One of the rare cases where I found the sequel to be better than the original!

Rating: 8/10 (2 August 2010)

I first watched the original "Madagascar" in 2008, not long before the release of this sequel. At the time, I thought that 2005 DreamWorks Animation effort, as successful as it turned out to be, was fairly disappointing and not good enough to make me want to watch "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa". However, early last month, I watched the original again, and this time, it rose up from a six to a seven out of ten for me. After that, I did intend to watch this 2008 sequel. In my experience (and I'm sure many would agree), sequels can usually be expected to be inferior to their predecessors, but for me, that didn't turn out to be the case with this particular one. In fact, this sequel was better for me with one viewing than the original was either time I watched it!
Alex the Lion, Gloria the Hippopotamus, Marty the Zebra, and Melman the Giraffe are still in Madagascar, but are about to leave on a repaired crashed airplane with Skipper and his military penguins, along with lemurs King Julien and Maurice, and the chimpanzees, on a flight back to New York. However, during the flight, the plane runs out of fuel and crash-lands on a wildlife reserve in Africa! This happens to be the reserve where Alex lived as a cub, before he was captured by poachers, fell into the water in a crate, floated across the ocean, and was adopted by the Central Park Zoo. So, he is now reunited with his parents. His father is Zuba, who is still the alpha lion of the pride, but another lion named Makunga still wants to take that position, and reminds Zuba that Alex must win the traditional competition in order to stay with the pride, which is not what Alex thinks it is! As the penguins and chimpanzees try to repair the damaged aircraft, Alex, Gloria, Marty, and Melman have each found other members of their species, but this leads to complications for each of the four former zoo friends.
At the beginning of this sequel, with a flashback sequence showing Alex (then named Alakay) as a cub, I wasn't sure how much I was going to like the film, but that soon changed. The poacher chase is a good action sequence, and when the film gets to the present day, we see the animals boarding the plane in Madagascar, which is a very humorous part, especially with the King Julien character, once again voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen. The main voice-over cast returned for this sequel, and they once again did a great job, plus the characters are still entertaining, including the four leads and the military penguins. There are also some new characters here, such as Zuba, voiced by Bernie Mac, who sadly died shortly before "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" was released in theatres. There are so many funny parts in the film, with the chaos on the plane as it goes down, and a lot that follows the crash. There's also lots of excitement during the animals' African adventure, and unsurprisingly, the animation is amazing as well, just like it is in the original "Madagascar" and so many other CGI movies! The main thing that makes this sequel better than its predecessor is probably that it has a more interesting plot to keep it more consistently entertaining.
Maybe not everything about this DreamWorks Animation film is great, but overall, it's another very good animated family movie, and unlike some sequels, this one is not a clone of the original, as it definitely has new things to offer. Many fans of the original "Madagascar" might be disappointed by this follow-up for one reason or another, but personally, I still think it's more consistent in quality. It was the first movie I watched after recently seeing the lame 1996 version of "The Adventures of Pinocchio" after all these years, and I would say watching "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" after sitting through that mess was a nice relief. It certainly left me in a better mood. If you like the successful 2005 CGI effort from DreamWorks, I think this sequel is well worth watching. Apparently, "Madagascar 3" has been confirmed, and obviously, we can't be sure right now how good it will be, but whether it's any good or not, the first two installments in the franchise are still both admirable accomplishments.