Starring: Ben Stiller, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Alec Baldwin, Chris Rock, Cedric The Entertainer, Bernie Mac, Sacha Baron Cohen, Andy Richter, Tom McGrath
Written By: Etan Cohen
Directed By: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath
Studio: Dreamworks Home Entertainment
Buy on Amazon.com: link

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is the sequel to the 2005 hit Dreamworks animated movie Madagascar. I didn’t really see too much of the first film but I had a chance to check out the sequel. I thought it was a funny and cute animated flick that both kids and adults will enjoy!

The beginning of the movie is a flashback of Alex the lion (Ben Stiller) and his Father Zuba (Bernie Mac). His father gets challenged to be the alpha male of the group by Makunga (Alec Baldwin) and in the process, Alex is kidnapped by poachers and ends up in NY. In the present day, we found out that the group of zoo animals are still in Madagascar, but have found a way off the island. King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen), the penguins and the rest of the group fixed up a crashed plane and are set to fly back to New York City. That doesn’t go as plan and they end up in a different part of Africa. Alex ends up ironically back with his parents. Marty the zebra (Chris Rock) discovers a group of Zebras that look, talk, and act like him. Melman the giraffe (David Swimmer) takes on the role of witch doctor and thinks hens dying. Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) is looking for some hippo lovinn and the penguins are stuck with fixing the messed up plane with the monkeys. While all this is happening, Makunga becomes alpha male when he cons Alex and his parents into leaving the group. To save the group of animals from the watering hole from dying of thirst, Alex goes out of the reserve to find out the problem.

From not seeing the first movie all that much, I picked up on things pretty quickly. They even recapped some of the first movie a little with a news stories. Even without seeing much of movie number 1, I still enjoyed Madagascar 2. I just can’t compare the two. I liked mostly everything about this movie, a few hokey things like the dancing and that old lady beating up the lion. I know she was in the first movie but man; she didn’t need to be in this one. She was annoying and kept coming up. Towards the end, I wished death on her and wanted her to get eaten by a python. Sadly, that didn’t happen. I thought the all-star cast was great with a lot of recognizable voices. The only one I couldn’t figure out was King Julien, and that ended up being Sacha Baron Cohen. That character was really funny, and so were all of the penguins. I can see why the penguins are the most popular things about this franchise. This time around felt like Ben Stillerns character’s movie more than anyone elsens. I guess since hens one of the biggest stars of the movie he should have a movie that centers around his character. I liked that Bernie Mac was in this movie. His voice was perfect for the character and the animators did a great job with the facial expressions to match Macns. It’s just sad that Bernie Mac is no longer with us and this was one of the last movies he worked on.

The extras for the DVD include some music videos, a video game and some featurettes. The cast of Madagascar 2 featurette was cool because you got to see all the actors voicing their characters and talking about the movie. I like the featurette where all the filmmakers went to Africa to get inspiration. I wish I could go to Africa and just take pictures. It would be a dream vacation to go. Anyway, the rest of the features were okay. It’s a decent amount of stuff for the casual DVD owner to enjoy. The second DVD Nickelodeon’s Penguins Of Madagascar has two short penguin episodes with decent animation, but not as good as the movie obviously. But in the end, the kids will really like this. I found it to be only okay, not that special.

The story of Madagascar 2 was a little bit of predictable but that didn’t really hurt the overall movie. For being a sequel, the movie succeeds and it doesn’t feel like some leftover junk. The animation was top notch, not as top notch as Pixar per say but it was done very well. There are more movies and projects featuring the characters of Madagascar being developed and I’m looking forward to that. If you liked this sequel, be sure to get this on DVD or Blu-Ray. Not really sure if the 2nd DVD is really worth it but maybe rent that if you can.

Features:
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
– 4 Mad Music Videos
– Test Flight Of Air Penguin Video Game
– Jambo Jambo: Swahili Speak
– Crash Landing
– African Adventure
– And Much More Mad-Tastic Fun!

The Penguins Of Madagascar
– Alex’s Dance-Off
– The Heart of a Lion
– Activision Video Game Demos (Exclusive Cheat Code)
– Going MAD at the Bronx Zoo
– Plus Plenty of Penguin Activities & Fun!

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 CC
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo CC
SPANISH: Dolby Digital 5.1
FRENCH: Dolby Digital 5.1

Video:
Widescreen 1.85:1 Color
Widescreen 1.78:1 Color

Subtitles:
English, Spanish, French

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Rating: PG
Running Time: 113 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: