![]() ![]() There are a couple of additions including Alec Baldwin as the devious lion Makunga and the late Bernie Mac as Alex the lion’s father Zuba, but for the most part it’s all the same. I am surprised this film is such a drastic improvement over the original considering everyone from the first flick is back including directors Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath and the primary cast. Unfortunately, for them, they end up crash landing in Africa and having to learn how to live life with the natives. It gives the penguins and King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen), the egotistical and equally brainless lemur, a chance to once again navigate and exercise their elitism. The story actually kicks off as the penguins have created a makeshift airplane that will slingshot them into the air as something of a primitive jump start. ![]() The wily penguins are back and up to their similar antics, which became the only high point in the first film, but thanks to the quality of this second go around their comedic moments don’t serve as a saving grace as much as they have become part of the fabric of the film. That was all the first movie had to offer, but the second film takes a similar premise as the zoo animals try to figure out a way to get back to New York only to end up in Africa, but instead of that being the story they add some back-story to each character and turn it into something of a coming home tale and it really, really works well. The four main characters – Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer) and Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) – escaped from New York, were supposed to be shipped to Africa and ended up in Madagascar. The primary problem with the first Madagascar was that the story essentially went nowhere. While this sequel to a lame duck animated flick that wildly over exceeded its quality isn’t the best animated film I have seen this year, it is far from the worst and holds a lot of laughs. To my surprise my experience couldn’t have been much better. Taking that into consideration I walked into the screening of Madagascar Escape 2 Africa with trepidation and concern I was in for another 90 minutes of boredom. In my eyes the film was hardly worth the celluloid it was shown on. I will always remain baffled at how 2005’s Madagascar was loved by so many and ended up raking in over $193 million at the box-office. ![]()
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