Madagascar:
Escape 2 Africa

The first movie was one of the best animated movies you will ever see, but Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa feels like a rush job that wasn’t thought out. It pales so badly in comparison to the first Madagascar that they might as well have hired D.L. Hughley and Jim Belushi to replace Chris Rock and Ben Stiller.

The whole gang is back, and they have decided it’s time to return to New York and reclaim their fame and glory at the zoo. The penguins have repaired an old plane that crashed on the island, but the penguins aren’t exactly Orville and Wilbur Wright. Air Penguin makes it as far as Africa, where each of our heroes faces new challenges and problems.

Marty the Zebra (voice by Chris Rock) worries that he is not as unique as he thought. Melman the Giraffe (Davis Schwimmer) is starting to realize how much he loves Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), but she has eyes for another dude (umm, hippo) and Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller) is about to be reunited with his family, but he doesn’t fit in with all of the other lions, especially his Dad, Zuba (Bernie Mac).

Will they be able to cope in Africa?

Can they return to New York?

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is my worst nightmare when it comes to sequels. The entire enterprise feels haphazardly put together with all sorts of little storylines crammed together without any of the them getting developed enough to matter, and too easily shoved aside for cheap laughs that aren’t that funny enough often enough.

It doesn’t look as amazing as the first Madagascar. New characters, for the most part, are not relevant to the movie. Some of the old characters are dragged along for the ride even though we couldn’t care less about their story. Even worse, the movie is rushed so badly I felt like the opening sequence was missing 20 minutes of the movie! We get dumped into the middle of something that needed more explanation and build up, kind of like the whole production.

Newcomer Alec Baldwin steals the show as the deliciously evil lion who is plotting to take over the pride in Africa, and Mac finds moments to be funny as the father who doesn’t quite understand his child, but it’s not enough to save a horribly flawed movie.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is rated PG for some mild crude humor.