6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.3 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.3 |
Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe, and Gloria the Hippo are friends who have lived their entire lives in New York’s Central Park Zoo. When Marty escapes from the zoo to explore the outside world, Alex, Melman, and Gloria attempt to rescue him, only for all four animals and a group of penguins to be captured and sent on a boat to Africa. However, said boat is hijacked by the penguins to go to Antarctica, leading the zoo animals to end up shipwrecked on the island of Madagascar, where they must adapt to their newfound surroundings.
Starring: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron CohenFamily | 100% |
Animation | 83% |
Adventure | 68% |
Comedy | 65% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese track is also 640 kbps.
English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
DreamWorks Animation has built a rather crass reputation for itself in the ten years that it has been releasing feature films to the public at large. Beginning with the hand-drawn Prince of Egypt, a film unabashedly aimed at the Abrahamic crowd, DreamWorks has since proven it has no scruples in doing whatever it takes to play with the big dogs in the United States' animation market. Quickly dropping hand-drawn films to follow the "winning trend" of computer-generated animation, the studio made a killing from its cynical faerie tale satire Shrek in 2000. DreamWorks is notorious for its use and heavy promotion of celebrity voice talent in their films, prioritizing that aspect to the point that everything else in the film - including the story - is an afterthought. A fair few films from the studio have come and gone, utterly forgettable in their execution.
Imagine the surprise then, when a film like Madagascar comes out. Blossoming out of yet another premise development rivalry with Walt Disney Feature Animation - this time with the latter's film The Wild - DreamWorks released their iteration a year ahead, and proved to have done it far better. In Madagascar, we are introduced to four generic zoo animals - the giant hippopotamus Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith), the African lion Alex (Ben Stiller), a reticulated giraffe named Melman (David Schwimmer), and Marty, the eternally optimistic plains zebra (Chris Rock). Living a pampered existence at the Central Park Zoo, each creature has their own take on the gilded cages in which they live. Alex loves the attention from visitors, making sure to put on his best performances for them every day. Melman has become a hypochondriac and Gloria is contented enough. Marty, however, has a bad case of wanderlust and spends his free time daydreaming of "the wild," a concept that is strictly an abstract idea to the captive-born animals.
High definition... so delectable!
Encoded in AVC and averaging about 30 Mbps, Madagascar looks simply stellar. So many fine details of fur, skin, and leaf texture, muddled in standard definition, come alive on Blu-ray. It shows all the smallest touches the animators labored to put in - even the sparse little "mustache" of hairs on Gloria's upper lip. Comparing shots between the two formats reveal an even greater amount of picture present; the DVD was slightly and inexplicably windowboxed, while the Blu-ray has filled in those gaps with the film's original image. Being a purposely surreal and stylized film, Madagascar features wild color and some bizarre lighting, all of which are vividly reproduced on Blu-ray. Arguably more so than the DVD, which looks almost washed-out in comparison.
Contrast is excellent on this feature, and every detail stands out. Blacks are deep and rich, and shadow detail is quite good without ever showing crush problems. Whites are nicely balanced and do not bloom out of range. No artifacts or mastering problems are apparent whatsoever. The fanciful color palette makes for some wonderful eye candy, and the pristine digital nature of the film's CG animation ensures that the transfer is as vivid as can be.
Boasting an impressive array of options, Madagascar comes to Blu-ray with an English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track, as well as Spanish, Portuguese, and French Dolby Digital 5.1 options. The lossless TrueHD audio is quite impressive, especially given the good handful of scenes throughout with real action or musical performance of some sort. The overplayed, yet still somehow entertaining, lemur rendition of "I Like To Move It" is especially good with high definition picture and sound. Dialogue is clear and well-balanced, and even with Cohen's deliberately heavy Indian accent on his character of King Julien, every mused aside or indignant retort is picked up. The left and right speakers give a full impression of the front presentation overall, following dialogue or providing most of the ambiance and scoring. Rears fill out the soundscape with an enveloping effect in the jungles of Madagascar or Times Square. The LFE is put to good use, again during action or musical scenes, and gives ample weight to both without overwhelming either. In short, Madagascar's audio is a great fit with its visuals, and the multiple language options are an appreciated touch.
