A Good Laugh for everyone

Rating: 7/10 (20 May 2020)

Directors Tom Grath and Eric Darnell along with writers Mark Burton and Billy Frolick create a hilarious adventure filled with interesting and quirky characters and the actors that voice them are perfectly cast. Some of the biggest names in Hollywood can be heard in this movie, Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer just to name a few. The directors and voice actors have created a memorable film that is family friendly, and one the kids will want to watch over and over.
Eager to roam free in the open plains of Africa, Marty the bored Zebra of the famous Central Park Zoo, he escapes his prison the night of his 10th birthday. Soon enough his companions Alex, the conceded Lion, Melman, the worrisome Giraffe and Gloria, the tenacious Hippo realize he has attempted an escape and set off to find him.
After an attempted rescue, the foursome find themselves crated up and being shipped off to a Wild Life preserve. Only to end up on the sandy beach of Madagascar. Marty's dream had finally come true he was in the wild, much to the disgrace of his friends. The 4 of them hope to find a way off this dreaded island and make their way back to their beloved New York City.
This movie is filled with amazing animated shots and some of the settings would have taken days to perfect, and they animators take you around the whole world you're in New York, the open ocean, Madagascar and Antarctica but one of my favourite scenes is when King Julian shows them Madagascar and you get a scenic view of a lake and palm trees, this shot itself would have taken god knows how long.
One of the issues with the movie I had was with Alex the Lion, more specifically when Alex turns savage and sees everyone as meat. For me, he just wasn't frightening enough and I could tell they were trying to make him a little scaring but I feel that to make him look like he really had gone savage he need to be portrayed a different way.
The amount of memorable characters in this film is crazy, you get a bit of everything. There's the skittish Giraffe Melman, the Cool, Calm hippo in Gloria, Alex the Lion, the King of New York, Marty the energetic Zebra and Fan favourite King Julian, self-proclaimed King of the Lemurs.
The voice actors in this film tie it all together, you have the hilarious comedian Chris Rock who voices Marty, Ben Stiller, Star of Zoolander, voice of Alex, Friends Star, David Schwimmer voice of Melman, Jada Pinkett Smith the voice of Gloria.
The edited final product of this movie is immaculate and it took animated movies to a whole new level, there are no known hiccups in the movies like missing pixel or an Easter egg of some kind.
The lighting and shadow effects are used to perfection, the shadow movement follows the character and from deeper observation I did notice a miner hiccup, the scene when Marty tells his friends his birthday wish is to go to the wild and he is stood on his lawn, the light is shining at him but his shadow is in front of him when it should really be behind him.
The soundtrack for this movie is goes somewhat unnoticed, there is some really well known songs such What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong, The chariots of Fire theme song, Staying Alive by the Bee Gees and many more.
In the end this film is a family favourite that so many people still enjoy watching, so many memorable and hilarious lines, and a gripping storyline that keeps you watching right through to the end without checking how much time is left. With a star studded cast and a great team of writers they all together create an animated masterpiece that will be funny and a good watch for years to come.