Madagascar 2

Rarely have I seen animated family sequel movie that's as good or better than its predecessor but speaking as a movie freak who didn't like the first installment, I gotta say I'm very much entertained by MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 Africa and it way funnier than the original movie. Dreamworks has a habit of doing this… what it lacks in its story and overall animation (Pixar still rules in those departments!) it makes up for it in its sense of humor. This is the movie that every age can enjoy and it has only a very, very few silly, lame moments but for the most part, you just got to move it, move it! The whole team is back, it doesn't take long for you to remember what each character is all about, there's no need for re-introduction but there is a bunch of new characters thrown in to the den without having to take us in unnecessary complication of having to understand what they are. The concept is simple and the jokes are funny. Here you see all the characters stranded in Africa and meet a their own kind. It's the freedom they've always wanted but don't really want at the same time. They have trouble fitting in and getting in touch with their heritage, all the while friendship and feelings are being put to the test resulting in an exciting adventure at the end that brings them closer together again. Kids will love it, Parents will be glad about it, and the rest of us will find it to be very amusing.

MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 Africa will feel like too short of a movie, but that's also something that I can appreciate because I don't think it has any intention of trying to be all Oscar worthy, it's nothing more than telling a light, enjoyable story with good moral value lesson and that's about it. If the running time were any longer, it would lose some of its target audience. Hands down, without dragging this review any more than it has to, the best part of this movie once again, are the penguins! Those dudes are hardcore gangsters and freakin' hilarious! They should have their own spin-off, stand-alone movie, just about them scheming something deviant and mission impossible-esquire. I could watch them work together and hear their smartass, cocky remarks/attitude about a thousand more times and they'll still crack me up. If you find no reason to watch this movie, then at least watch it to check out those awesome penguins.

The original Madagascar was a break from the typical mold in family animated entertainment; it was fearless, didn't slow down to teach a lesson, and was not afraid of entertaining solely on physical humor. The content was light, but it was so satisfying that it wound up being Dreamwork's second best animated movie of them all—behind Shrek. The zany cast of characters easily exceeds the number of memorable characters in Shrek, and contained more humor and creativity than all of the other Dreamworks animated flicks before and ever since.

In the second installment, you see the writers trying to give the franchise a dosage of heart and sentimentality, which is what made Shrek the instant classic it became. A bit of heart can definitely propel an animated movie into masterpiece status (see Toy Story and Finding Nemo) however this is not the franchise to do it. Madagascar is about the cast and how they interact with each other and the conflict that is presented onto them. While the laughs are definitely here, the attempt for emotion constantly makes this film slows down and keeps it from being a superior installment when placed against the original. That being said, it's still a fun, entertaining, and unpredictable movie that continues the zaniness that made the original a personal guilty pleasure of mine.

In Escape 2 Africa, we follow the New York zoo animals, the psychotic penguins, the monkeys, and the lemur leaders as they unexpectedly are stranded in the middle of Africa. While at first the main four (Marty, Alex, Melman, Gloria) are rather happy at their new environment, they quickly realize that it's not all that it seems, and that their new temporary home is splitting the four apart. In the meantime, the penguins attempt to repair the plane that they accidentally destroyed. The writers did a good job in presenting all sorts of new gags and yet again refrain from referencing pop culture too much (although the Twilight Zone nod was hilarious). But, they couldn't deliver the emotional impact because of one main reason: this franchise wasn't meant to ever slow down in terms of pacing. Like a roller coaster, this movie moves sometimes extremely fast, and then can grind into a halt in the next scene. Lastly the main four don't interact much with each other, but more with the environment. There literally are at least 8 plots happening at once—some of them are good, some of them aren't.

