Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

Plot synopsis:
The movie starts in the past, in an African reserve, when Alex the Lion was just a little cub, being tutored in the art of being a lion, by his doting father, Zuba, who is also the Alpha Lion. Alex is full of life and more interested in playing the fool, by dancing around and doing the "happy face/angry face" gag with his paw. Zuba shows him his paw, which has an Africa-shaped birthmark on it, which Alex also has on his paw. Just then, Makunga (Alec Baldwin), a scheming lion who wants to be Alpha Lion, challenges Zuba. Leaving Alex alone for a while, Zuba kicks the pride out of Makunga. As the fight is going on, Alex notices a piece of rope moving on the ground and follows it. He goes off the reserve and is captured by poachers, who dump him in a crate and put him in the bed of their truck. Zuba notices that his son is missing. He sees the truck moving along the fence of the reserve and hears his son, crying out for help. He runs and jumps on the truck. He manages to free the crate of its binds, when one of the poachers shoots him, causing him to fall off the truck. He doesn't notice that Alex's crate has fallen out of the truck-bed and into a nearby river. Despite the painful hole in his ear, he mourns the loss of his son.Meanwhile, in the box, Alex sits timidly. Finally, he reaches New York City and is fished out and put in the New York City Zoo. When he sees all the people looking at him, he starts to dance around, much to the audience's pleasure. As he vamps for the people, behind him, a young Marty the Zebra tells a young Gloria (the Hippo) and Melman (the Giraffe) that Alex is a show-off. Years later, Alex is still a huge hit with the zoo spectators. Marty (Chris Rock) tells Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Melman (David Schwimmer) that he still thinks he's a show-off. Marty then expresses his desire to go out in the wild...which, in his mind, means Connecticut.Then, we see a TV news report on the four animals' NY escapade (from the previous movie) and their encounter with the fearsome Nana (Elisa Gabrielli). After they were recaptured, animal rights activists demanded that they be sent back to the wild. During their voyage, their ship went missing, much to the sadness of New Yorkers.Next, in the island of Madagascar, we see that the four animals are now preparing to go back home, thanks to the airplane that the penguins supposedly fixed. As they climb up to the huge platform that the lemurs built, they groove to the tune of "I Like to Move It". They exchange warm goodbyes to the lemurs, at least most of them. King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen), dressed as a lady in a cake, and Maurice (Cedric the Entertainer) are coming along. When the creepy little Mort tries to come along, Julien turns security loose on him and herds everyone into the plane. The two monkeys, Mason and Phil, are also there. With the lemurs' help, the plane is catapulted into the air.As they fly through a storm cloud, Alex is scared by what appears to be a gremlin. However, when the sun comes out, he sees it's only Mort. When Mort waves to Alex, he loses hold of the wing and is blown off, leaving Alex to think it was his imagination. Inside the plane, the animals talk about Madagascar. Gloria mentions that, when they reach NY, she might get into the breeding program, which makes Melman a bit jealous. She shrugs it off and puts on a mask to take a nap. In the front of the cabin, Julien and Maurice sit in "first-class", eating shrimp.As Skipper talks to a hula dancer-shaped bobblehead doll, the plane runs out of fuel. Although Skipper initially solves the problem by smashing the warning light with the manual, the engines give out, and the plane falls out of the sky. As Marty, Alex and Melman scream in terror, King Julien treats it like a roller coaster ride. Their hatch falls open, and he and Maurice are sucked out, with a parachute deploying, causing Julien to yell out, "I can fly!" As Marty and Alex say their goodbyes, Alex confesses that he broke Marty's iPod back at the zoo. Marty's brief anger, however, is interrupted when Melman blurts out that he loves Gloria. Gloria is still asleep, and he has to backtrack on it to his friends.Right before they crash, Skipper orders Rico to pull up (he had been diving the plane just for fun), and they skim the ground. The landing gear deploy, but break off because the plane is moving too fast. The plane skids through a forest, the wings stripping off, leaving just the airframe. When it flies off a cliff, the penguins deploy parachutes, leaving the plane's carcass to float to the ground, where the oxygen masks finally deploy. Finally, Gloria wakes up, and finds Melman hyperventilating in one of the masks.When the dust settles, they look around, wondering where