A Review of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

Now if you know me, you know I jump at any chance to get out of the house. I absolutely can’t stand being cooped up in one place for long amounts of time. So last week when my friends called me and asked if I wanted to go to the movies with them, I sure as heck accepted the invitation. I didn’t even bother asking first what movie we were going to see. Now let me tell you a bit about my friends. My friends are my age and older. They are definitely not elementary kids. So when they told me we were going to see Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, I was just as surprised as you guys. My friends have good choice in movies at times, at other times though…I have no idea what they’re smoking.

I have never seen Madagascar before, but with my keen instincts I’m guessing it was about a bunch of animals in Madagascar. Well, it definitely wasn’t anything life-changing for I didn’t feel like I missed anything going into its sequel without knowing anything about it. It felt like one of those “we made enough money so lets make a sequel” type of kids movies.

There's something about the title of this movie that makes my mind act up though. Since the tagline is “Escape 2 Africa” it immediately kicks up the scenario in my mind that the full title of the first movie must have been “Escape from Madagascar.” And I just quite enjoy imagining a very John Carpenter-esque kid movie about a group of eye patch wearing, hardcore animals trying to escape from a massive prison that was once Madagascar. There’s just something about that that I enjoy, so that’s how I’m going to imagine the first film as being from now on.

I miss you...

I started noticing something about this movie while watching it. Its by all means a kid movie; they planned for it to be one and they advertised it as one. Yet, while watching it, I noticed an odd phenomenon. In a move that certain kid shows like Sponge Bob Square Pants use, the movie threw in a bunch of hidden adult jokes. I’m not quite sure why they did this. It could either be that the writers just threw them in there for their own entertainment or they wanted to try and save the sanity for some of the parents subjected to bringing their kids to the movies. I know for sure that kids now-a-days (sadly) aren’t going to get jokes related to stuff like Twilight Zone’s classic gremlin-on-a-plane-wing episode or songs like “Private Dancer." It's odd that they did so many of these jokes but, truthfully, I’m not complaining. I enjoy such jokes and obscure references. Since they are perfectly placed to not take away from the flow of the movie, I think they are a fine thing to add to a movie.

I never knew that four characters could be so absolutely dull...

The basic story includes what I guess is the usual suspects from the first one: Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Gloria the Hippo, Melman the Giraffe, King Julien a lemur and a gang of penguins. And, as the story suggests, they go to Africa. When they get there, they meet Alex’s long lost parents. Oh happy days! All sorts of stupid conflicts start happening, yadda yadda yadda, then the movie tries to teach us lessons.

Now, I don’t know about you guys, but certain kids movies nowadays drive me absolutely crazy because they try so freaking hard to force feed the viewer lessons. Don’t get me wrong, movies over time have been using methods to try and teach the viewers or warn them about important issues or other various things. Such movies go about doing such in many different ways: they may be parodies of wars, have an underlining meaning that arises over time, or just the material in it and circumstances are aimed towards a cause. I’m completely fine with those. The good movies that do such things usually use subtle techniques and manage to warn or inform in a brilliant manner. That and the lessons they teach are usually of national or racial issues. And the movies usually leaves the viewers thinking out the subject far after the movie ends. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, as well as other recent kid movies, do none of such things. They very obviously just drill lesson after lesson into its viewers. And its never anything more than stupid “lets all be friends!” lessons. Now, if kids need to learn such lessons, then they just need to watch Nick Jr. They have shows packed with lessons like the importance of friendship, sharing, and what not. Early morning TV is where such lessons belong. Movies are a sacred ground; they need not be defiled with stupid childish lessons. However, most kid movies do nothing but do so. Remember the good ol’ days when kids movies weren’t just kid movies but were family movies? Back then they were made to entertain you, not lecture you? Back in ‘the day’ the most lessons we ever got was: “don’t eat sh*t that witches give you?” And that’s all we needed to learn because those movies were made to be good and to entertain.

Never eat sh*t witches give you...

After being lectured at for about an hour into the movie, I started to notice something. The movie’s main lesson was to “accept differences.” Mainly because Alex’s long last father (Zuba) is the king of his region in Africa and Alex is the “king” of the New York Zoo. The thing is though, Alex is actually a performing lion. He dances around and entertains the people who come to the zoo. That’s how he became known as the “king” there. He is by no means a “real” king like his father. Alex can’t even fight. So basically Alex is “different” than everyone else and he tries to prove himself worthy to his father over time. If you’ve ever seen Happy Feet, it is basically the exact same plot, just with a lion. So, by the end, Alex saves the day by dancing and everyone loves him and accepts him. The thing I noticed while all this was going on is that this movie is one big metaphorical “coming out of the closet.” I mean, just look at it. Alex is “different." He doesn’t fight, he’s a performer and dancer from New York and his dad doesn’t approve. I think this movie is trying to convince kids to come out of the closet. I think it's just kind of weird to have a CGI movie with animals secretly telling people it's okay to be gay (nothing against gay people). I’m going to be re-thinking every kids movie I see from now on in order to catch their hidden meanings.

The only thing I really liked about this movie was the penguins and King Julien. These characters were the only funny people in the whole movie. Everything else in the movie just…there…nothing special or funny about it…it just exists…and crams lessons into you. But every time a penguin or King Julien showed up, I knew something funny was about to happen. It's like everything in between their parts is just there to build up their next appearance. The penguins and King Julien were just an extremely odd crew, almost out of place compared to the rest and that’s why they were funny. It's like someone stole them from another movie and threw them in here in order to make the movie a comedy. The penguins are an almost mafia-like crew and the four of them perfectly play off one another. The point in the movie where one of the penguins pulls out a switchblade to “intimidate” someone was when I realized they were pure gold. King Julien is basically just pure obscure oddness and that’s why he comes off as so funny in the movie. If the movie had been nothing but these guys, it would have been amazing.

These guys helped me keep my sanity...

The movie also made no attempt to follow-up the previous film, Escape from Madagascar. I didn’t even see a single eye patch throughout the whole movie. And I was really expecting them to have some sort of virus or bomb implanted into the animals to force them to work for the government and go save some person, or acquire some device. But nope, not a single ounce of any of that in the movie. Also, no snakes named Plissken. I’m sure if they had followed the first movie’s course, this movie would be a masterpiece.

So to sum up the movie: The penguins and King Julien were amazing. Everything else was either boring or cramming lessons into your pie-hole. The few obscure references that only adults would get were funny and nice but not enough to salvage the rest of the movie.

As for the rating: 1/2 thumb-up for the amazing roles of the penguins and King Julien. A pile and a half for the unneeded and forced lessons, a pile for all the dry humor and boring scenes it contained, and half a pile for not living up to the expectations of Escape from Madagascar.

Or a 2.5 out of 10 for you normal people...

Always remember kids: never eat sh*t witches give you...