Madagascar 2005
I think I must have originally gotten this from Netflix, but didn’t write a review at the time. It was a surprisingly good movie. While Pixar and Disney get a lot of accolades, Dreamworks was putting together some pretty solid computer animated movies. This look is more like classic cartoons, with stylized animals and scenery, but it works fine. The characters are very solid with excellent voice acting and they make a great team, plus you have all these great side characters like the penguins and lemurs. Not a long movie, I was surprised how quickly the first hour went by. There are a lot of jokes from physical humor, characters, and situational stuff, so I feel like it delivers across the board. Maybe Chris Rock is the weak link, but his character is so essential to the movie, especially the ironic friendship his zebra character has with the lion.
Eventually I bought the blu-ray for this movie and its first sequel. The blu-ray disc has some good extras with interviews with the director (who voiced the lead penguin), stars, and animators (but not Sacha Baron Cohen who was brilliant as King Julien). There is also a commentary track, which maybe I will try to tackle some day.
Written: 22 Sep 2019
Owned on: Blu-ray, Digital