Opening Day: 13 November 2008

Synopsis:

All the loveable characters are back - Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippo, King Julien, Maurice and the penguins - in "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa." Left marooned on the distant shores of Madagascar, the New Yorkers have hatched a plan so crazy it just might work. With military precision, the penguins have repaired an old crashed plane - sort of. Once aloft, this unlikely crew stays airborne just enough to make it to the wildest place of all - the vast plains of Africa itself - where our zoo-raised crew encounter species of their own kind for the very first time. While discovering their roots, they quickly realize the difference between the concrete jungle and the heart of Africa. Despite long-lost relatives, romantic rivals and scheming hunters, Africa seems like a "crack-a-lackin" great place... but is it better than their Central Park home?

Movie Review:

Madagascar 3 is already in the works, and it is going to hit a cinema near you in 2010. This was announced even before this sequel to DreamWorks’ successful animated movie came out. You know that this is a money milking machine, especially when the characters are adorably cute, and you see fast food tie in toys appearing in display cabinets all over the island. But you’ll still be flocking to the cinemas with your nephew, nieces and significant other halves, because why would anyone want to miss such an entertaining family flick?

Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Gloria the hippopotamus, Melman the giraffe and all your favourite animal characters are back in this follow up to the 2005 movie hit. The movie begins with the New York zoo animals preparing to go home, but no thanks to the motley crew of penguins, they end up in the wilderness of Africa, where the animals realize what survival is like in the world out there. Joining in the fun are other animals from the first movie, like Julien the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta), Maurice the aye aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) and Mort the Goodman’s mouse lemur (Microcebus lehilahytsara) – even we are impressed how much we can learn just by doing research for writing movie reviews. And how can we forget the scene stealing killer penguins? They are back and having even more fun driving airplanes in this movie too.

Yes, nothing about this animated feature makes sense. But that’s what you’ll love about this very accessible picture too. Everyone is, err, pardon the pun here, having a wild time here, and returning directors Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath do not give you much quiet moments to catch your breath. Everyone seems to be talking, shouting, and screaming at the same time; the jokes seem to be coming straight at you one after another in the fast and furious mode; and the actors do their best to keep you amused for 89 minutes with their laugh a minute wisecracks.

Ben Stiller (Tropic Thunder) returns as the pampered lion, Chris Rock (Bee Movie) reprises his role as the starry eyed zebra, Jada Pinkett Smith (Reign Over Me) once again gives her sultry voice to the hip hippo and David Schwimmer’s (Friends) hypochondriac giraffe reminds us of Ross from the TV sitcom. Adding to the star factor this time round are Alec Baldwin (My Best Friend’s Girl) as a jealous lion plotting to take over the throne, Bernie Mac (Transformers) in his last animated feature as a courageous lion and Black Eyed Peas’ front man will.i.am as a, picture this in your mind, hunky hippo that catches the eyes of swooning female hippos.

With so many characters trying to vie for your attention, you can now understand how much there is to squeeze into this fun packed movie?

And it doesn’t stop there: we especially love Sacha Baron “Borat” Cohen’s Indian accented singing-dancing lemur who is a self proclaimed king. We love it when he wears his Hawaiian skirt and pops out of a cake, we love it when he throws his hands up when the plane is about to crash, we love it when he suggests sacrificing someone to a volcano so that water can return to the wild. How can we forget the annoyingly cute Mort (voiced minimally by Andy Richter) who annoyingly brings himself along for the adventure and brings along a great white shark with him? Expect the kids to pester their parents to purchase toys and action figures very soon, especially with Christmas around the corner.

So we don’t really care if there isn’t much originality in the plot, we don’t really mind if the story sounds like a poor imitation of Disney’s The Lion King, and we don’t really care that we are falling for the movie’s shallow trap of inconsequential jokes. We are here to have fun, and the movie gave us a distractingly wild and entertaining getaway.

Movie Rating:



(There isn’t much substance here, but the animated movie is one fun, wild and entertaining experience)

Review by John Li