Genres: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Kids/Family and Animation
1 hr. 50 min. English subtitles
Staring (voices): Andy Richter, Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett-Smith
Directed by: Fernando Perez, Tom McGrath, Eric Darnell
The friendship between a New York City lion and zebra is tested when fate brings them out to the unforgiving wilderness in this computer-animated DreamWorks feature. Chris Rock does the voice of Marty the Zebra, whose longing to explore beyond his cushy Central Park Zoo boundaries is the impetus that ultimately strands him and his pals on the shores of savage Madagascar. Marty loves the new, edible scenery, but his best friend Alex the Lion (voiced by Ben Stiller) begins to starve since his diet of thick steaks has been cut off, and the rump of his friend starts to look mighty tasty.
Their other friends, a hypochondriac giraffe (David Schwimmer) and a sassy hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), try their best to think of a solution as the call of the wild slowly turns the starving Alex into Marty's worst nightmare. Meanwhile the hilariously self-aggrandizing King of the Ocelots (Sacha Cohen) has a plan to use Marty to repel his own carnivore problem. This kid-oriented comedy stays adult-friendly every step of the way, thanks to a clever script that mixes New York humor and even some existentialism with the pratfalls and spit-takes. Jolts of comedic brilliance are supplied by some Arctic-bound escaped-con penguins and a couple of literary apes. It's not a musical, but classic songs from the likes of Louis Armstrong and Sammy Davis, Jr., keep the montages flowing loose and sassy.