From left: Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock), Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller), Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer) stick together when they find themselves washed ashore in a strange land in the movie 'Madagascar'. - CONTRIBUTED
LOS ANGELES, (Reuters):
THEY ARE old friends who normally praise one another, but when Chris Rock and Ben Stiller don animal hides for their new animated movie Madagascar, the gloves come off.
"I don't really admire Ben," said Rock, smiling broadly when asked what he likes best about Stiller's comedy.
Stiller laughs. But he later adds that when recording the voices of Alex the Lion (Stiller) and Marty the Zebra (Rock) for Madagascar, he tried hard to upstage his friend.
"It's like, I better come up with something new here," he said. Rock didn't back down. "You react to it, then sometimes try to top it," he said.
Rock, 40, and Stiller, 39, have known each other since the mid-1980s, and both rose through Hollywood's comedy ranks during the last decade.
Stiller has proved a big draw at the box office in movie hits like Meet the Fockers and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.
Rock's fame has come from his stand-up comedy, an incisive and sometimes profane commentary on race and culture in America. His career hit a peak in February when he hosted Hollywood's Oscar ceremony.
The pair said they are not too dissimilar from their roles in Madagascar, which debuts in theatres this Friday. Alex the lion and Marty the zebra are good friends who live in adjoining pens at New York's Central Park Zoo.
ANIMAL MAGNETISM AT THE BOX OFFICE?
Alex is the zoo's star attraction and to keep him happy, his keepers feed him juicy steaks. He knows his place in the world and is comfortable with it.
Stiller said he is happiest at home with his family and friends.
Unlike Alex, Marty is in a funk. He can't figure out if he's a white zebra with black stripes, or a black zebra with white stripes. When he hears about an open range in a faraway land called Connecticut, he escapes with the aid of some pesky penguins.
Rock said that all he ever wanted was to leave New York's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood where he grew up.
Alex, of course, fears for the safety of his buddy and, along with a giraffe (David Schwimmer) and hippopotamus (Jada Pinkett Smith), he sets out to find Alex.
Eventually the foursome wind up in the wilds of Madagascar where they have to learn to fend for themselves. But things get crazy when Alex's animal instincts take control and he begins to see Marty less as a friend and more as a meal.
Madagascar is made by the team behind smash hit Shrek and Shark Tale movies DreamWorks Animation and its affiliate, PDI.
