Media &Movie TV DVD Review &Technology SpinMeister on 07 May 2005 07:55 pm
Madagascar: Toons Gone Wild
I have an unusual perspective on DreamWorks Animation’s new animated feature, Madagascar, since I was working at PDI/DreamWorks on Shrek 2 while Madagascar was in story and visual development stages.
As Shrek 2 was nearing completion in early 2003, word was circulating around the PDI/DreamWorks production cubicles that Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of DreamWorks Animation, had plans for Shrek 3. Many at PDI/DW, located near San Francisco, were grateful for the surprise success of the first Shrek animated 3D feature. Deep into heavy production of Shrek 2, a number of artists were less than enthusiastic over the prospect of spending another 2 or 3 years with the big, lunking green guy and his perky donkey friend. It was just too much of the same old, same old. Outside one cubicle hung a poster from Mutiny On The Bounty, referring to Shrek 3. The animators were looking forward to trying pushing themselves with something new, something more cartoony in the house that Shrek built.
Rex Grignon (in photo above), Head of Character Animation at PDI/DreamWorks, has been working with computer animation systems since their infancy. Over the years at PDI, Rex provided input to their software developers, and the in-house animation and rigging tools became more powerful. In doing proof of concept animation tests of the Madagascar characters, Rex and many others in the animation department hoped this would be their chance to go wild, and really do the whacky, crazy, fast-paced, extreme moves and poses they grew up seeing in Chuck Jones and Tex Avery 2D cartoons. Fortunately, in early 2004 they got the green light.
With Chris Rock as one of the lead characters, I imagined that Madagascar would get very edgy or raunchy. Then receiving a call out of the blue from a Newsweek writer doing a story (see story online) about Madagascar and DreamWorks Animation projects, I told him that I felt that Pixar goes more for the cute stuff, and DreamWorks in the style of Shrek, more for the gross stuff, perhaps appealing to different age groups. Having now seen Madagascar, I no longer hold that opinion.
The story opens in a New York city zoo with four main characters: Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer). Marty the zebra has an attack of wanderlust which eventually lands a number of the zoo animals in the wilds of the tropical island of Madagascar.
Along the way there is a wonderful chase through Times Square and Grand Central Station. The Times Square background is a dazzling composited matte painting job. The 59th Street subway looks about as clean as it will ever be, and cartoon subways are nice, not stinky and full of smelly bums.
From the zoo there are hilarious supporting characters, such as four commando penguins (the leader’s voice provided by co-director Tom McGrath), and two well cultivated chimps who unfortunately don’t make the cut for later Madagascar jungle scenes. In the jungle of Madagascar is a great party scene of the happy lemur tribe, led by King Julien (Ali G.), his advisor Maurice (Cedric the Entertainer), and the cute and cuddly Mort (Andy Richter). So, with this cast of furry creatures, the animators are turned loose to go wild with terrific dancing, leaping, slapping, joking and posing. As with Pixar’s Finding Nemo, perhaps for contrast, the humans are designed to be bland and less detailed than the animal characters.
The lemur party sequences presented some of the largest computing power challenges, since the crowd shots were of hundreds of furry characters. Imagine counting every hair and every leaf, that’s less than what the computer is doing. Real animals are designed to blend into the forest, and in Madagascar the lighting challenge was to offset the characters from the richly detailed jungle plant forms. There were 5 basic lemur character models and 12 different surface designs, providing a variety of 60 lemur types.
The main characters and a number of extras have fantastic tongue animation rigging. Animals can do a lot with their tails and tongues, and these cartoon phenoms do even more, thanks to expert character rigging efforts by the PDI/DW team. Rigs were designed to permit extreme stretching and squashing of the models’ geometry without breaking them, and giving the animators the greatest range of motion and creative latitude.
So, having accomplished all that, the cartoon zoo animals are all set to go wild in the Madagascar jungle. One of the highlight sequences is when Alex the lion’s beast within is awakened. He becomes exhilarated, running and dancing around in a hyper-animated frenzy. His straight mane becomes wild and frazzled, and he lets out a booming roar surprising everyone. Being a carnivorous lion, bloodlust changes his behavior, and Alex is tormented by The Wolfman’s dilemma, “Why must I eat my friends?”
As with classic Universal Dracula and Wolfman “tasteful” horror movies which were not bloody or gory, Madagascar stays clear of tragedy, gratuitous violence or any alarming nastiness causing little kids to run crying to mommie. Even though co-director Tom McGrath worked as a director on “The Ren & Stimpy Show,” Madagascar does not take freakish risks of bad taste. Bizarre stuff that makes weirdos like me laugh til it hurts can wear thin over 80 minutes, and is often too sick for family consumption, so DreamWorks cannot be blamed for playing it safe. At the press conference with the voice talent, they all spoke of showing their new cartoon work to their young children. And so it goes with Alex the lion, he stays mild not wild.
I would like to see Madagascar again, animators and fans of animation will want to study it again and again. The story itself may be mild, but there are animated moments that are extremely wild.
P.S. For more Madagascar stills click here.
For more Lemur images, see recent entry.
