Madagascar Escape 2 Africa 2008 Film

The Zoo Animals Crash in Africa During an Attempt to Make it Home

Sep 25, 2009

The animals of Madagascar are back. They are trying to get back to New York City but along the way they crash land in Africa where Alex meets his parents.

Alex the lion, and his friends escape Madagascar hoping to return to New York but their plane crashes in Africa. There the friends are divided as they join a wild life in which none of them have any idea about how to survive.

Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer) and Gloria the hippopotamus (Jada Pinkett Smith) are about to leave Madagascar behind on a plane made by the penguins Skipper (Tim McGrath), Rico (John DiMaggio), Kowalski (Chris Miller), and Private (Christopher Knights). Joining them is King Julien the lemur (Sacha Baron Cohen).

The plane leaves Madagascar behind and quickly crashes in Africa where Alex is reunited with his parents. Gloria meets a fellow hippo Moto Moto (will.i.am), Melman is made into a witch doctor and Marty meets a herd of zebra all of whom seem to be absolutely identical to him.

Zuba the Lion (the late Bernie Mac) is Alex’s father and faces trouble when a rival lion Makunga the Lion (Alec Baldwin) who uses Alex’s inexperience at being a lion to force Zuba, Alex and his mother Florrie (Sherri Shepherd) off the nature reserve they live on.

Superior Sequel

DreamWorks seem to have learned from the average Madagascar and made Madagascar Escape 2 Africa far more enjoyable that its predecessor. The penguins were the best thing about the original film and were underused, however, in the sequel the penguins have far more screen time. They steal every scene they are in as they hijack the vehicles of passing tourists in order to rebuild the plane.

Julien is also a continuous highlight as he informs the surprised residents of the animal reserve that he is there new King. He also dispenses some hilarious love advice and comes up with an imaginative solution to the problem of the waterhole running dry.

Typically with DreamWorks animations the additional voice cast are all famous; fortunately, the time has been taken to work out the story so this does not fall into the trap of a simple ‘cash-in’ movie riding on the success of its predecessor.

Madagascar Escape 2 Africa is all around more fun and enjoyable that Madagascar. The key cast all reprise their voice roles, and the film doesn’t focus solely on Alex as he goes through withdrawal. All of the characters are given their own stories. It still conveys the messages of loyalty and friendship, but those are to be expected from any film that is aimed at a younger audience.

One of the minor criticisms could have been that in this film Alex has a birthmark on his paw, but the mark was not there during the first film. It might have been better if the birthmark had been on the back of his head (which was concealed by his mane as it grew) or somewhere the audience would not have seen it during Madagascar.

The flaws in the first film are not present here, and the jokes happen throughout the film instead of being scattered. In Madagascar the penguins provided most of the laughs, this time around, all of the animals get a chance to share the laughs (even if the penguins still get the best jokes)

A vast improvement on the original, and hopefully the sequel (set for a 2012 release) will continue the trend.

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