Madagascar (2005)

Directors: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath

A group of animals who have spent all their life in a New York zoo end up in the jungles of Madagascar, and must adjust to living in the wild.

Alex (a lion), Marty (a zebra), Gloria (a hippopotamus), and Melman (a giraffe) are friends who live in the New York Zoo. There are also four penguins, who plan to escape to Antarctica. Just like the minions in the ‘Despicable Me’ franchise, these penguins steal the show at times – although not nearly as funny or adorable as the minions!

Alex is a big attraction at the zoo and loves the attention from the crowds. Marty dreams of the wild. On his 10th birthday, he wishes for a chance to fulfil this dream. He escapes from the zoo one night, and his friends go in search of him. When they are captured, the zoo decides to ship them to a nature reserve in Kenya. However, due to unforeseen events, they end up in Madagascar.

There’s plenty to love about ‘Madagascar’ and it is the perfect film the entire family can watch together. This is however definitely more for kids, who will love the characters and their funny antics. Some of the humour is clever satire, but mostly slapstick. Big parts of the movie looked more like a kids cartoon. Regardless, it was still entertaining enough to keep me interested.

‘Madagascar’ was a huge box office success, raking in nearly $557 million on a budget of $75 million. It was followed by several sequels and spin-offs.

Would I watch it again? I don’t think so.