Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

Voices of: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith, David Schwimmer, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, Andy Richter, Bernie Mac, Alec Baldwin, Sherri Shepherd, Will.i.am, Harland Williams
Directed by: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath
Rating: PG
Genre: Animated, Action, Adventure
2008

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: The animals try to get back to New York, but instead crash land in Africa.

Review:

Tim: Having not been a fan of the original Madagascar, it took me almost ten years after the release of the sequel to actually sit down and watch Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. This mostly happened because I now have an almost two-year-old and I needed something to watch. I felt very similar to this film as I did the first one- it's clearly not a top tier animated film. It's a decent movie, but there isn't a whole lot to be excited about here. It's not the worst way to spend an hour and a half, but the movie certainly could have been better.

The animals from the original film are all back, and this time, they crash land not in the jungle, but in Africa. The change of pace was a decent move, as it helps to differentiate this film. It was pretty convenient that they crash exactly where Alex was born. Africa is a massive continent, but sure, this could have happened. It actually did help the story having Alex struggle with being reunited with his long lost family and tribe. The story was actually pretty decent, as our four main characters each have their own challenges. Alex struggled to fit back into his family with his parents and their expectations of him. Marty struggled with his identity and what makes him unique. Melman struggled with his own mortality and his personal fears and neuroses. Gloria struggled with who she wants in a mate (of course the one main female character gets this story line). By the way, I had to google every one of these characters' names. While I've seen them now in two movies, they are so unremarkable that it was impossible for me to remember their names- that's a big problem. Still, they each had decent plot lines, which I appreciated. I especially liked Marty's story. It was interesting to watch this zebra character struggle with who he was. I liked that one quite a bit. Other parts of the story felt weaker- Alex's story really felt like a comedic twist on The Lion King, which wasn't good since this is a Dreamworks movie. The various plot lines are fairly hit-or-miss. The penguins felt like they played a smaller role here, which is unfortunate, since they're among the best parts of the film.

The animation is good, but it didn't feel incredible to me. Sometimes I marvel at the beauty of an animated film, but it felt pretty par for the course here. There's nothing wrong with it, but there's nothing remarkable about it, either.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is about on par with the original. I'm a fan of consistency in sequels (thank god it didn't get worse), but the bar was set fairly low for this one. This franchise is absolutely a lower tier animated film. Dreamworks released two animated films in 2008 and Kung Fu Panda was certainly better than this one. This is a perfectly decent animated film and kids will certainly like the anthropomorphic animals, but there are significantly better animated films out there.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda