Entertaining but exasperating as well. I could hardly believe it only went for 89 mins.

Rating: 6/10 (13 March 2009)

In 2005, the DreamWorks animation team first released the CGI feel-good, comedy-adventure 'Madagascar,' which probably introduced the idea of referring to the atlas for a movie title which was used last year by Baz Lhurmann. From the day the first posters and trailers appeared, it was shaping up to be the year's ultimate washout. Yet because it had the advantage of being the only kids flick around at the time, audiences were rolling in anyway. When moviegoers saw the film itself, they realised that their prediction was partly wrong. It was definitely a long journey down the quality line from some of DreamWorks' previous creations; though it was witty, fast-paced enough and boasted an all-star, energetic voice cast and so managed to get over the line. However,  despite the open ending  it was definitely not proper series material. But that didn't stop Hollywood, who clearly doesn't know when to let go sometimes. And so after four years the four most unlikely friends in the animal kingdom are back with more outlandish adventures.
The first one ended when the outrageously eccentric King Julien (voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen) is farewelling the "freaks" as they are about to leave the tiny island of Madagascar on a boat with no fuel  but only the penguins (voiced by Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights, and Conrad Vernon) are aware of that technical problem. After a flashback opening telling of the origins of Alex the clumsy dancing lion (voiced by Ben Stiller,) the sequel picks up not long after that. When Alex, his best pal Marty the Zebra (voiced by Chris Rock,) hypochondriac giraffe Melman (voiced by David Schwimmer,) and great fat feisty hippo Gloria (voiced by Jada Pinckett Smith,) are leaving for New York on a faulty aeroplane made by the penguins  the substitute for the boat  with King Julien, his manservant Maurice (voiced by Cedric the Entertainer,) and tiny little baby lemur Mort (voiced by Andy Ritcher,) and the monkeys tagging along. Instead of reaching their destination, they crash-land in a wildlife reserve on the continent of Africa  yep, you guessed it! There Alex is reunited with his long-lost mother and father (voiced by Bernie Mac and Sherri Shepherd) and the other three are overwhelmed by the sight of thousands of their own kind. The penguins and the monkeys however, spend most of their stay attempting to repair the plane and get them to New York. Now as you might expect the animals find that they are not suited to life in the wild, and that's the shortcut scriptwriter Etan Cohen utilises to generate complications that keep the picture going. Will these four ever be satisfied!? Or does there have to be more sequels until they find the right place!?
By some unearthly coincidence, every single character in the original is here again for the sequel, and not one of them has changed. What is more, the few new characters that have been thrown into the mix are hardly given a chance to be noticed over the screen-hogging old faces. But that is not the start of this film's many failings that could have easily been avoided if directors Tom McGrath and Eric Darnell had put their minds to it  and seeing as there's two of them it should have been a snap. True, no animated film is truly complete without a sprinkle of humour, but you don't have to overdo it. I thought this company knew that, seeing as 'Shark Tale' (2003,) and the classic hit 'Shrek' (2001,) used more than that single element to engage its audience. Obviously they've forgotten. For while the original made an effort to be exciting, groovy and slightly moving as well as funny, the second one has lazily crammed an overload of predictable, run of the mill jokes into nearly every scene, leaving hardly any room left for any remotely serious dialogue. On top of that, only about a quarter of the thousand and one gags are genuinely humorous, and only a quarter of that quarter will actually get a laugh.
Still despite all this there is something about this film  maybe the voice cast that also includes Alec Baldwin, Will i Am, Quinn Dempsey Stiller, Declan Swift and Elisa Gabrielli who have generously agreed to be a part of this even though there are many decent films that would be much worthier of their talent  that makes it a little more bearable than most ones of this sort, and even almost enjoyable. But please, no more! One was plenty, two is more than enough, but three would be just awful!