Since the franchise began in 2005, Dreamworks Animation’s Madagascar’s $500 million payday proved once and for all that the sillier, less dramatic cartoons on offer from Dreamworks Animation had serious box office appeal that could match that of their competitors, even though the movie failed to impress critics.
The first Madagascar sequel, Escape 2 Africa, earned more than its predecessor and fared better with critics, but it was 2012’s Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted that saw the series earn a massive $750 million and the best reviews of the franchise. However, 2014’s spin-off movie Penguins of Madagascar underperformed at the box office despite receiving solid reviews, calling the franchise's future into question. Outside of the box office, though, how do the Madagascar movies rank in of quality, and is this set of animated outings a franchise that gets better, instead of worse, with each new movie?
4 Madagascar (2005)
The First Movie In The Franchise
Madagascar
- Release Date
- May 27, 2005
- Runtime
- 86 minutes
- Director
- Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath
Cast
WHERE TO WATCH
Four zoo animals from New York City unexpectedly find themselves stranded on the island of Madagascar. Unaccustomed to the wild, the lion, zebra, giraffe, and hippo embark on a hilarious adventure as they adapt to their new surroundings and the quirky lemurs who call the island home.
- Distributor(s)
- DreamWorks Distribution
It’s rare to see the first film in a franchise ranked as the weakest outing of the bunch, but while the first of the Madagascar movies is a solid effort in its own right, the movie is not as tightly written or dazzlingly animated as its superior sequels. Saddled with the task of introducing the central quartet of Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria while they are still stuck in captivity, the opening act of this family comedy struggles to keep proceedings moving at a clip, and at times the madcap Looney Tunes-inspired animation seems wasted on such a slow story.
Once the group arrives at the titular island, proceedings pick up speed.
However, the penguins are solid comic relief as always and once the group arrives at the titular island, proceedings pick up speed, with the arrival of Sacha Baron Cohen’s breakout character King Julien bringing a lot of the original movie’s strongest laughs. It is an imperfect start to the series, but one that sets up the more confident Madagascar movies despite its dated pop culture parodies (something that should never have been attempted outside the Shrek franchise).
3 Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008)
The Second Movie Of The Franchise
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Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
- Release Date
- October 30, 2008
- Runtime
- 89 Minutes
- Director
- Tom McGrath, Eric Darnell
Cast
WHERE TO WATCH
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa continues the adventures of Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe, and Gloria the Hippo as they try to return to their home at the Central Park Zoo. After crash-landing in Africa, they encounter of their own species for the first time, sparking a series of comedic and heartwarming events. The film is directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath, featuring an ensemble voice cast.
- Studio(s)
- DreamWorks Animation, Pacific Data Images
Released three years after the success of the first film, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa represents an improvement from the series and shows early signs of the promise still to come. The storyline is ittedly a comedic retread of the original Lion King with Ben Stiller’s preening, image-conscious Alex playing the main role - but The Lion King is a retread of Hamlet in the first place, and more pertinently, the Disney movie is more concerned with pathos and moving moments than this mile-a-minute comedy.
The Madagascar franchise also consists of three television shows: The Penguins of Madagascar, All Hail King Julian, and Madagascar: A Little Wild.
No one could accuse Madagascar movies of being too poignant and self-serious, but the film’s slow pace did limit the effectiveness of its theoretically zany comedy. In this sequel, the faster pace and more ambitiously silly humor are DreamWorks Animation at its strongest, and this more confident, tightly-packed follow-up represents a step up from the original in much the same way that Shrek 2’s blitzkrieg of sight gags and constant punchlines upped the ante. The addition of both the late, great Bernie Mac and veteran scene-stealer Alec Baldwin to the cast means the lineup stays fresh.
2 Penguins of Madagascar (2014)
The Fourth Movie In Thea Franchise
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penguins of madagascar
- Release Date
- November 27, 2014
- Runtime
- 92minutes
- Director
- Eric Darnell
Cast
John Malkovich
WHERE TO WATCH
Penguins of Madagascar is a DreamWorks animated film that follows Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private as they team up with a spy organization called the North Wind to stop an evil octopus named Dave from taking over the world. It features the voice talents of Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights, and Conrad Vernon in the lead roles with Benedict Cumberbatch, John Malkovich, Ken Jeong, Peter Stormare, and Annet Mahendru in ing roles.
