Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
Rated: PG
Runtime: 1 hour, 29 minutes
Directed by: Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath
Starring:
Ben Stiller - Alex
Chris Rock - Marty
David Schwimmer - Melman
Jada Pinkett Smith - Gloria
Sacha Baron Cohen - Julien
Cedric the Entertainer - Maurice
Andy Richter - Mort
Bernie Mac - Zuba
Alec Baldwin - Makunga
The first Madagascar was a fun if highly predictable bit of family entertainment. Dreamworks Animation doesn't pretend to push the envelope like Pixar and they still come out with highly profitable films. I was just happy that Madagascar wasn't as snarky and pop-culture laden as the Shrek films. Plus, there were genuinely funny elements like the covert penguins or Sacha Baron Cohen's voice work as the king of the lemurs.
But this time around, the laughs are nowhere to be found. And while I can accept that kids may enjoy films I find torturous, there were actually kids in the audience for my screening and they were either too well-behaved or just as bored as I was.
Discovering that penguins can't fly themselves or an aircraft, animals Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer), and Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) all crash land on the African continent. There, the entire gang makes exciting new discoveries. Alex finds that his father Zuba (Bernie Mac) is the Alpha Lion; Gloria is the hot new female on the savanna, Melman's hypochondria has led to him being the new doctor (although he's also very jealous of all the attention Gloria's giving to the male hippos), and Marty discovers that all the Zebras look, talk, and act exactly like him.
Let me pause on that last one: the zebra with the male black voice actor finds that all the other zebras are exactly like him to the point where his supposed best friend Alex, can't tell him apart from all the other zebras. Kids won't pick up on the racism and not wanting to destroy their innocence, I certainly won't point it out to them. I'll point it out to all the cynical adults like myself: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa thinks all black men look, sound, and act alike. Awesome.
The film's previous highlights of the penguins and King Julian (Cohen) don't have the same energy this time around. They're really just repeating what they did in the first film and with the surprise gone, it's hard to find the humor. With a greatly expanded role is the old woman from the first film who beat up on Alex. Apparently test audiences must have gone ape-shit for her and there are thousands of slave laborers in China currently hard at work with t-shirts reading "Bad Kitty!" I fear their hard work will go un-rewarded.
Just because the kids at the screening didn't enjoy this film as much as I thought they would, that doesn't mean that a larger audience of your ADD children won't find something to laugh about. Hell, if they can get Beverly Hills Chihuahua to $80 million in three weeks, they'll certainly turn out for another round of Madagascar. I just fear that parents won't be as forgiving this time around.
Words by
Matt Goldberg
10.28.08