they are. Skipper and the other penguins celebrate their landing, being able to "live with" two unaccounted for (Julien and Maurice). Skipper tells the animals that they will need 6-9 months, with the monkeys' help, to rebuild the plane. Alex and Skipper initially quarrel over the repairs (with Private pulling a switchblade knife at one point), but Alex eventually gives up and leads his friends away to contemplate their fate.Initially believed to be in the middle of nowhere, they are proved somewhat wrong when a jeep approaches, filled with tourists who click pictures, then quickly drives off. Alex runs after the jeep, trying to get help, but is attacked by Nana (who's on the jeep). After a brief, comical fight with her, he ends up on the losing side. The jeep drives off, but Alex got her handbag. He takes her cell phone and is about to call someone, when they look down the cliff they're on and see several animals - hippos, lions, zebras and giraffes, among others. Although Melman initially thinks again that they're at the San Diego Zoo, they quickly realize they're in Africa. (Though it's a good thing they realize they're "home"...the cell phone has no service.)They go to the watering hole, where the animals are assembled. Alex tries to make contact with the natives, but quickly finds out they can understand him just fine. They ask how the four of them got into the reserve. At that moment, the Alpha Lion, Zuba, and his mate (Sherri Shepherd) approach. Zuba doesn't recognize Alex, though Alex feels he's seen Zuba before. Suddenly, Zuba's mate recognizes Alex and looks at his paw, with the Africa-shaped birthmark on it. Zuba and Alex's Mom are overjoyed at the return of their son, as is Alex at being reunited with his parents. All the animals around rejoice the return of Alex, the "King of New York". And, surprisingly, so does Makunga. He is going to use Alex against Zuba, to become Alpha Lion. Julien and Maurice show up and partake in the celebrations, thinking it's for them.Marty meets the other zebras (who all sound exactly like him). They welcome him into their fold. Gloria meets the other hippos and becomes the object of attraction for Moto Moto (Will.i.Am), the hippo "hunk". Melman meets the giraffes and asks about medications. They say that now that their witch doctor, Joe, is dead, if any giraffe gets sick, they go into a hole and wait for death. Horrified, Melman volunteers to become the giraffe's witch doctor.Makunga speaks to Zuba about banishing Alex as he has not performed the rite of passage that all young lion cubs should perform. Alex, thinking it to be a breeze, accepts. Meanwhile, Marty finds out that his "water-spit" trick is no longer exclusive to him, as all the other zebras learn it immediately. He is surprised to see that all zebras are exactly like him. Melman, after having helped out a young giraffe with a broken leg, is informed that the brown spot on his neck is a symptom of "witch doctor's disease" and he has 48 hours to live.Meanwhile, the penguins hijack safari jeeps to use to fix the plane, rendering many of the tourists (including Nana) stranded in the African reserve. The monkeys bring a whole bunch of monkeys as extra help for fixing the plane. Nana (having just gotten her beloved handbag back) leads the stranded tourists, who are all from New York, and tells them that, as New Yorkers, they can survive anything.Alex prepares for the rite of passage, thinking it to be a dance-off. As he prepares, Makunga comes along and talks him into choosing Teetsi, who Alex thinks will be his dance partner. When the time comes for the rite of passage, Alex does indeed choose Teetsi, who turns out to be something like the Incredible Lion Hulk. Alex still thinks it's a dance-off and dances around, to the confusion of his father, until Teetsi levels Alex with a punch. Now that Alex has been defeated, Makunga says that Alex should be banished. Unable to do it himself, Zuba tosses away the Alpha Lion scepter and abdicates. Makunga obligingly decides to become Alpha Lion. Alex is made to wear a ridiculous fruit hat, as his punishment.Zuba berates his son for shaming him. Alex walks off in a huff. In the wreckage of the plane, Alex, Marty and Melman sit, moping. Alex is sad about being banished, Melman is distressed that he has only 2 days to live and Marty is upset he's exactly like all the other zebras. Gloria comes along happily and gloats about the great time she's having. When she mentions Moto Moto and his interest in her, Melman gets jealous and they quarrel and stalk off in separate directions. Alex and "Marty" are left behind, until the real Marty comes along, and is offended that Alex could not tell the two zebras apart. Accusing Alex of only thinking of himself, he walks away.As Melman sits inside a giraffe death hole, Julien and Maurice come to him. Julien advises