32 Responses to “Madagascar: Toons Gone Wild”
on 03 Jun 2005 at 5:19 pm 1.gene said …
what is the baby lemur’s name?? i can’t find it anywhere. please help!
on 03 Jun 2005 at 5:31 pm 2.SpinMeister said …
The cute little lemur is Mort, played by Andy Richter.
on 09 Jun 2005 at 11:58 pm 3.Larry Lim said …
The cute lemur at the end of the movie (credits) does a crazy break dance! Is there any way to download that or find it as a picture/moving gif. file for computer use?
on 11 Jun 2005 at 7:22 pm 4.Josh said …
can you pleaze send me a short peice of the lemurs animated dance ?
thank you for your time
Josh
on 11 Jun 2005 at 8:49 pm 5.SpinMeister said …
You will either have to see Madagascar again or wait for the DVD. I do not have any clips, and if I did, I am not authorized to send them out to the public.
on 17 Jun 2005 at 12:53 pm 6.briana said …
what are the 4 penguins names?
on 17 Jun 2005 at 1:54 pm 7.lilli said …
Who does the voices of the chimp and Private the penguin?
on 17 Jun 2005 at 2:41 pm 8.SpinMeister said …
The leader of the penguins is “Skipper” and his voice is by Tom McGrath the co-director of “MADAGASCAR.” How fun is that?! The other speaking penguins are Kowalski and Private, voiced by Chris Miller, who was the voice of the Magic Mirror in the “SHREK” films. The fourth penguin, who does not speak, is Rico.
“Shrek 2” co-director Conrad Vernon does the voice of the pseudo-intellectual chimp, “Mason.” Vernon is the voice of “Gingy” in the Shrek movies.
on 08 Jul 2005 at 10:08 pm 9.Dante's Devil said …
i liked the song, it was really funny and Julien’s accent is unbelievable. it made the movie even funnier. and the baby lemur is soo cute..i loved when Alex was trying to calm him down and he cried his heart out..that movie was fun. even i enjoyed it
on 16 Jul 2005 at 11:49 am 10.hazzy said …
can you send me funny videos what the penguins do funny
on 16 Jul 2005 at 11:50 am 11.hazzy said …
can you funny videos of the penguins because the penguins are so funny
on 18 Jul 2005 at 11:45 pm 12.Cova said …
Plisssssssssss send me all the Photos of MORT the Lemur´s baby is so CUTE i love it!!!!!! Thenks
on 19 Jul 2005 at 6:46 pm 13.Laura said …
Is that posible to get a picture of the movie with MORT (I know, again)?. He’s the cuttest of the movie.
on 19 Jul 2005 at 6:47 pm 14.Laura said …
By the way I have to say that Mort was inspired in me. You should see me crying… exactly the same.
on 20 Jul 2005 at 11:54 am 15.SpinMeister said …
Sorry, I do not have access to any more images or movies of Mort, the penguins, or Madagascar in general. Please try the DreamWorks Animation web site. – Hank
on 24 Jul 2005 at 12:09 pm 16.Elmo -(Eleanor) said …
How adorably cute is mort?! he so deserves his own fanclub… =D i love it when he cries.. cruel.. but cmon people! its so cute!!
on 08 Aug 2005 at 2:44 pm 17.Mercedes said …
I can’t find pictures of mort anywhere :-(
on 18 Aug 2005 at 7:30 pm 18.fabiola said …
can you please send me a photo when the baby lemur is crying please!!!!
on 23 Aug 2005 at 1:21 pm 19.alessandro said …
hola como estas
on 25 Aug 2005 at 2:23 am 20.Mrs Morti said …
I LOVE MORT! as Elmo said he so does deserve his own fanclub – we need more pictures! The only one’s i have are 7 took from screenshots from the clip ‘I’ve devised a plan’ on the official website!
WE NEED MORE MORT! so, so, so cute, could just give him an island size hug right now!
on 28 Aug 2005 at 3:18 pm 21.marcomagno said …
quisiera wallpapers de mort el pequeño lemur
on 30 Aug 2005 at 11:02 am 22.*i like to move it * said …
like the rest of you I LOVE MORT
it’s sow cute when he’s crying :p
olsow i cant find any pictures of him plzz does anywone now where i can find them
on 01 Sep 2005 at 4:22 am 23.jln97 said …
Yes. A picture of Mort with one tooth crying!
I want that too
on 01 Sep 2005 at 5:25 am 24.SpinMeister said …
You’ll have to contact the folks at DreamWorks Marketing to get anymore Mort pictures. I don’t have any! You’ll have to wait for the DVD to come out.
on 04 Sep 2005 at 9:45 am 25.Grimunit said …
I have all the pictures of Mort the Mouse Lemur you would possibly want!!!
Just tell me via email if you want them.
on 06 Sep 2005 at 9:56 am 26.Clara said …
Can anyone please advise where can I find pictures of mort????
on 09 Sep 2005 at 5:52 am 27.Mery said …
Can anyone please send me pics with the crying Mort?
I love him!!
on 09 Sep 2005 at 10:13 am 28.Grimunit said …
Give me your email ad and I will send you the pictures!
Mine is byronmorrell@hotmail.com
on 10 Sep 2005 at 9:37 am 29.giorgia said …
can you send me a picture of the penguins with the sun cream? thank you very much
on 17 Sep 2005 at 11:08 pm 30.Elise said …
I am desparately in need of a piccy of Mort the cute wittle lemur! Please send! Thanks, xox
on 18 Sep 2005 at 7:26 am 31.Rwana-Lai Xishu said …
OMG! When Mort reaches out for Gloria with those cute eyes… its so cute!! Way cutter then Puss in Boots! I hope to find a huge poster of that someday.
on 25 Sep 2005 at 12:58 am 32.Giudi said …
Hei! i love mort tooo: can anyone send me pics of the cute mort? my e-mail is g_bartalucci@tin.it