Madagascar

Madagascar is a 2005 American computer-animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation, and released in movie theaters on May 27, 2005. The film tells the story of four Central Park Zoo animals who have spent their lives in blissful captivity and are unexpectedly shipped back to Africa, getting shipwrecked on the island of Madagascar. The voices of Ben Stiller, Jada Pinkett Smith, Chris Rock, and David Schwimmer are featured. Other voices include Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, and Andy Richter. Madagascar was released on DVD on November 15, 2005, along with the short film, The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper. A Blu-ray Disc version was released on September 23, 2008. A sequel, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, was released on November 7, 2008. The third film in the series, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, was released on June 8, 2012.

Plot
At New York's Central Park Zoo, a lion, a zebra, a giraffe, and a hippo are best friends and stars of the show. But when one of the animals goes missing from their cage, the other three break free to look for him, only to find themselves reunited ... on a ship en route to Africa. When their vessel is hijacked, however, the friends, who have all been raised in captivity, learn first-hand what life can be like in the wild.

Trivia
At one point, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez and Gwen Stefani were considered for the voice of Gloria the Hippo before Jada Pinkett Smith signed on. Harry Gregson-Williams was originally attached as the film's composer, but was replaced by Hans Zimmer. A few weeks earlier, the opposite had occurred for another film: Gregson-Williams replaced Zimmer for the scoring duties of Kingdom of Heaven. Early on, the plot was based on a group of activists who liberate the animals from their cages. The penguins originated from a film director Eric Darnell was developing, called "Rockumentary", about The Beatles-like rock quartet. When that project was canceled and Darnell was moved to this movie, he incorporated the penguins into the script, changing them from musicians to military commandos. The shot of Times Square after Marty asks the police horse for directions prominently features a Hewlett-Packard logo. Hewlett-Packard is the official computer provider for Dreamworks Animation. None of the main character animals (lion, zebra, giraffe or hippo) are actually housed at the Central Park Zoo. There are penguins. When Private is attempting to commandeer the oil tanker, "WHATApiece OFworkIsPenGuin" can been seen on the computer screen behind him. This spoofs the William Shakespeare quote, "What a piece of work is man!" from "Hamlet". According to the patch the captain is wearing, the name of the boat is the "S.S. Act II." Sacha Baron Cohen improvised the line "It's got a gecko on it", and all of the following dialog related to the gecko. The filmmakers found it so funny that they went to the extra work of creating a CG gecko for the shot. The look of the jungles in Madagascar is based on the paintings of Henri Rousseau. Melman the giraffe wears tissue boxes on his feet. This is a reference to Howard Hughes who was also a hypochondriac and suffered OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). In his later years, Hughes wore tissue boxes on his feet believing this would keep away germs. The lead quartet were originally to be a lion, a zebra, a hippo, and an okapi. Melman was changed to a giraffe to make him a more familiar animal. Jeffrey Katzenberg admitted that he was disappointed with the film's third act. The airplane that the Lemurs hold court in is a Lockheed Electra, the same airplane as Amelia Earhart disappeared in on July 2, 1937. Director Tom McGrath based his voice of one of the penguins on the voice of friend and composer Shawn Patterson; known for his Charlton Heston impressions and frequent failed use of the "Jedi mind trick". When Alex and Marty find each other on the beach and Alex remembers that he is mad at Marty, Marty swears by assigning words to the letters of an acronym. They are "O"h "S"ugar "H"oney "I"ce "T"ea. When the camera pans backward from Alex's crate in the ocean, the sea foam around him creates the head of a lion. Foam makes the face, and the absence of foam around that makes the mane. Alex is in the left eye of the face. The German actor Gerald Schaale is the usual dubbing voice of David Schwimmer, but in the German version of Madagascar he didn't dub Schwimmer's character Melman, but the sweet lemur Mort instead. The only time Rico did not have a voice; he was later voiced in spin-offs and sequels by John DiMaggio. Originally, Julien was intended to be a minor character with only two lines. However, when they cast Sacha Baron Cohen for the role, he improvised not only an Indian accent, but eight minutes of dialogue for his recording. The producers found Cohen's performance so funny that they decided to rewrite the script to make Julien have a much more prominent presence in the story as King of the Lemurs. The people never hear the animals talk.

Box office
Despite the mixed response from critics, the film was a commercial success. On its opening weekend, the film grossed $47,224,594 with a $11,431 average from 4,131 theaters making it the number 3 movie of that weekend behind Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and The Longest Yard. However, the film managed to claim the top position in the U.S. box office the following week with a gross of $28,110,235. In the United States, the film eventually grossed $193,595,521, and in foreign areas grossed $339,085,150 with a summative worldwide gross of $532,680,671. As of July 2010, the film is the eighth highest-grossing DreamWorks animated feature behind Shrek 2, Shrek the Third, Shrek, Shrek Forever After, How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, and Monsters vs. Aliens.

Henry's copy
Henry has the 2005 DVD of this movie from DreamWorks Home Entertainment. It has previews of Over the Hedge, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and Dolby Surround. The special features on it are The Penguins in a Christmas Caper, the music video for I Like to Move It, Move It, penguin commentary, games, inside scoop, crack the code, and other stuff.