Melman to tell Gloria how he feels. Gloria is at the hippo's watering hole, being charmed by Moto Moto. She asks why he likes her. Besides her plumpness, he can't answer anything else. Melman comes over and sees them together. He tells Moto Moto to take care of Gloria, and expresses his love for her in a way far more profound than the male hippo is capable of, before leaving, having shocked Gloria with his feelings.Inexplicably, the watering hole dries up, leaving only a tiny amount. Makunga comes along and suggests that the animals fight each other for the remaining water. Alex shows up and says that he will go and look for the reason for the water stoppage, which is off the reserve. If any animal goes off the reserve, it is fair game for hunters. Makunga, hearing the dissent among the other animals, says that he will confer with Zuba. Before leaving the reserve, Alex goes to the zebra herd and looks for Marty. Unable to find him, he shouts out that he's sorry. However, he recognizes Marty (the only one not facing him, revealing the scar left from his bite mark in the last movie) and asks him to accept his apology. Having made up, Marty accompanies Alex into the woods outside the reserve. Meanwhile, Makunga tells Zuba and Mom that Alex has gone out of the reserve. Zuba runs off immediately in search of his son, while Makunga laughs evilly.At the watering hole, Moto Moto tries to dig for water, but only finds diamonds and gold. Julien and Maurice show up and declare that an animal sacrifice to the volcano will please the water gods. They need a volunteer. Melman, thinking that he has less than a day to live, volunteers. Cheering, the animals lift him up and take him to the volcano. Gloria protests, trying to talk Melman out of it, but he has made up his mind.Alex and Marty go through the eerie woods and come up to the source of the water blockage - a dam erected by the New York tourists, led by Nana. They are suddenly attacked by spear-wielding tourists. Alex is caught in a rope trap. He tells Marty to go get help. Marty runs off.At the volcano, Melman stands shakily at the edge of the precipice, overlooking the red-hot magma. Suddenly, the old witch doctor, Joe, shows up. He says that all giraffes have brown spots, so there's no such thing as "witch doctor's disease". Gloria runs up to Melman and tells him not to jump. However, as she runs up to the precipice, she stumbles and cracks it. Melman starts running towards her, past the crumbling precipice. She grabs him by his horns. They profess their love for each other. Just then, Marty runs in and tells them that Alex is in trouble and they need the plane.At the crash site, the monkeys are on strike, Mason and Phil are negotiating with Skipper, and demanding maternity leave (even though the monkeys are all males). Gloria, Marty and Melman run up and tell them to get the plane ready immediately, but Skipper can't until he "breaks the union". However, Phil comes up with "incriminating" photos of Skipper and his bobblehead doll. Skipper grants their maternity leave, and the monkeys get right to work.Alex is taken to the tourists' colony, where they plan to roast him for dinner. Just then, Zuba shows up and frees Alex. Seeing that the tourists are New Yorkers, Alex starts doing his famous dance. The tourists recognize Alex, who they thought was dead. At first bewildered, Zuba also joins in the fun. However, Nana still wants to eat them and aims the shotgun at them. Suddenly, the plane flies overhead and drops a bucket down, with a monkey-chain (several monkeys holding hands) holding onto it. The lions get inside and, thanks to some miscommunication up the monkey-chain, the penguins are ordered to take out the dam. Nana stands on top of the dam and tries to shoot the plane down. One of the bullets goes through the plane's windshield and blows off the bobblehead doll's head, prompting Skipper to scream for a medic (Private with duct tape). Out of bullets, Nana waves her hand bag right before the bucket strikes the dam like a wrecking ball, smashing it and sending the water back down the river.Meanwhile, at the volcano, Julien and Maurice stand alone at the precipice, wondering about the sacrifice. Suddenly, along comes Mort, who survived the fall and the ocean, and is currently trying to survive the huge, scary shark that's followed him inland. As the shark lunges at the lemurs, they hang off the edge of the precipice, while "Jaws" plummets to a fiery death below. At that moment, they see water flowing towards the watering hole, leading them to believe that the sacrifice worked.The parched animals are overjoyed to see the water back. They are happier when they see Alex and Zuba standing proudly on the capsule, floating on the water towards them. Makunga comes along and haughtily tells them that, though they brought the water back, Alex is