Be Careful What You Wish For
Be Careful What You Wish For
Madagascar
2005 Directors: Tom McGrath, Eric Darnell
Starring: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith, David Schwimmer, Sasha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer
Sometimes it’s easy to forget great films, even though you always try to keep them in mind. It seems that this is the case for me with “Madagascar” (2005), which spawned an entire franchise of animated fun. It is certainly a wild ride.
In this movie, four friends—a lion, a zebra, a giraffe, and a hippo—who live and perform at the Central Park Zoo, have an unexpected adventure. On his tenth birthday, Marty the Zebra (Rock), daydreams about the wilderness and wishes he could be there, instead of being stuck performing for tourists. And although Alex the Lion (Stiller) offers him a present that morning, Marty realizes he’s bored with his routine. Alex is the zoo’s main attraction; his daily act includes poses, growls, and leaps for his audience, and he loves the attention. Marty and Gloria (Smith) also do tricks, but Melman the Giraffe (Schwimmer), is a hypochondriac who is in love with Gloria.
Four penguins also perform at the zoo. But they’re a sneaky bunch. They try to escape through the main sewer line by excavating with plastic spoons. In their miscalculations, they arrive at Marty’s enclosure and, when he asks what they are doing, they tell him they are going to “the wild.” Marty’s intrigued and, at his birthday party that night, he tells his friends he would like to go to these wide open spaces he’s been hearing about. They believe such a thing can be found in Connecticut, so Melman suggests taking the subway there. And that night, after Marty contemplates the mosaic of zebras in the wild near his pen, he leaves. So his friends have to go look for him.
They take the subway and find him at Grand Central Station. But scores of police also locate the group, tranquilize and crate them, and ship them to Kenya, so they won’t be in captivity. But the crates fall from the ship and end up in Madagascar, where the group meets lots of creatures they had never seen before. And returning to the comforts of Manhattan would be nice for these New Yorkers, if possible. Along the way, the group learns lessons about predatory animals, including lions (as Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” plays), but also about friendship.
The reproduction of New York sites is lovingly done. Marty and the others can be found at Rockefeller Center and elsewhere. And their child-like innocence is charming. When Marty is lost in Times Square, he asks directions from a police horse, who guides him and tells him to wait for the light. When the group reaches Madagascar, they meet strange creatures they have never seen before. Most important is the eccentric King Julien (Cohen), who rules over the lemurs on the island.
Most of the characters in the film are charismatic and unique. And their limited world view is touching. But the old lady, who can be found here and in the sequels, is awful. She garners cheap laughs on three bad ideas—ageism, xenophobia, and violence. She is a clueless elderly woman with a foreign accent who hits everyone with her purse for no reason. She is completely unnecessary and these tropes should be discarded by filmmakers. Otherwise, the film has much to recommend it.