Madagascar

***Madagascar*** is a 2005 American computer-animated adventure comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by DreamWorks Pictures. The film was directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath (in McGrath's feature directorial debut) and written by Mark Burton, Billy Frolick, Darnell, and McGrath. The film stars Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, and Andy Richter. The film centers around a group of animals from the Central Park Zoo who find themselves stranded on the island of **Madagascar**.

Released on May 27, 2005, *Madagascar* received mixed reviews from critics but was a success at the box office, becoming the sixth highest-grossing film of 2005. It launched the *Madagascar* franchise which includes the sequels *Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa* (2008) and *Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted* (2012); the spin-off film *Penguins of Madagascar* (2014); several short films, television series, and specials; and a number of video games, theme park attractions, and live stage shows.

## Cast

* Ben Stiller as Alex, a lion. Tom McGrath explained that "Ben Stiller was the first actor we asked to perform, and we knew we wanted his character, Alex, to be a big performing lion with a vulnerable side."
* Chris Rock as Marty, a plains zebra. McGrath explained the character: "Marty is a guy who thinks there might be more to life than what's in the zoo. We wanted his character to be energetic, so we listened to Chris Rock."
* David Schwimmer as Melman, a hypochondriac reticulated giraffe who is afraid of germs. When they were looking for a voice actor for Melman, they listened to Schwimmer's voice on *Friends* and, according to McGrath, thought that it "sounded really neat." During development, Melman the Giraffe was originally supposed to be an okapi but was changed to a giraffe.
* Jada Pinkett Smith as Gloria, a strong, confident, but sweet hippopotamus. McGrath said that they found all these traits in Pinkett Smith's voice when they listened to her.
* Sacha Baron Cohen as King Julien XIII, a ring-tailed lemur and the king of the lemurs. King Julien was initially only meant to be a "two-line" character until auditioning Baron Cohen improvised eight minutes of dialogue in an Indian accent.
* Cedric the Entertainer as Maurice, an aye-aye and King Julien's royal advisor and best friend (to whom Julien never listens).
* Andy Richter as Mort, a Goodman's mouse lemur who is King Julien and Maurice's best friend.
* Tom McGrath as Skipper, the leader of the penguins. McGrath, who was also the film's co-director and co-writer, initially only lent his voice to the temporary tracks. Growing up with films starring tough actors like John Wayne, Charlton Heston, and Robert Stack, the latter of whom McGrath wanted for the voice of Skipper. Stack was approached about voicing the character, but died two weeks before production on the animation began. After that, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg decided to keep the temporary voice, with McGrath explaining: "People were used to me doing that voice. We knew it worked when we screened it." Many of the character's traits were based on Stack's work. McGrath especially emphasized *The Untouchables*, a 1959 television crime drama series starring Stack.
* Chris Miller as Kowalski, a penguin and Skipper's right hand.
	+ Miller also voices Timo, a tenrec who is only seen attending Julien's meeting.
* Jeffrey Katzenberg as Rico, a smart and silent penguin who is only expressed through grunts and squeals. Mireille Soria, the film's producer, commented on Katzenberg's uncredited role: "The irony for us is that he's the one who doesn't talk. There's something very Dadaistic about that, isn't there?"
	+ Katzenberg also voices Abner, a blue-eyed lemur who is only seen at the paradise scene.
* Christopher Knights as Private, an eager, lowly penguin. Knights was also an assistant editor on the film.
* Conrad Vernon as Mason, a chimpanzee (Phil, the other chimpanzee, is unvoiced).
* Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath as the fossa.
	+ Darnell also voices Hector and Horst, two lemurs.
* David P. Smith as Pancho, a crowned lemur.
	+ Smith also voices Becca, a black lemur and a spider.
* Elisa Gabrielli as Nana, an elderly German-accented New Yorker. Gabrielli provided some background voices until the directors and producer asked her and her fellow actors if they wanted to try their voices for the role. Upon seeing a black and white sketch of Nana, Gabrielli knew that she wanted to voice her. She modeled Nana's voice after her Russian and Hungarian grandmothers and her stepfather, though she didn't think that her voice would be kept in the finished film at first.
* Bob Saget as an unspecified off-screen zoo animal.
* David Cowgill as a police horse.
* Stephen Apostolina as a police officer.