Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

Saw Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. I liked it. I had low hopes coming in as the first film hadn't impressed me too much. This one follows its lead in as much as it is light fluff, but there's no real decrease in quality. The film opens with a lunge at the emotional jugular, showing the moment when the lion is poached from his lion-family. It's really sad but also kind of artificial-feeling. There's a lot of high-pitched shrieks of "Daddy!" and so on. Anyway, then we whirl-wind recap the previous film, ending with a great scene of the animals trying to escape the titular Madagascar via broken plane.

There's a bit of topical war-on-terror stuff there, with one of the characters being grabbed by security for having scissors and hand-cream. Just prior to that was a gentle parody of the candle-light vigils held by New Yorkers (this time over the lion.) Later on in the film, there's some outright (but, nicely, plot-necessary) NYC-worship. Even here, in kids' movies, the shadow of no towers looms! It's a little weird, but is very much in the background.

The animals arrive in Africa after much airline-comedy (what's the deal with peanuts? Am I right?) and immediately split into five sub-plots: The lion must prove himself to his parents who disapprove of his dancing (nary a Billy Elliot joke to be found. I shake my head.) The zebra joins the herd and feels he has no individuality (this is actually quite creepy. Imagine a field of creatures, all with Cris Rock's voice.) The hippo finds herself a man. The giraffe becomes a doctor. The penguins try to hilariously rebuild the plane. And! Bonus side-plot: a group of tourists are united under the rule of the little old lady from the first film who kicked the lion in the balls (as she does in this film as well. Sigh.) Oh and also King Julian the lemur is around, causing trouble.

With all of these plates spinning, there's always something interesting to watch. There's a few tedious relationship-building scenes, but these are soon dispensed with. There's a lot of cheap laughs and some clever ones as well. The idiotically decadent King Julian and the penguins get the best parts, but that's their function: to provide high-octane humor to pull us through the slow parts. Again, not a bad film, definitely on par with the first one, also light fluff, but enjoyable light fluff. It makes complete sense to try to turn this into a kind of slow television show (like the slow Marvel-themed television show now happening in a theater near you.) The characters are likeable but essentially blank and apparently the writing team possesses an endless supply of penguin-related humor and Sacha Baron Cohen. Bring on round three say I!