Zoo Gone Wild

Rating: 8/10 (13 June 2005)

Commando-style Penguins, sarcastic monkeys and hilarious one-liners make up the onslaught of humor that come firing at you in Dreamwork's new animated movie, Madagascar.
Surprisingly a loose remake from a 1994 Spanish film of the same name; Madagascar has brought in over 61 million at the box office so far.
Directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath, Madagascar is a story about four animals that live in the New York City zoo. Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock) decides that he has had enough of the repetitive "Zoo-Life" and decides to head out on his own to go and see the "Wild." His three friends, voiced by Ben Stiller, David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith search to find their wayward friend only to be captured, deported and shipwrecked on the tropical island of Madagascar.
A movie for all ages? A fun movie for the whole family? Yes, of course, but it is also a great date movie and has more jokes than the little kids will ever get. The group that I went with was all High School students and some of them were laughing so hard they started crying. (or maybe that was me).
Also, Madagascar makes reference to a slew of other films including: 10, Beautiful Mind, The Lion King, Twilight Zone, and The National Geographic Channel.
For me, the best parts were not even from the main characters, the Lemur King, played by Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G) and the lemur baby (Andy Richter) stole the movie hands down. Plus, if you're a Ben Stiller fan this is a great movie as Ben plays Alex the Lion very close to several of his best roles.