Madagascar

The soundtrack to Dreamworks' "Madagascar" is a lackluster collection of all-purpose musical cues (i.e. "Stayin' Alive" to indicate a male character on the town) that is notable for one thing and one thing only: British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's glorious remake of the 90's song "I Like to Move It". If you are not dancing by the end of this song ("Three, two, one...") then you belong with the human pilots in the film itself.

You probably have bits and pieces of this soundtrack already: "Born Free" (a good theme song for the fugitive penguins I'll admit), "Chariots of Fire" (time to retire this one, I think), Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World", "Boogie Wonderland", and Hans Zimmer ripping off his own far superior work on "The Lion King", among others.

Best to buy "I Like to Move It" as a single and pass on the complete soundtrack. That's all you need to know, and I anyway I got to get back to dancing. All together now! "I like to move it move it,...Read more

I got this CD for my birthday, and it was, like, one I had been wanting all summer. Main reason: "I like to move it, move it!". I *love* that thing. I like how the King Lemur talks over it. Especially when he starts telling the story of his life, mentions how he used to dance to the "Jungle Boggie", and then he starts singing "JUNGLE BOOGIE! JUNGLE BOOGIE!". Then he stops the singing, and I have to start it again. But all the stuff on here is great; the score by Hans Zimmer (first track most of all), "Chariots of Fire", "Stayin' Alive!", "What a Wonderful World", it's all great. It is kinda a short CD, I suppose that counts as a flaw. But that doesn't deduct any stars in my book.

Though I like the parts of the film's soundtrack that are included here, unfortunately the CD leaves out most of Hans Zimmer's orchestral score, which is a significant part of the appeal of the movie, to me at least. "I Like To Move It" and all the "guest" tracks like Chariots of Fire and Hawaii Five-O are here, as they well should be, but once you get past those, it's a bit anemic. I didn't expect them to make it a two-disc set or anything, but there's lots of room left over on this disc for more music, and lots of music that's not here. Its absence is unfortunate (and kind of inexplicable) and keeps me from really being satisfied with it as a soundtrack.

Which is a pity, as the movie is superb!