Now, the NY Times had a feature about how the new Dreamworks animated film, Madagascar, went to great lengths accurately recreate New York City, such as looking at blueprints of Grand Central Terminal. And Gothamist does think those scenes look amazing - as well as how the animators depicted the Central Park Zoo. But one thing Gothamist feels we need to point out about the film, which is about the Central Park Zoo's zebra, lion, giraffe, and hippotamus getting involved in various wacky antics in the city, and then ending up shipped to Madagascar, is that the Central Park Zoo, as wonderful as it is, doesn't actually have a zebra, lion, giraffe or hippo on its property.
There are definitely penguins (who are the bad boys of Madagascar), not to mention polar bears, monkeys, seals and lots of birds, plus many petting zoo animals. For zebra, lions, giraffe and hippos, you have to go to the Bronx Zoo or some New Yorkers' apartments. And we're not even going to go into how the animals at the Central Park Zoo don't talk. But Gothamist is very excited to see how the animals navigate the subway!
The animators for the film also used the wonderful Miroslav Sasek book, This is New York, as inspiration for the film.
