Review of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) by Chads. — 12 Nov 2008

So how will "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" play in Kansas? Sick of the cronyism he encountered at KU fraternities, Thomas Frank(author of the political and cultural critique "What's the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America") left the Sunflower State, and became a democrat.

While attending meetings for the Young Republicans, a wide-eyed Frank felt like an outsider; soon jaded, he quickly realized that the party of his youth on the Jayhawk campus, was more about harboring power than the promotion of ideals.

In "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa", fate thwarts the destiny that awaits Alex(Ben Stiller), who instead of being King of the Animal Preservation(read: the sequestered world invented by the Cons, not the real world(read: the jungle) unencumbered by party ideology), ends up as an entertainer in a New York zoo(read: lion as the liberal elite).

Leaders of the ultra-right incite their Conservative Evangelical constituency with unfounded claims that the so-called liberal media and their latte-sipping subscribers are laughing at Middle America and their cultural bent for all-things-Orthodox.

Not only was Alex a Young Lion(read: College(or Young) Republican), he was next in line to lead(read: W.) the animal preservation, and would be considered a God by all the lion-fearing animals. To his feral parents, and counterparts, Alex is a dancing fool; completely worthless, a wuss.

For a lion to earn his spurs in the imitative Africa(not the real Africa), fighting is the only currency. The subtly satirical "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" turns the culture wars on its heels.

It's Alex, the coded liberal, who is being persecuted. Late in the film, the satire grows more playful when Alex saves his own life, and his disapproving father's life, by performing for the safari tourists, led by an ultra-violent old lady(read: pro-hunting conservative), who ironically, permit the two lions to live because they can see that a lion well-versed in the dancing philosophy of Bob Fosse has worth.

In this sequel to the uneven "Madagascar", there's a surprisingly savvy parable about our country's current political climate, that shouldn't be written off in favor of the penguin and monkey show.