Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and the rest of the original cast are back along with some new "faces" in a failed attempt to return to NYC with the help of the cunning penguins in "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa". The end result being a crash landing in the motherland of Africa(actually, a wildlife preserve). This sequel proves to be of a slightly more involved and much different perspective on the characters with new jokes and more plays on "familiar" material from other stories/films. The original was watchable and generated a few chuckles. The "second act" is not much better and yet did keep me relatively entertained. The stars of this movie being the wily kung fu granny and Ben Stiller as Alex(or "Al-uh-kay" as his parents call him) the lion.
The story starts with a flashback to Alex's childhood when he was first taken from his father, Zuba(voiced by the now deceased Bernie Mac). [How ironic that the birthmark they share is shaped like Africa and Madagascar together.] Right away you get that "Lion King" feeling as you meet the alpha lion's/dad's rival(voiced by Alec Baldwin). We see television broadcast news depicting the story as we know it so far with a few missing sequencial pieces. And then, the main cast makes their grand escape from Madagascar just short distance west to the heart of Africa before their makeshift plane crashes. There they are forced to fend for themselves while the penguins attempt to rebuild the plane(again). Each of the quartet of zoo pals soon find themselves in a clan of their own kind and their own subplot before being brought back together with lessons learned. All nonsense aside, the key story involves Alex the lion(Ben Stiller) sorting out his family life back in the homeland and the budding of the awkward relationship between Gloria the hippo(Jada Pinkett Smith) and Melman the Giraffe(David Schwimmer). And, in the middle, we find the tough old granny "Nana" on a safari which goes bust--thanks to the penguins--and leaves her to fend for herself. This includes a few fiesty fights with the "locals". In the end, we get a warm fuzzy feeling as everyone comes together to bid one penguin bon voyage and leave the door open for a third installment to this story(though it is not necessary other than to return them to point A...or NYC, rather).
Aside from the granny(who I enjoyed the most most of the time), I also was happy to see the return of little Mort(the big-eyed reddish brown rodent from the first film who captured my interest with the least amount of screen time). [I want a stuffed toy of him.] However, though he gets more screen time this round, he is no more amusing than the rat-like racoon-tailed creature Scrat in the "Ice Age" films with far less worthwhile material. The "alpha male" hippo, Moto Moto(translation "hot hot")--played by Will.I.AM.(unknown to me)--was also somewhat amusing and gave light to the failing of relationships based solely on "hotness" and smooth talk.
If Africa could be as safe as it was in this movie, I'd stay there and not need to give "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa"(rated PG at just under one and a half hours long) three stars out of five(two and a half out of four). It is not deplorable nor substantially "groan-worthy" as some computer animated films can be lately. But, it is also nothing stellar or signifigantly greater than its first "episode". It may be a bit of a sleeper for the little ones as many of the "take-on-movie" jokes go over their heads with the verbose dialogues. Although, the antics of the granny, Alex and the penguins might help get them through it without too much yawning or restlessness. Keep this "series" around for slumber parties for after dinner when the kids need to unwind. [My sister, with whom I endured the first film, did not seem motivated to join me this time. Thus, I had to go it alone and pay a lil more for my ticket than I would have liked seeing a post-matinee show.]
--brainstormer, free-lance movie critic and participant in the Thoughts.com blogging experience.
[Bad kitty!]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_2
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