still banished. Alex tells him that he has a gift for him and gives him Nana's handbag. Makunga takes it happily, but the gift has an accompaniment inside the capsule - Nana! Seeing her handbag around Makunga's shoulder, she screams "Bad kitty!" and attacks him, leading him away by the ear. Zuba picks up the fallen scepter and offers it to Alex. Alex refuses, but Zuba insists they at least share it, both as Alpha Lions, as the animals rejoice.We then see the animals at a wedding. Although initially Gloria and Melman are seen in the center of the wedding party, it eventually pans down to the real couple: Skipper the penguin and his hula dancer bobblehead doll, her head held to the body with duct tape. Melman comments off-hand that the marriage will never last. The penguins and monkeys fly off in the plane for a honeymoon in Monte Carlo, to be paid for with the earlier-found diamonds and gold. Alex, Marty, Melman, Gloria and the lemurs are content to wait in Africa until they return. Alex tells Zuba that they'll be staying with them. Zuba has an angry look on his face, but does the "happy face/angry face" gag, with his paw. They all laugh. Melman and Gloria look lovingly at each other, and Melman blubbers about what he loves about her. Marty ribs Alex, saying he's not Marty. Alex laughs, but just for confirmation, looks at Marty's behind for his bite mark again, causing Marty to bump him. They walk towards the watering hole.

Tags: comedy, humor, queer

Review:
Rarely have I seen animated family sequel movie that's as good or better than its predecessor but speaking as a movie freak who didn't like the first installment, I gotta say I'm very much entertained by MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 Africa and it way funnier than the original movie.
Kids will love it, Parents will be glad about it, and the rest of us will find it to be very amusing.MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 Africa will feel like too short of a movie, but that's also something that I can appreciate because I don't think it has any intention of trying to be all Oscar worthy, it's nothing more than telling a light, enjoyable story with good moral value lesson and that's about it.
While it's the usual pop-culture jokes and witty one liners that plague recent animated films, there were some gems in that movie, the ones which stuck suck as the crowd favourite penguins stealing the whole show, as well as the madcap rave party tune Move It!Beginning directly where we last saw Alex the Lion (Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Rock), Melman the Giraffe (Schwimmer) and Gloria the Hippo (Smith), the penguins have finally built a plane that ought to bring our merry crew back to New York, together with Julien the lemur (Sacha Baron Cohen) and his sidekick (Cedric the Entertainer), but of course should that happen, there'll be no sequel to begin with.
So we have the crew crash land into the continent Africa, thereby guaranteeing yet another tale of being from the outside, but now having a habitat that's much closer to their natural environment, one which sees the animal types in question grouped together into one reserve for storytelling convenience.Directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath, who also provided the voice of Skipper the head penguin, the storyline might seem like a poor man's cousin to Disney's The Lion King, what with exiles and alpha-lions battling it out to be king of the habitat.
You have Alex's return and reunion with his parents, with adversary coming from an earlier generation, there's Marty who discovers that he's no longer unique but the same as every other hundredth zebra out there, Glora looking for love with other hippos now that there's no lack of suitors, and Melman fighting his own cowardice to reveal his feelings for Gloria, as well as being appointed the witch doctor for the land.And if you think that the primary voice cast is already A-list, the film piles on to that list with the likes of the late Bernie Mac voicing Zuba the alpha-lion, Alec Baldwin again in a villainous role as his rival Makunga, and Will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas in a hilarious role of hippo-Casanova Moto Moto (the name's so good you have to say it twice!) The songs department falls up a bit short this time round, though thankfully "Move It!" wasn't conveniently and lazily played ad-nauseam.
Given the army of illustrators working on the project, you can't expect quality to drop from its predecessor, though there's nothing new to be injected into a mature presentation.Despite the plundering of the same old family values / theme / storyline and the importance of establishing strong friendships, this new Madagascar managed to deliver on multiple fronts, joining the ranks of the few whose sequels are superior than the original.