- Distributor(s)
- 20th Century
The self-serious spy-spoofing Penguins from the Madagascar movies have been the breakout characters of the franchise, a set of comic relief goofballs so consistently funny that few viewers have the time to wonder why an entirely comedic franchise needed comic relief in the first place. The news that Rico, Private, Kowalski, and Skipper would receive a spin-off movie of their own in Penguins of Madagascar was met with some trepidation by fans of the franchise, as the characters could have proven funniest in small doses and their espionage-parodying theatrics may well have worn thin at feature length.
What Kind Of Animal Madagascar's Mort Is
Madagascar fan favorite Mort has appeared in all the franchise’s movies, TV shows, short films and games but what kind of animal is he?
Fortunately, the addition of Benedict Cumberbatch as a smooth-talking wolf and Peter Stormare as an imposing polar bear ensure that proceedings are still fresh and funny when the runtime of the penguin’s adventures is stretched, and the gleefully absurd antics of the characters allow DreamWorks to indulge in some inspired Chuck Jones/Tex Avery-style set pieces of cartoon lunacy. This one is the most purely surreal and silly installment of the series, and it is among Madagascar’s best outings as a result.
1 Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (2012)
The Third Movie In The Franchise
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Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
- Release Date
- June 6, 2012
- Runtime
- 95minutes
- Director
- Tom McGrath
Cast
Tom McGrath
WHERE TO WATCH
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted is the third film in DreamWorks' massively popular animation franchise. This time, Alex (Ben Stiller), Gloria (Jaa Pinkett Smith), Marty (Chris Rock), and Melman (David Schwimmer) are forced to a European circus in order to get back home. But things get complicated when an animal wrangler comes after them.
- Distributor(s)
- Paramount Pictures
Co-penned by Noah Baumbach, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted is a truly rare treat — a second sequel that outdoes both Madagascar movies preceding outings. First off, the addition of Bryan Cranston, Martin Short, and Jessica Chastain to the cast means the series still doesn’t need to rely on the first film’s characters for laughs, and the new additions allow the four leads to grow as characters through new romances and arcs. However, it is s McDormand who truly steals the show in Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted as villainous animal control officer Chantel DuBois.
Movie |
Release Date |
|---|---|
Madagascar |
May 27, 2005 |
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa |
November 7, 2008 |
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted |
June 8, 2012 |
Penguins of Madagascar |
November 26, 2014 |
The story is tight and fast-moving and the writing funny, but the new addition that elevates this sequel is the dazzling visuals. The colorful animation is as much a visual marvel as anything Pixar has produced and earns Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted a place alongside A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors in the pantheon of threequels that comfortably outdo both their predecessors in the eyes of critics and fans alike.
The Future Of The Madagascar Franchise
There have been rumors that a fifth Madagascar movie (and the fourth in the Madagascar series) was in the works. It has been over 10 years since Penguins of Madagascar hit theaters, and while the television cartoons have kept the series alive, the next movie in the series has not materialized, and there has been little talk about it. Only the Shrek franchise has more than four movies in the series for DreamWorks, with two of them the Puss in Boots spinoffs. Meanwhile, Madagascar sits alongside How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda, with four each.
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted made $200,000 more than Kung Fu Panda 3.
It seems interesting that there hasn't been a Madagascar 4, especially since Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted made $200,000 more than Kung Fu Panda 3, and that film got a fourth edition in its mainline franchise series. There are problems behind the scenes, especially since Chris Rock (Marty the zebra) and Jada Pinkett Smith (Gloria the hippo) had a falling out that resulted in Will Smith slapping Rock at the Oscars. However, the voice cast don't need to be in the same place, so that shouldn't have stopped the franchise.
The franchise was seemingly dead long before that eplxosive Oscars moment. Madagascar 4 was scheduled in 2014 for a May 2018 release date, but DreamWorks Animation removed it from the schedule and never put it back on, and it has been years since that happened. With that said, there is hope for the franchise based on director Tom McGrath's comments:
“I love the cast, I love those characters, they are like my children in a way. There are things in the works, nothing is announced yet, but I think they’ll show their faces once more…"
The only problem is that since that comment, McGrath has directed two Boss Baby movies and as the years move on, the chance of Madagascar 4 grows slimmer and slimmer.
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