Famine's Review: Madagascar

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Famine

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Okay, so this has been out a while, but I've never felt compelled to see it. My other half has some wierd, online DVD-rental thing, and Madagascar just happened to arrive on Friday.

The pedigree is good - Dreamworks had hands in, in varying degrees, Antz, W&G: Wererabbit, Chicken Run and both (all three?) Shreks. But they also did Shark Tale (click to see my thoughts on that one)... Mmmm, I guess the good outweighs the bad.

So... is it another Shrek, or is it another Shark Tale? Let's summarise, by the magic of the +/- rating system!

- Voice talent. Jada Pinkett Smith (Shark Tale's Will Smith's wife) does her usual "Oh no you di'nt" voice, Chris Rock does his usual voice, DAVID SCHWIMMER (no comment necessary here)... Oh and Ben Stiller. Ben Stiller should have been shot after Mystery Men - that way he'd have had one good film everyone would remember him for, as opposed to the legion of stinkers.
+ The penguins are funny.
- Plot/Story. What plot? What story? Did the world develop ADHD while my back was turned, and I'm the only person that this didn't make any sense to?
+ The bit with the "organic" Statue of Liberty is quite funny...
- ... but ruined by the fact that, since it's a kid's film, Ben Stiller can't say "damn" or "hell". Or just ruined by Ben Stiller. Whatever.
+ Errr... help me out here.
- The actual artwork is appalling. They seemed to really concentrate on the shipping containers on board the ship, but it drew attention to how abysmal the rest of it is.
+ Oh yes - the scene with them inside the shipping containers isn't bad.
- Just to revisit the voice talent again, who the **** thought that hiring Ali G was a good idea? He was funny for about 7 minutes as Ali G, and another 3 as Borat. As King Julien, his voice does a veritable ISS-like tour of the world, visiting several different countries in the same sentence, seeming to default to a cross between ghetto Yardie and stereotypical Bradford Indian. He made a dreadful part just that little bit more dreadfuller.
+ No, that's about it for positives, I'm afraid.
- Seriously, I laughed more times during the 45 second trailer for Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit before the film than I did for the entire of Madagascar. It wasn't hard to count - I laughed ONCE, when the monkey said "Of course we're going to fling poo at him".
+ It was on DVD. I could turn it off.


Execrable, awful, appalling, dismal, dire, cretinous... not one word does it justice. If it's a choice between watching this and an evening of experimental spine surgery with a jackhammer, give me the hardhat and ear defenders.
 
Dreamworks, like, sucks. Glad you took the time to review what the whole world thinks of Madagascar, though. :lol:
 
Famine
Okay, so this has been out a while, but I've never felt compelled to see it. My other half has some wierd, online DVD-rental thing, and Madagascar just happened to arrive on Friday.
Click to expand...
wierd ?????

Yearh well - I liked it - Madagascar that is.....
 
Wierd. Odd, unusual, happenstance. Similar to liking Madagascar.
 
At the end when they said "Just smile and wave" I wished they'd told me sooner.
 
The funniest part of the Madagascar DVD was the extra Penguin adventure.

Famine, if you've still got that go back and watch it. Poodles get their comeuppance.

As for the movie as a whole, I think that Dreamworks target audience is very slim and very young. Something in the range of 2-4 years old. Just old enough to understand words, but nothing beyond that.
 
The adverts before the film are funnier and more exiting to watch than the actual film.
Arhhhh the pain of hearing those stupid animals sing that weird song, like a few others have said, dreamworks do suck, exept from Wallace and Gromit of course...

Famine
Execrable, awful, appalling, dismal, dire, cretinous
Click to expand...

Could'nt of put it better myself, great reveiw Famine 👍
 
Don't Dreamworks do Shrek? Then no they don't suck, they're very capable of producing great work, they just tend to aim for the much much younger audience more often.
 
