Madagascar

Post by **Rabbit Frenzy** » May 6th, 2005, 7:56 pm

I bet Disney is wishing it had bought out Pixar when it was still too small to object. :p I actually had no idea what PDI stood for before I read this; I had just figured PDI was always part of the Dreamworks tent...

Post by **Rabbit Frenzy** » May 6th, 2005, 8:00 pm

Sounds like this will be a decent film after all.

The trailers haven't been impressing me too much.

BTW, the penguins are Kowalski, Private, Skipper, and Rico.

Hmmm....I know somebody by the name of Kowalski. :lol

Post by **Christian** » May 6th, 2005, 8:22 pm

It's worth seeing. It is not amazing but it always looks good and always has something going to keep your interest. I don't remember any parts that lagged.

Post by **Ben** » May 7th, 2005, 10:48 am

Always here to help

Yeah, I never understood why The Mouse didn't buy The Lamp when it could, especially for that asking price! Something in the region of $11m, wasn't it?

And think what they would have gained!

Post by **ShyViolet** » May 27th, 2005, 4:21 pm

I admit I haven't seen Madagascar yet but I am SO SICK of these critics who come to see DreamWorks films with a "Well-this-will-probably-suck" mentality. Their most frequent complaint is that it's "not as good as Pixar." Uh, not EVERYTHING has to be exactly like Pixar! There are different ways of making animated films--hey, supposing The Lion King was released nowadays. I'll bet one of those critics on Rotten Tomatoes (and a lot of those critics they quote barely know anything about movies anyway, I'm sorry but a website like JoBlo.com does not equal Leonard Maltin) would probably say: "A movie about a lion cub who thinks he killed his dad? Uh, where's Woody and Buzz? How come no Mike and Sulley? Gee, this movie's too serious and the writing is lame. It's just not as good as Pixar."

Fie on them!!!!!

Post by **Macaluso** » May 27th, 2005, 4:47 pm

Um... reviewers suck anyway. Haven't you figured this out by now?

Post by **James** » May 27th, 2005, 6:06 pm

To be honest though, if it weren't for the website reviewers who "barely know anything about movies anyway" Madagascar's Tomatometer rating would be a lot lower. Check out the "Cream of the Crop" section on the right side of the page (which is mainly for professional newspaper and TV critics): Madagascar is at 39%. The web critics are who are pulling up its rating!

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/madagascar/

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » May 28th, 2005, 12:45 am

Let me appoint myself the voice of reason if you'll allow me ---!

First of all, Violet and Mac, how old are you guys and do you pay out of your own pocket to see movies?

Secondly, what makes you think EVERYBODY has all the time and money in the world to throw away on going to every darn film?

The reason why a lot of people read reviews is to AVOID wasting money AND time on garbage.

You can make all the excuses you want about how people are not supposed to make judgements based on other's opinions but the fact is that people do this all the time! Nobody has unlimited money OR unlimited time to do all the research they have to for everything... It's just beyond any single person to be able to afford to waste their time and money on every bit of entertainment or do the research themselves.

What James says about RottenTomatoes' ratings is very true. It IS an average, but it's a very good average and better to rely on than just one movie reviewer's word, too. It's also fairly accurate (as opinions can be) in predicting which films are half-decent and which ones become hits.

There's no question this has been a lousy year for movies. Movie attendance and box office is WAY down from last year -- because most of the films this year STINK! It's too expensive to waste money on garbage -- especially if you have a significant other or young children you want to take to the movies.

As much as I like animation in general, most animated features STINK to high-heaven for the same reasons most live-action pictures are bad, too. A) Characters are grating and annoying; B) the film doesn't have a decent plot; and C) a lot of times humor gets worked in that's overly topical or thrown at you a million times per minute like a poorly written episode of The Simpsons or Family Guy!

The critics are hard on DreamWorks because there IS a pattern to the kind of humor that's used in those films and the fact that they overly rely on and loudly shout out the fact that their films use celebrity voices. You can't deny those facts, Violet, as much as you're in love with Jeffrey Katzenberg and DreamWorks...

Post by **James** » May 28th, 2005, 1:05 am

That said, despite what I was expecting based on the critics, I enjoyed Madagascar! It is without a doubt my favorite DW animated film so far.

The moral of the story - critics can help with the decision on what to see, but nothing beats seeing the film yourself and making your own evaluation.

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » May 28th, 2005, 1:09 am

[quote="James"]That said, despite what I was expecting based on the critics, I enjoyed Madagascar! It is without a doubt my favorite DW animated film so far.

The moral of the story - critics can help with the decision on what to see, but nothing beats seeing the film yourself and making your own evaluation.[/quote]

I hate it when somebody else makes more sense than me!

Sweet and to the point!

Post by **Macaluso** » May 28th, 2005, 10:05 am

I'm 18. I do pay from my own pocket. thank you very much. Stop with the "greater than thou" attitude you harbor toward me. You can make your point without throwing out the "how old are you little ones?" card, mmmk?

Yes, I see your point too. I don't agree with you on the part you mentioned about animation though.

But eh. I guess I'm not very hard on movies... I LIKED the american Godzilla movie and 8 Crazy Nights, despite some of their faults.

...I hated the day after tomorrow thoguh :X

Post by **Ben** » May 28th, 2005, 11:44 am

Hooraaay!

I liked Godzilla too, and thought it a much better kind of "follow up" to Jurassic Park than the true Lost World sequel (and the less said about the "TV-pilot" that was JP3 the better).

Now, can we keep this BACK ON TOPIC PLEASE!

Post by **Macaluso** » May 28th, 2005, 12:09 pm

Hey... They could make a million Jurassic Parks. I'd watch em AND love em :p

And I love Jeff Goldblum, so Lost World was awesome.

So um yeah. what?

Post by **Dacey** » May 28th, 2005, 4:30 pm

Let me say that I actually agree with the starter of the thread here, at least to some degree. I'm tired of EVERY animated film that comes out these days getting reviews that say "Not as good as Pixar". EVERY single review for "Shark Tale" talked about how it wasn't as good as "Finding Nemo". It got kinda annoying after a while.

However, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and we should all respect the opinions of others, including critics.

Post by **taguirre69** » May 29th, 2005, 8:28 am

I think the reason for the critics comparing everyhting to Pixar is because Pixar started off CG movies and they have been held to that standard that no other company has been able to do consistantly. DW has had Shrek 1 & 2 (which I will hand it to them, 2 was good), but has not been able to produce anything else to that level. I was extremely disappointed with SharkTale and also Madagascar. Madagascar was good, but this movie could have been done much better. But I was not listening to the critics and I went to see it for myself to make up my own mind. Yes, i do read what the critics say, but there has been many, many movies that I have enjoyed that the critics hated. Not everyone will like every movie that comes out, but if you do have that "Pixar" name on your movie, people will automatically think that it will be good.

By the way, I love The Day After Tomorrow.

Madagascar

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Madagascar