada Pinkett Smith, Chris Rock and David Schwimmer are featured in the films. The plot follows the adventures of story of four Central Park Zoo animals who have spent their lives in blissful captivity and are unexpectedly shipped back to Africa.

Also by

Eric Darnell

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Andre Gonzales2023-07-10
★ 8/10
A surprisingly good and very funny movie. I laughed throughout this movie. Great family movie.
CinemaSerf2023-11-05
★ 7/10
"Alex" the lion is quite literally king of the castle at the Central Park zoo in New York. He even has his own, built in, tanning machine. His pals, though - well they are not so enamoured of the place. After an encounter with the penguins doing their best to tunnel to Antarctica, "Marty" the zebra yearns for the wild and decides the best he can do is a train to Connecticut. When his friends discover that he has done a bunk, "Gloria" (the hippo), "Melman" (the giraffe) and "Alex" set off in hot pursuit. They don't get very far but inadvertently they do get their wish - the humans decide that these creatures should be free and so off they are shipped. En route, the pesky penguins realise that Africa is no use to them so they commandeer the ship and divert it to chillier climes. Not before, however, the crates carrying our intrepid travellers topple overboard and end up on the island of Madagascar. There they discover the population of lemurs ruled with a rod of lettuce by "King Julius" and terrorised by the local foussa (think very small lions). Of course when we hear the animals speak, we hear words. When the other creatures hear "Alex" it is a mighty roar - just what the lemurs need to keep their foes at bay. Will the visitors settle in, or miss their home comforts and want to head back home? Will their more natural instincts start to kick in and start to test the strength of their friendships? Although there is, for me at any rate, just way too much relentless dialogue - especially from the giraffe and the zebra, this is a fun family adventure with loads of action, some enjoyable pith from quite a witty and observational script and, of course, we have the message for all to adhere to about loyalty and friendship etc... The jungle animations are fun and there are not too many songs to clutter up the steady pace of the proceedings. Makes you wonder just how many animals in a zoo would actually want to be repatriated to the wild (assuming they were ever there in the first place!) to fend for themselves!