Madagascar - Escape 2 Africa (Full Screen)

Madagascar - Escape 2 Africa (Full Screen) Review

I wasn't a big fan of the first Madagascar, so I wasn't in a hurry to watch the sequel. I finally rented it last night, and was really pleasantly surprised to find that it's funnier than the first one by a long shot. The writers recognized that the side characters (penguins, monkeys, lemurs) were more fun than the main four and gave them more screen time to great effect. They also didn't OVERDO that, which is what often happens. The result is some very funny scenes with King Julien, Skipper, Africa Phil and Mort that don't wear out those characters' welcome, and which serve as nice breaks from the main "heartful" story line of big four -- which isn't all that bad. My sons and I laughed out loud several times during this movie, which I don't remember happening at all during Madagascar 1. New side characters like Moto Moto (voiced perfectly by Will i Am of the Blackeyed Peas) now add to the fun. Definitely worth a look, and I'm actually buying now that I've seen it.

Madagascar - Escape 2 Africa (Full Screen) Overview

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 02/06/2009 Run time: 89 minutes Rating: Pg

Madagascar - Escape 2 Africa (Full Screen) Specifications

The sequel to the animated movie Madagascar gives more of everything audiences loved in the first movie: More of the penguins; more of Julian, king of the lemurs; more musical bits of classic rock; and many, many more lions, zebras, hippos, and giraffes. In the first film, a quartet of coddled zoo animals found themselves shipwrecked on the island of Madagascar in a misguided effort to return them to the wild. InMadagascar: Escape 2 Africa, a failed attempt to fly back to New York maroons Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), and Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer) in an animal preserve on the African continent, accompanied by the four deranged penguins and the lunatic lemur king (deliriously voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat). By wild coincidence, this is where Alex was born--and where his father is still the alpha lion, and where his malevolent uncle seeks to take over (let's call this an homage to The Lion King). The other beasts have their own story arcs, but really it's all an excuse for daffy comic bits. Though the result is disposable, it's also entirely entertaining. The action sequences pop with dizzying spectacle; though some jokes are mainstream fodder, more often they're surprisingly quirky and engagingly oddball. This is the best kind of cotton candy filmmaking--it dissolves into nothing, but it's oh-so-sweet to the taste. --Bret Fetzer

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