As would be expected, most of the extra features on Madagascar are kid-oriented, or have too much of a "press kit" feel to them with the chipper content, but there is still a good amount of material to be had here for all ages. Most significant of which is the Audio Commentary with the film's two directors, Tom McGrath and Eric Darnell. They are an obviously enthusiastic pair who love their work in animation, and talk about the differences between Madagascar and other DreamWorks films, the technical challenges of producing the film, and all the little every day anecdotes in between. Little details like side character names and what species of Malagasy wildlife were used in the film are revealed, as well. Some of the most amusing tidbits are how the crew fit in little ad-libbed bits of dialogue from the star voices and the humble crew voices alike.
The Mad Trivia Pop-Up is a subtitle option that details relevant film trivia for a passing scene - anything from technical facts to character quirks. The Madagascar Penguins in A Christmas Caper is a 12 minute short presented in high definition MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital 5.1. Premiering in front of the Aardman animated feature film Curse of the Were-Rabbit, the CG short sees three of the military birds making a harrowing rescue attempt for their fourth member, who was "kidnapped" while trying to obtain a present for the Central Park Zoo's lonely polar bear Ted. Mad Mishaps is a DreamWorks Animation standard on its home video releases; showcasing some of the more bizarre rendering errors during production. Running a brisk 1˝ minutes, the feature is always fun to watch to try and pick out the most unintentionally disturbing error - like facial features blowing up or somesuch.
For reference, the three making-of pieces are all presented in standard definition with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. Meet the Wild Cast, running about 8 minutes, is by and large your standard cast interview segment, talking with the star quartet as well as other significant names like Cedric the Entertainer and Andy Richter. Behind the Crates is the longest behind-the-scenes themed featurette, clocking at about 23 minutes. The inception, design work, and development of the film is depicted in breezy summary, showing the filmmakers' trip to the island nation for inspiration among other things. The Tech of Madagascar is a brief 5 minute look at the tools developed and used on the film. Animators with previous experience and developed software from Shrek and Shark Tale gave them the tools to work with for the design and technical challenges of the film. It feels a smidgen promotional with the multiple mentions of using HP processors for their work, but overall it gives a clear taste of the care that went in to the film's development.
The Penguin Chat is about 9 minutes, featured in high definition MPEG-2. It's a whimsical in-character chat with the "stars" of the film, the four escapist adélie penguins Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private. Enchanted Island, in standard definition running about 8 minutes, is a travelogue type summary of the island's culture, plants, and wildlife. Design inspiration of French artist Henri Rousseau is discussed here, as well as a profile of the country's iconic baobob trees. The many native lemurs were, according to the filmmakers, ripe for caricature, with their inherently humorous anatomy. Lastly, the DreamWorks Animation Jukebox features eight video segments and music from previous CG animated DreamWorks films. All of the clips are presented in high definition MPEG-2, so glimpses of much of DreamWorks' recent library can be had in this feature.
The separate "DWK," or DreamWorks Kids, section provides supplements that are supposedly designed strictly for the rugrats. It contains an "I Like To Move It Move It" Music Video in standard definition, as well as a Learn to Draw feature giving sweeping instructions on drawing the faces of the film's furry stars.
A light animated feature that relievedly breaks the trend of DreamWorks' standard humor, which often has a short shelf life and is generally rather crude. The voicework isn't stilted, the story is well-executed, and the character design is inspired. The attention to detail is utterly awesome, resulting in a film that is not only entertaining, but fun to simply study for its surreal beauty and vivid colors. And never has Madagascar looked better than its current release on Blu-ray. Featuring awesome picture, great sound, and a good selection of extra material, Madagascar on Blu-ray is a must-have.
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