Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008)

Simply A Masterpiece

Admirable film.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Where to begin? Unoriginal and full of plots holes. Penguins? Piloting? I think not. Lions? Not eating other weaker animals? Again I must question these writers. All though somewhat creative the music was ancient and the animation iffy at best. Who is this grandma and why is she German?? Questions never answered that left me feeling like a bad boy

When an animated family film unexpectedly strikes a chord with its young audience and develops into an unexpected hit, as was the case with 2005's Madagascar, the most common problem faced with the inevitable sequel is where to take its collection of rag-tag anthropomorphic heroes next. The original's premise was relocating a bunch of animal characters who had been raised in a New York zoo to be adored by the paying customers to the less-welcoming island of Madagascar. It was a promising idea, but the film fell flat thanks to some blocky animation and a lack of imagination and jokes. With the first sequel, returning directors Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath have pulled the same trick again, only this time dumping its hapless entourage onto the brutal plains of Africa, with Hollywood again apparently forgetting that Africa is a continent, not a country.After the adventure on Madagascar, zoo animals Alex (Ben Stiller), Marty (Chris Rock), Melman (David Schwimmer), Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) and a small group of militaristic penguins have fixed the crashed plane and are readying to fly back home. Also joined by unhinged lemur King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen), they crash again in Africa after running out of fuel, and eventually find themselves at a watering hole, where they are overjoyed to discover more of their own species. Alex also reunites with his mother (Sherri Shepherd) and father Zuma (Bernie Mac), with the latter the alpha of his herd. While the others are each given roles in their animal society, Alex must prove himself to be worthy of his position of heir and title of 'King of New York', while fellow lion Makunga (Alec Baldwin) waits eagerly to take control.It's a very similar route taken by Ice Age and their increasingly tedious sequels. When the big idea has been used up, simply introduce a long-lost family member and give the comic relief side- kicks their own meandering side-stories. Melman, due to his hypochondria, becomes the village's witch-doctor; Marty struggles to stand out in a herd that looks and talks in the exact same way as he does; and Gloria is courted by a douchebag while she misses the true love right in front of her eyes. The only relief on offer is when the penguins are on screen, and their extreme competency with any given task and frequent bashing of an annoying old lady never fails to raise a chuckle. When they're not the focus, we are stuck with the incredibly uninteresting Alex and a bunch of generic life lessons for the kids watching. If you were content with the little charm of the first Madagascar, then chances are you'll find something to like her. For the rest of us, this is a slow trudge through familiar ground chocked full with broad slapstick prat- falls.

Who would have thought? A sequel that is actually better, and more enjoyable, than the original. Actually, as I mentioned I found the original to be rather boring and pointless, and also somewhat lacked a plot, but it turned out that this one was actually a lot more engaging. In fact it felt as if the original was simply made as a lead up to this one. Mind you, since the first one did have a large part set in New York, the movie would have probably been too long to work all that well, but still it seemed as if this film succeeded where the first had, in my opinion, failed.First of all it had a better plot, namely Alex the Lion was born in Africa but had been captured by hunters and taken to the Central Park Zoo in New York. However, after being sent back into the wild, and landing up in Madagascar, they are left to fend for themselves. Well, the penguins build a plane and launch into the air, but unfortunately they run out of petrol and end up crash landing in the middle of Kenya. In fact they land up in the exact same reserve that Alex originally came from, and he even encounters his father. The problem is that because he has been gone for so long, and been raised in the zoo, he hasn't gone through the traditional rites of passage that all lions have to go through.Like a lot of sequels all of the favourite, and not so favourite (namely the Lemurs) have returned. They even have the psychotic little old lady from the first movie that spends her time running around bashing people on their head with her handbag. Now she is on safari, and as is typical she has her own ways of doing things, and surviving. Mind you, she does actually take on a life of her own in this film, and becomes one of the better characters. Okay, she was a pretty cool character in the first movie, but she was only playing a bit role there as where whereas here is it taking a much more major role.In the end though I thought that this was actually a pretty cool movie, and quite enjoyable as well, though it will be difficult knowing what is going on unless you have sat through the original film.

New York Zoo animals, Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe and Gloria the Hippo are still stranded in Madagascar,try and start to leave the island.They land in the wilderness of Africa, where Alex meets the rest of his family, but has trouble communicating with them after spending so much time at the Central Park Zoo… Not being a fan of the first movie, i wasn't expecting a lot from this sequel, other than 'cash-in'.I was very surprised to find that this usurped the original every way possible, and was a lot of fun, even though Julien was still very annoying whenever he popped up.the voice acting is well done, and the pop-culture references are very funny and quite intelligent, something that dreamworks have been doing now for a while to distract the adults from being bored.if anything, this could be 'the lion kings' idiotic cousin, as there are references sprawled along this movie referring to the Disney classic (sons lost, a bad lion wants to take control as the alpha lion, but with less trauma of course) there are a lot of life lessons as always in films like this, but they are subtle and short.the penguins almost steal the show again, but the granny takes credit for this, as she is probably the nastiest animated non-villain ever.a good sequel.