That being said, it's still a fun, entertaining, and unpredictable movie that continues the zaniness that made the original a personal guilty pleasure of mine.In Escape 2 Africa, we follow the New York zoo animals, the psychotic penguins, the monkeys, and the lemur leaders as they unexpectedly are stranded in the middle of Africa.
While the original four characters take a backseat and add emotion to a franchise that's too fast-paced for this sort of stuff, we have the penguins and Julien taking over the movie and keeping it from being another totally disappointing animated sequel like every straight-to-video Disney sequel, the ugly Shrek sequels, or Ice Age 2.
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is also proof that those hilarious penguins need their own movie, pretty much immediately.Yes, right now..
But the whole story was just a blast to watch.Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman are still looking to go back to Africa, everything seems to be a good and they start to fly back with the penguins as well as Julien.
But the plane runs out of fuel and crashes, they are still in Africa, but bump into an animal pack where Alex finds his long lost parents, Marty finds out that all zebras are like him(imagine being surrounded by 1,000 Chris Rocks*shudder*), Gloria has a hunky hippo who is crushing on her, and Melman becomes the giraffe witch doctor of his group.
Alex is about to be initiated into his pride, but one lion does not want him part of the group and will do anything to become leader.Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is definitely worth your watch, it's not the animated film of the year, but it was a lot of fun to watch.
The same characters are as charming as ever, but this time, they're much fleshed out especially King Julian and Maurice.Some of the new characters are great and I think the villain named Makunga voiced by Alec Baldwin isn't that bad of a villain, though he was underused and I liked Alex's parents as well.
There was also a scene that involved a relationship between Gloria and Melman which was so romantic and sweet to watch.The only two problems that I do have with this film is that while the story does have more heart than the original film, it's still predictable and does have it's similarities to the Lion King and Happy Feet and several scenes were dragged a lot throughout the movie.
Part Twos are usually scary territory, but I daresay this one outdid its predecessor in terms of storyline and packing in the laughs.It starts where Madagascar One ended: Central Park Zoo animals Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer) and Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) find themselves still stranded and eager to leave the island.
The original Madagascar film was one of my favorite animated movies of the decade because it was very original and outright hilarious, in addition to having the most amazing penguins the world has ever seen.
In the second installment, however, the screenplay is sacrificed for better animation, and while it looks good, the film doesn't carry itself well, despite having a very short runtime.Our favorite zoo animals have been kicked out of New York and end up in Africa, where they quickly fit in with a pride of lions and other animals.
It's hard to believe they spent almost 3 years making this movie.Of course, most animated films are only as good as the voice actors, and while the big four of Stiller, Rock, Schwimmer, and Pinkett Smith are enjoyable, it's Sacha Baron Cohen who steals the movie once again as King Julien.
Madagascar 2 is simply hilarious: the crazy and extremely violent granny, Moto Moto being too macho for words, the crazy king, the hippo lady being in the mood for some love, the love sorrow of the hypochondriac giraffe (whose voice is being done by ever funny David Schwimmer from friends) and the extremely smooth mafia penguins...
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is a great movie with a very well written storyline and a terrific voice cast.The movie is a very fresh sequel to Madagascar that I think is just as good,in fact probably better,than the first one.Its filled with more interesting characters and each of the four main characters are given their own story,which I really liked.I liked seeing all four of them dealing with a new life in Africa,particularity Marty as we see him hanging around a ton of Zebras who look and sound exactly like him,I thought this was a funny set up and seeing how sensitive Marty was about being unique,it was a good choice.Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is a very enjoyable movie that fans of the first one will definitely enjoy.
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".
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.
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.
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.
Hans Zimmer's musical score is equally spectacular.At the beginning of Cohen's narrative we discover the origins of lion cub Alex, and his fated path to the Central Park Zoo. Following the logical conclusion of "Madagascar" our heroes Alex (Stiller), Marty (Rock), hippo Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith), and giraffe Melman (David Schwimmer) are flying back to New York aboard the airplane piloted by head penguin Mort (hysterical Andy Richter) and his crew.
The first of the two Madagascar sequels was funny and original, and the second is almost great as the first one, with many new characters.Here Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria leave from Madagascar with a decrepit plane ''fixed'' by the lemurs and the four penguins, but it suffers a crash-landing and they end in Africa.