Honestly, and with all due respect, i just don't understand how you can give this film a serious analysis. It is a movie made for kids. Kids don't care, and have never cared, about a plot (which there is, by the way, and a nice moral attached to about being happy with what you have as long as you have good friends and family), or character development, or the authenticity in the accent of one of those characters.
 
Giancarlo
Honestly, and with all due respect, i just don't understand how you can give this film a serious analysis. It is a movie made for kids. Kids don't care, and have never cared, about a plot (which there is, by the way, and a nice moral attached to about being happy with what you have as long as you have good friends and family), or character development, or the authenticity in the accent of one of those characters.
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The excuse "it's for kids" doesn't wash. Kids CAN have taste too, you know, and can follow a plot.

"Authenticity in the accent"? I wasn't talking about authenticity - I have no clue how lemurs would speak - I was talking about the accent itself, which changed every other word. Sacha Baron Cohen's performance in this film has, amazingly, been likened to Robin Williams. I'm stunned Williams hasn't sued for defamation.


Nevertheless, what gives you the impression that it's "for kids"?
 
Was ok, but it does seem more targeted for kids.

That's probably why I liked Shrek (The 2nd seemed to cut down on the swearing and funniness involved).
 
Der Alta
The funniest part of the Madagascar DVD was the extra Penguin adventure.
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I double that! *cough* avatar *cough* :O
Giancarlo
Honestly, and with all due respect, i just don't understand how you can give this film a serious analysis. It is a movie made for kids. Kids don't care, and have never cared, about a plot (which there is, by the way, and a nice moral attached to about being happy with what you have as long as you have good friends and family), or character development, or the authenticity in the accent of one of those characters.
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I can't agree to that. Look at movies like Toy Story. They are entertaining for kids and for adults. So it can be done, it's just that not everybody can.

Regards
the Interceptor
 
If they changed the movie to " Escape of the Penguins " and included no other animals, it would have been amazing....
 
555
The film was generally not that funny. But come on, "i like to move it move it" is absolutely brilliant.
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That actually irritated the hell out of me, so much so that I muted the TV until they'd stopped.
 
555
The film was generally not that funny. But come on, "i like to move it move it" is absolutely brilliant.
Click to expand...
That was horrible. I wish someone whacked me hard with a blunt object, so wouldn't have to listen it again.

That said, I thought the movie was decent, and the penguins were funny, but I just shipped it back to my 4-year-old cousin after I watched it.
 
Ok, weird!

I know someone who kept his DVD simply for the song! Different tastes i guess.

I forgot about the penguins, they were brilliant.
 
I watched this a long time ago, and to be honest I didnt even see as many plus points as you did Famine, I think I still have the DVD laying around under a bed or I may have traded it in or something who knows and who cares.

The only small plus side was the fact that its a childs film and seemed to be lacking the adult jokes for the parents of the kids watching this film, thus as soon as this dawned on me, I was able to forgive the plot (or lack there of) and every other little thing, because it wasnt suposed to entertain me its was for a 6 year old that lacks mental capacity and chain of thought.
 
The children certainly didn't enjoy it when i saw it at the cinema. The kids infront of us at where so bored they kept wondering around the front of the cinema, which really didn't help me at least trying to enjoy the film.
I hate parents that let there kids run aorund like that!
 
Actually, the film was designed to appeal to both adults and kids... like most big animation features nowadays. It's designed to visually stimulate the children, and the choice of voice actors and script work to give their parents a chuckle or two.

Or it should. While I don't have the incredible loathing Famine does for this film, I do remember coming away from it terribly... unmoved. There were a few chuckles for parents in the Penguin scenes, but aside from the song number, nothing much for kids.

Except for the aforementioned penguins (and the penguin short, which I'd seen in the theater before another animated film), and the interesting cinematography in the "container" scene, not much stood out for me, personally. It's a pretty forgettable film.

That was really Ali G? Yeah, it really did remind me of Robin Williams. Yes, the grand master of voice talents does get that sloppy at times. :lol:
 

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