Movie Review: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

This time, more is better in a sequel. Kids will enjoy the colorful settings and memorable animal characters while adults can look forward to some clean, capricious humor from Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Sacha Baron Cohen, and the late, great Bernie Mac who provides the voice for Zuba the Lion.

The always entertaining penguin quartet plus Julien, the Lemur King (Cohen) and his right-hand man Maurice, voiced by Cedric the Entertainer, also return. Cedric deserved a much larger role, but the other actors get plenty of time to strut their stuff. Filmmakers start with a helpful prologue then break the plot into entertaining subplots. After the initial “escape”, the subplots switch among the four main characters: Alex the Lion (Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Rock), Gloria the Hippopotamus (voiced by Jada Pinkett Smith) and Melman the Giraffe (voiced by David Schwimmer).

Tom McGrath and Eric Darnell both return to direct this spirited jungle fest and tackle many more large-scale sequences created by an army of gifted animators at DreamWorks. Audiences might be surprised at the fighting elements at first, but then filmmakers quickly take the bruising into Bugs Bunny territory (where no one gets hurt) that only works in animation. Screenwriter Etan Coen (Tropic Thunder) creates quick-paced dialogue to fill the story gaps as the animal characters experience Africa and its new characters.

Alec Baldwin voices the antagonist/rival lion Makunga well, but can’t really create a memorable adversary. Other new characters like Moto Moto help progress the main characters well while creature characters like the tiny Mort, maniacal monkeys and constant background gags provide even more laughs. Voice talent veteran Elisa Gabrielli gets the largest role expansion as the feisty little lady who gave “bad kitty” Alex a purse whomping at Grand Central Station in the first Madagascar film.

Article Author: Tall Writer

Visit Tall Writer's author page