The voice acting remains decent, but there are fewer lines by the original cast, and more from supporting characters and new characters. Bernie Mac, rest in peace, but his performance was rather bland and could have been done by anyone else. Alec Baldwin didn't have much of a chance to lend his comedic skills either. Yet again, the penguins and Sacha Baron Cohen steal every scene they are in, no matter how mediocre the previous scene was. Cohen (as Julien) has an obvious knack for comedy, and delivers every line perfectly for two movies in a row; not bad at all. Ben Stiller had fewer chances at being funny, as they had to handle all the major slower moments. Chris Rock's role was surprisingly limited, especially for someone who did so well in the original.

The one major improvement from the original was the animation, which was crisp, fluid, and flowed better. Surely it's undeniably no Wall-E (Or even 2007's Ratatouille), but it's still respectably an improvement over previous work. The jokes themselves are hit-and-miss like the original; the only difference is this one has more misses. Plus it's the recurring jokes that are missing; the hula girl, feisty tourist, repetitive herd, and lion-dancing bits all didn't elicit much laughter from the audience, nor from me. We just needed much more Julien, and much more penguin-action. Maybe in the future the focus will shift; in the meantime they are just grabbing all the spotlight and attention.

Bottom Line: Exactly what Scrat did to Ice Age: The Meltdown years ago, we have minor/supporting characters becoming the main hit and running the show. While the original four characters take a backseat and add emotion to a franchise that's too fast-paced for this sort of stuff, we have the penguins and Julien taking over the movie and keeping it from being another totally disappointing animated sequel like every straight-to-video Disney sequel, the ugly Shrek sequels, or Ice Age 2. The entertainment level is still magnificent the second time around, but it won't age as well as the first Madagascar did. Leave the heart to Pixar, because those folks have nailed it perfectly for years. Dreamworks can serve as the escapist cinema in terms of animation, but if they continue imitating and try to outdo Pixar, it will just dampen the quality of all their movies. Madagascar 2 is the prime example of this: purely fun and entertaining until it tries to distribute family values. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is also proof that those hilarious penguins need their own movie, pretty much immediately.

Yes, right now.

As with the comment ahead of mine: it's all about the penguins. They should have their own movie.

We were chanting: more penguins, more penguins. At the screening we just saw, people who loved the first Madagascar movie waited excitedly for the magic to begin... I LOVED the first one. Interesting note: I liked the first one better, but my BF thinks this one has a better and deeper plot and pointed out in particular that while in the first one Gloria (the hippo) was the butt of many fat jokes, in this one she is celebrated just for being beautiful.

The whole movie is breathtakingly beautiful. We didn't see this on IMAX but I bet the IMAX version will be a treat.

Sascha Baron Cohen's King is again the hands-down favorite, I heard a ripple of joy murmur through the theater at everything he said and did, although my personal favorites (after the Penguins) are Maurice and Mort, the King's cohorts.

BF was also teasing me mercilessly because (and I'm nearly ashamed to admit it) there's one scene that had me totally teared up! Yes, I cried. Can't spoil it - go see the movie and tell me after if you know what choked me up! The film did not hold the attention of some of the very small children at the screening we saw, because some portions of the film only involve adult storyline concerning the adult star characters (Alec Baldwin, Jada Pinkett Smith, Chris Rock, and so forth) but when the little characters are on screen (the baby lion in particular is DARLING) the children present were absolutely captivated.

It's fun. It's not the greatest movie of all time, but it's very fun and children will want to watch it again and again.

It's hard to say if is an improvement or not on the original, but it's certainly a good continuation of the story this time more focused on Alex's origin and life. The animation looks great, the humor is on point of course, and the characters with so much more development. With some great moments is a fun sequel to all ages!

I thought that the first Madagascar had promising characters and a decent premise, but it was very poorly put together. My son, who was 8 or 9 at the time loved the movie, however. We saw the sequel this morning and we both agreed - it was much better than the original. And, since part II begins with a brief summary of part I, there is no need to see the first one to understand what's happening in the new movie. All the main characters are back and there are many new ones as well. Going in, the big question on my mind was "do the penguins play a bigger role in the sequel?"... answer is "Yes, but not much bigger". All in all an enjoyable movie that outshines it's predecessor!