Review of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) by Kj P — 23 Nov 2014

All the characters are back and all are voiced by the same stars as before so continuity is a go for launch. Starting life as a prequel we get a brief glimpse at the main characters when they were very young in the zoo and how Alex got there.

From there we are back on Madagascar as the mammal team prepare to leave in their homemade plane back to New York. On route the plane crashes in Africa where they all experience the real wild of their dreams and Alex finds his family.

This sequel is a much better story and better executed if you ask me. The idea of seeing how Alex got stuck in the zoo and then accidentally gets back with his family again is a neat idea. The film is still a mix of off the wall madness, emotion and realism in the form of visuals but its a much tighter plot with better visual gags and better characters. Gone are most of the lemurs thank god.

Alas we still have to put up with the Indian accented lemur leader who is painfully unfunny still but we also have some good new additions. Alec Baldwin as Makunga is a really well designed bad guy or creep. Definitely made to look a bit like Baldwin with the thick glossy hair and slick sneering appearance. All the background animals actually add to the fun also, especially the fun idea of all the zebras being identical in every way and all the giraffes being hypochondriacs.

The old lady makes a reappearance I'm afraid, this time even more outlandish than before. Not just kicking animals in the nuts but having martial arts fights with them now and eventually becoming some kind of evil force against all the animals, pretty bad idea methinks.

Animation is still the same style of course but its all sharper and more fluid with some stunning African backgrounds and water work. The whole film feels much brighter, bolder, colourful and more enjoyable than the previous which seemed a bit drab. Still have some dreadful hip hop musical intrusions again, these seem to be a must for modern youth, gotta have plenty of hip hop pop culture in there. Incidentally the hip hop tune 'I Like to Move It' sung by all the lemurs in the first film seems to have become the franchises theme tune as we get it again here...facepalm.

Everything has been improved (almost) and we have a better film. Kinda feels like 'The Lion King' but with much added lunacy and those cool penguins, the film wouldn't be half as good without those flightless little birds.