Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

This movie really will give you a good laugh. It is about a new adventure of the four friends: Alex the lion, Melman the giraffe, Marty the zebra, Gloria the hippo. On the trip back to New York, they had an air crash and came to Africa instead. There, they found their roots and also came across some difficulties. In this movie, there are many supporting roles. And among them, the four little penguins played an important part and even covered the other main roles for their genius and humor. From the very beginning, the four penguins spoofed the DreamWorks icon. As for their popularity, the DreamWorks even planned to make a film about the Madagascar Penguins. I'm really looking forward to it. In this movie, the film makers pictured us an amazing Africa with wild animals and beautiful landscapes. The visual effects are pretty good and impressing. And I like the theme song "Move It", really making me full of energy and feel the desire of dancing with the characters. The last scene when Marty said that "Love has no boundary", I can't agree more. And I think that this does not only apply to love between lovers but also apply to love between friends and family. All in all, this is quite a funny movie and worth watching.

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. Dreamworks has a habit of doing this… what it lacks in its story and overall animation (Pixar still rules in those departments!) it makes up for it in its sense of humor. This is the movie that every age can enjoy and it has only a very, very few silly, lame moments but for the most part, you just got to move it, move it! The whole team is back, it doesn't take long for you to remember what each character is all about, there's no need for re-introduction but there is a bunch of new characters thrown in to the den without having to take us in unnecessary complication of having to understand what they are. The concept is simple and the jokes are funny. Here you see all the characters stranded in Africa and meet a their own kind. It's the freedom they've always wanted but don't really want at the same time. They have trouble fitting in and getting in touch with their heritage, all the while friendship and feelings are being put to the test resulting in an exciting adventure at the end that brings them closer together again. 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. If the running time were any longer, it would lose some of its target audience. Hands down, without dragging this review any more than it has to, the best part of this movie once again, are the penguins! Those dudes are hardcore gangsters and freakin' hilarious! They should have their own spin-off, stand-alone movie, just about them scheming something deviant and mission impossible-esquire. I could watch them work together and hear their smartass, cocky remarks/attitude about a thousand more times and they'll still crack me up. If you find no reason to watch this movie, then at least watch it to check out those awesome penguins.

As with the comment ahead of mine: it's all about the penguins. They should have their own movie.

We were chanting: more penguins, more penguins. At the screening we just saw, people who loved the first Madagascar movie waited excitedly for the magic to begin... I LOVED the first one. Interesting note: I liked the first one better, but my BF thinks this one has a better and deeper plot and pointed out in particular that while in the first one Gloria (the hippo) was the butt of many fat jokes, in this one she is celebrated just for being beautiful.

The whole movie is breathtakingly beautiful. We didn't see this on IMAX but I bet the IMAX version will be a treat.

Sascha Baron Cohen's King is again the hands-down favorite, I heard a ripple of joy murmur through the theater at everything he said and did, although my personal favorites (after the Penguins) are Maurice and Mort, the King's cohorts.

BF was also teasing me mercilessly because (and I'm nearly ashamed to admit it) there's one scene that had me totally teared up! Yes, I cried. Can't spoil it - go see the movie and tell me after if you know what choked me up! The film did not hold the attention of some of the very small children at the screening we saw, because some portions of the film only involve adult storyline concerning the adult star characters (Alec Baldwin, Jada Pinkett Smith, Chris Rock, and so forth) but when the little characters are on screen (the baby lion in particular is DARLING) the children present were absolutely captivated.

It's fun. It's not the greatest movie of all time, but it's very fun and children will want to watch it again and again.

I am a fan of the first Madagascar film, I know there are a lot of people who dissed it, but I thought it was cute. So when I saw the trailer for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, I was excited. I saw it on Friday and I absolutely enjoyed this fun family film. I think this even had a more coherent plot as well, plus how could you not love the penguins? They are absolutely hilarious and need their own movie, maybe a Full Metal Jacket with penguins! Anyways, I loved the characters so much, they're back and better than ever. They even ended up giving the little old lady from the first Madagascar who fought Alex the Lion, she has a bigger role and was so awesome to watch and listen too. I think the jokes were even funnier than the first Madagascar, my favorite scene without a doubt was the plane sequence in the beginning. 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. It kind of reminded me of The Lion King a little bit, it has a similar story. It's a great family film and is fun for both the kids and the adults as well. Although I still think it's funny that Alex is voiced by Ben Stiller and his dad is voiced by Bernie Mac, but it's all good, who knows, maybe Alex's dad just had a little more soul in him. I would recommend this film, it was a lot of fun to watch and I suggest we write in a script for those penguins! They're a blast to watch on screen.

7/10

I thought that the first Madagascar had promising characters and a decent premise, but it was very poorly put together. My son, who was 8 or 9 at the time loved the movie, however. We saw the sequel this morning and we both agreed - it was much better than the original. And, since part II begins with a brief summary of part I, there is no need to see the first one to understand what's happening in the new movie. All the main characters are back and there are many new ones as well. Going in, the big question on my mind was "do the penguins play a bigger role in the sequel?"... answer is "Yes, but not much bigger". All in all an enjoyable movie that outshines it's predecessor!