After the first false start (or first draft), the story finally takes off...

Rating: 8/10 (25 August 2016)

In "Madagascar", a hippo, a zebra, a giraffe and a lion from New York Central Park zoo were lost in an exotic location and the Lion into a big identity crisis. In "Madagascar 2" pretty much the same happens, only this time, the writers did their homework and provided enough development so the plot and the dozens of worthy subplots could fill in a one-hour-and-half format.
So, the more I watched "Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa", the more the first opus looked like a first draft, the thing you write and then realize it doesn't work and improvement is much needed. Madagascar was a fun place but the jungle was so dense it created a feeling of entrapment with an overdose of greens and browns. The lemurs and the fossa were fun and cool but apart from King Julian, Maurice and that little Gizmo-like creature Mort; they could hardly steal the show, not when you had the penguins anyway. The one thing I particularly loved in the film was the endearing friendship between Alex and his zebra friend Marty, so I was expecting the sequel to develop this aspect a little more.
Not only it did, but it also fixed all the problems the first film had. If the very setting of "Madagascar" couldn't work, the wild territories of the savanna did, which is not surprising since they had already proved to be a great vehicle for stories in a previous Disney movie. And while Gloria the hippo and Melman the giraffe were disposable sidekicks in the first, they were given the full individual development they were overdue by being confronted to their peers and to each other. In the first opus, the animals were straight characters discovering a weird universe, in the second one, they are straight characters meeting other straight ones, and the fun comes from the differences (or resemblances). And the sequel allows us to know more about Alex, who used to be Alakay, son of the local Mufasa: Zuba, voiced by the late Bernie Mac.
The film's beginning is familiar material, the cub is taken by hunters while his father tries to rescue him but Alakay ends up in New York City and becomes the main zoo attraction, while his new friends comment his tendency to be a show-off. This move has already proved to work for DreamWorks with "Shrek 2", in the sequel, we've got to know the back-story of the main characters as it makes the perfect connection with the first while being emotionally promising. And in a way, this could have been the first film, with the same premise, like a false start that is fixed now, I guess the writers said "gosh, where can't we put them, now? They've already been in Africa, I mean Madagascar is in Africa" And someone must have pointed out that it's not the way people visualize Africa. So how about "Madagascar" in "The Lion King" territories?
So let's make a second start and take the best from the film, the original quartet, Alex' nemesis: the old lady, King Julian, Maurice and Mort, and who's gonna fly them to Africa? The penguins (remember the first film ended with the boat out of fuel, good continuity). And the plane sequence is much more hilarious than the boat ship where all the animals were locked in a box, the penguins play the pilots and hostesses' part, King Julian is in the first class talking politics while Alex and Marty discuss some triviality. And the 'landing' was of course more spectacular and it made Melmann confess his love to Gloria, and it doesn't even come as shock, there had to be something between them. So, the plane crashes and the penguins estimate the delay to six to nine weeks, and you better believe they get it right. They'll even use the chimps to repair the plane, because they have opposable thumbs (damn Darwin), but they're not superior mammals for nothing and they'll know how to raise their voice for their workers' rights.
So our friends discover Africa and when they admire the landscape, Alex has a feeling of déjà vu, probably remembering his childhood but it doesn't take a genius to know that this is a clever nod to Disney, and yeah, "Dreamworks" make a hilarious come-back to Africa with a story that is as entertaining and appealing; it's got love, fights, dancing, tribes' codes, and great character developments through many plots and subplots. Gloria meets the Alpha Hippo Moto-Moto, Melmann becomes the witch doctor and Marty questions his uniqueness after seeing all the zebra quickly learning his tricks. There's a gag involving their resemblance and they also have the same voice so that even Alex can tell his friend from the others. Everything was an improvement from the first and hell, they even improved the 'identity crisis'.
After an emotional reunion with his parents, Alex must face the fact that he can't make his tribe proud because he only knows how to dance, disappointing his father and causing him to abdicate because he doesn't have the heart to banish his son, so Makunga (a slicker Scar voiced by Alec Baldwin, but in reality a self-centered loser) becomes the king. But the real troubles start when the waterhole dries up, and maybe this is the time for Alex to prove his value, his own way. It's not the "remember who you are" but the "stay true to yourself" (I just love the way he keeps the hat of shame all the time) as if there was really a little gay subtext with the references to dance as an opposition to fight.
Watching "Madagascar 2", I thought of what I said about the first, it's like a long exposition and I can't wait to see the sequel. So, I saw it and I absolutely loved it.