Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) voices Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer directed by Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath Movie Review

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) voices Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith

The Lion Kin

With reluctance I sat down to watch "Madagascar 2" aka "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" as whilst the first movie probably entertained young children it did very little for me. But in fairness the opening to "Madagascar 2" grabbed me as we are introduced to an adorable, an absolutely cute lion cub who washes up in New York and ends up at Central Park Zoo. Unfortunately after that cute opening my mind quickly started to drift again as again "Madagascar 2" is very much a movie which aims to entertain children but only occasionally amuse adults who find themselves also watching.

The problem, well that once again is two fold starting with a rather ordinary storyline. After that cute opening we end up quickly back in Madagascar and watching are 4 friends and a few others trying to leave on a dilapidated plane only for it to crash in Africa shortly afterwards. What follows is some comedy as our four animal friends and their entourage meet various animals, family reunions and having lived in New York for so long struggle to understand them. And then there is of course the mission part as are four amigos go on a journey to try and discover why a river is drying up. The thing is that whilst this is ample for the intended young audience it fails to offer up enough for adults and parents who find themselves watching for ever reason.

The other problem, well it is the animation again but before you jump on me let me just say the animation is a huge improvement on the first movie. The background art is fantastic and as we watch our four friends strolling through tall grass the detail is brilliant. The trouble is that once again the detail when it comes to the animals is not as good and that is because the first movie set the look and this had to follow on. In fairness the animators have tried to soften things but it still often looks like a computer game rather than an animation.

What this all boils down to is that "Madagascar 2" is in fairness an improvement on the first movie but at the same time it is still a movie whose main target is young children rather than the adults watching it with them.


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