Nice animated movie for all ages

Rating: 8/10 (2 July 2018)

I saw this movie for the first time when it came out in theaters in 2005, and I loved it, along with my parents, then I saw it various times in these years, and today I still love it. And it deserves a higher rating than 6.9.
Considering the period this movie came out (practically when theaters were bombarded by great CGI animated movies such as SHREK, FINDING NEMO and ICE AGE), it has an original storyline, with four animals (a lion, a zebra, a hippopotamus and a giraffe) that live as friends in the Central Park zoo. But when Marty the zebra wants to escape, his friends also escape coming to his rescue, only to get captured (along with four penguins and two chimpanzees) and loaded on a ship direct to Kenya. Soon the four penguins sabotage the ship, and the quartet ends in Madagascar, and... well see the movie by yourself.
I'll talk about the qualities of this movie: (1) The animation is good, and especially the jungle backgrounds are charming to look at (2) The cast is awfully good, especially Ben Stiller and Chris Rock are perfect as Alex and Marty using their tipical jokes from their previous movies, and Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer and Andy Ricther are a hoot as the three main lemur characters (King Julien, Maurice and Mort) (3) The soundtrack is amazing, with the recurring theme of BORN FREE, that is perfectly suited for Marty's spirit, and I LIKE TO MOVE IT, MOVE IT, a popular disco song from the 1990s that regained popularity after this movie came out.
I want to talk about the penguins, my favourite characters of the movie. They are only supporting characters, but when they appear they steal the show! Skipper does also a nice Robert Stack impersonation, and it's very convincing as the penguin commander.
The story line has not only comedy moments, but even his drama moments, especially when Alex returns with his carnivorous instincts after a period in the wild and wants to eat his best friend Marty, and then they reconcile. People should learn this from Madagscar: true friendship reigns over everything, and even when dark sides emerge, they stop with true friends' helping.
The scene that scared me was when a hummingbird was killed by a carnivorous plant and a duckling killed by a crocodile, but the best scene was the lemur dance and song scene.
I also saw on the DVD the featurette about the making process of the movie and even a short documentary about the Madagascar island.
It's one of the greatest animated movies in recent memory, and if you never saw it, what are you waiting for? It's a must-see!