Madagascar 2 : Escape 2 Africa

Apologies for posting so late - laptop went bust again.

Madagascar 2 continues from where it left off in part 1 - in the island of Madagascar. The New York foursome - Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Gloria the hippo and Melman the giraffe - have gotten bored with the island and are restless to reach home. So under the able command of the military penguins, and accompanied by King Julien and his trusted Maurice, they take off in an old crashed-in-the-jungle-plane, but only to soon run out of fuel and crash-land in mainland Africa.

Here they find creatures of their own kind and discover their roots. For Alex its more special because he happens to get reunited with his family. The others take to their new surroundings quite well too. However, soon their wildlife preserve is faced with trouble and our foursome has to team up and tackle the challenge – in the process, discovering new bonds between them.

The characters are memorable as ever – especially the two lemurs King Julien and Maurice. The penguins are adorable, but I think the two lemurs steal the thunder from everyone else. There are more characters introduced, like Alex’s family and Gloria’s date – the hilariously named MotoMoto !!

However, while there are funny lines interspersed throughout the movie, Madagascar 2 is not as entertaining or memorable as part one. The first one had the advantage of the freshness - in this one, the characters have lost their novelty – and the new characters are simply not in the same mold. But more importantly, I think the introduction of the Lion King subplot was the weakest point of the movie – couldn’t the creative heads come up with a better subplot for Alex ? Something a little bit funnier ?

The granny from NY also makes an appearance, and would appear to have been given more screentime than necessary. The monkeys also do not come good till the end. But all the same, there are some absolute gems in the movie – the seafood one is a howler.

So definitely do not give this movie a miss. A very good entertainer like every animation – but not quite a great one …