After a fight encounter between Alex and the old lady, the quartet discovers that they are ended in Africa, and soon: Alex is reunited with his parents, Gloria meets an handsome male hippo, Melman becames the witch doctor of a giraffe group and Marty meets many other zebras identical to him.But then problems begin: there is another lion, Makunga, that uses the excuse of the rite of passage to dethrone Alex's dad and replace him as the king; Marty considers that he is not unique, and only Alex helps Marty to be different because of his qualities; Melman thinks that he is soon to death and Gloria doesn't like Melman anymore.
And at the beginning the three penguins replace the boy in the Dreamworks logo.The animation is always great and colorful like in the first movie, the soundtrack is also good (and in the end credits there is Will.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This film was (very) memorable, fun, (very) crude but a high- quality movie.So, the film starts off with giving you a bit of background on how Alex got to the zoo in New York and then goes to the present where the animals you got to know and love in the first film (Alex, Gloria, Marty, Melman, the penguins, King Julien, Maurice, Mort, and the two monkeys) get ready to go to New York.
The beginning of this movie is great as it shows how Alex the Lion got to becoming a popular attraction at the Central Park Zoo. The transitioning to showing where we last left off with the main characters is also great as we see that they are leaving Madagascar to try and head back to New York.
His father is voiced brilliantly by the late great Bernie Mac. Marty, Melman, and Gloria run into many of their own kind.This movie is full of fun and some new adventures and schemes from the ever awesome penguins.
The original 'Madagascar' was one of the funniest animated films I'd seen in a long time, characterised by witty humour, hilarious one-liners and some brilliantly funny characters.
The plot involves Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), and Melmen the giraffe (David Schwimmer) as they wind up fleeing the country of Madagascar in the very beginning of the film in a junkyard plane, flown by the pesky penguins, with hopes of reaching New York City.
Sometime during the three year break between Madagascar and its sequel, the brewing franchise found direction, hope, and audacity and created a sequel effectively better than the first - a rare quality indeed.Continuing on with the plot, the film opens with nice backstory showcasing how Alex, whose birth name was apparently "Alakay," was born in Africa to two loving parents.
King Julian must have had something with his ears as well when Melman had to repeat more that he loves Gloria..Penguins were great again and my daughter's favourite is Moto Moto now:-).Despite that scenes of "harrasing the old lady" I like this even a little more than the original..
To his amazement Alex finds he has returned to his birth home and has been united with his parents while the other animals all learn what it is to be part of a tribe and outside of the confines of the zoo community however it is not long before the friends find themselves being separated.The second Madagascar film didn't get great reviews off the critics, with it generally being met with a collective shrug with nobody having anything specifically bad to say or specifically good and, as a result I figured this would be fine on DVD rather than the cinema.
They land in the plains of Africa and Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria find themselves encountering their own kind and realizing this is where it all began.Most of the characters from the original return in the sequel, but the movie do have new ones as well.
And like I said before, the penguins are awesome and I would love to see them in Antarctica in the next movie.Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is a great family movie and it didn't disappoint.
With the first sequel, returning directors Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath have pulled the same trick again, only this time dumping its hapless entourage onto the brutal plains of Africa, with Hollywood again apparently forgetting that Africa is a continent, not a country.After the adventure on Madagascar, zoo animals Alex (Ben Stiller), Marty (Chris Rock), Melman (David Schwimmer), Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) and a small group of militaristic penguins have fixed the crashed plane and are readying to fly back home.
Nevertheless, I sat down with my 7 year old son to watch the sequel and I must admit that we were both quite entertained and amused with this movie.The story was quite good and you instantly gets swept up and carried away into the storyline.The characters in the movie were likeable and funny, and it really worked to their advantage that they had such a great ensemble of voice actors to perform the various roles and voices throughout the animated movie.
There was a good combination of music and singing and ordinary cartoon here, without it turning into a stereotypical animated movie like those seen produced by Disney."Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" is definitely worth taking the time to sit down and watch regardless of your age..
As are Chris Rock as Marty the Zebra, David Schwimmer as Melman the giraffe, Jada Pinkett Smith as Gloria the Hippo, and Sacha Baron Cohen as the little animal Julien.New actors include (deceased) Bernie Mac who does a great job as Zuba, the father of Alex.