Every Madagascar Movie Ranked From Worst To Best – Armessa Movie News

Since the franchise began in 2005, Dreamworks Animation’s Madagascar movies have been a rare franchise where each new movie appears to improve on the last installment, so how do the three movies and their 2014 spin-off Penguins of Madagascar rank in terms of quality? Released in 2005, the animated family comedy Madagascar was an expensive investment that paid off big for Dreamworks Animation. 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 Madagascar movies first sequel, Escape 2 Africa, earned a little more than its predecessor and fared slightly 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 so far. However, 2014’s spin-off movie Penguins of Madagascar underperformed at the box office despite receiving solid reviews, calling the future of the franchise into question. Outside of box office showing, though, how do the Madagascar movies rank in terms of quality, and is this set of animated outings really that rarest of cinematic beasts—a franchise that gets better, instead of worse, with each new movie?

4 Madagascar (2005)

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.

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)

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 admittedly 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.

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 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.

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)

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 Frances McDormand who truly steals the show in Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted as villainous animal control officer Chantel DuBois.

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.