With a stellar cast on board the penguin’s make-shift War World II looking airplane, Madagascar 2 soars onto Blu-ray.
The characters we all came to know and love from the first one are still here - Alex (Ben Stiller), Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith), Melman (David Schminner), Marty (Chris Rock), King Julien (Sasha Cohen), Maurice (Cedric the Entertainer) and, of course, my favorite: the penguins. With the original cast, we meet Alex’s father and mother (Bernie Mac and Sherri Shepherd) and the villain lion of the movie, Magunka (Alec Baldwin).
There is a back-story that we see exactly how Alex got to New York. Magunka (think comic Lion King story here) is plotting to take over the pride and fights Alex’s father. Alex ends up in the restricted hunting area and is taken by hunters.
Children might be a bit disturbed by this - Alex’s father gets shot and we see his bloody ear. Alex floats to New York and becomes his performing self - King of New York at the zoo. Fast forward.
The real story begins where the first one ended: King Julien is giving a huge going-away celebration for ‘the freaks’ (as he calls them), and the penguins have duck taped a World War II looking plane together to fly out of the lemurs’ kingdom.
King Julien puts a crimp in the plan when he decides he wants to go with Alex the Lion, Melman the Giraffe, Gloria the Hippo, Marty the Zebra, and the militaristic penguins, Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller), Private (Christopher Knights). King Julien and Maurice take first class seats and demand service and Gloria falls asleep.
Of course, the penguins have forgotten to refuel and the plane goes down. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out where it will go down: Alex is going home to Africa to meet his mother and father and re-join his pride.
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is pure fun, and I think it just might rival the first one. First of all, the penguins are given more screen time (isn’t it funny how side-characters become the real stars) and the old lady who beat Alex up in the subway in the first film is on safari in Africa and she has much more to say and do.
Predicable? Yes, but fun. The characters just work so well together that it is hard not to laugh at Melman’s aliments and fears, or the teeth marks on Marty’s butt, or Gloria’s need to breed. The penguins are hilarious as they duck tape their way through and hijack safari jeeps to make needed repairs.
Underneath the rather repetitive Lion-King-like plot, there is a story of friendship that warms the heart. Alex says to Marty after they fight, “You have great taste in music, but bad taste in friends…”
Seeing how they keep playing the same Boston 8-track song ‘More Than a Feeling’ over and over, that is arguable, but what the hey, it’s a solid animated friendship and we love the characters and they are heart-warming.
The Blu-ray addition comes with decent features. It is always interesting to hear the actors and others involved talk about their characters. This standard feature was a little sad for me, as they did a tribute to the late Bernie Mac who voiced Zuba (Alex’s father). Ben Stiller talks of how Bernie was a father figure on the set and an inspiration to everyone involved. He also mentioned that they had a special screening just for Mac’s wife, children, and grandchild.
Stiller also talks about how he brought in his son to voice some of the sounds for Baby Alex, and Jada Pinkett Smith talks of how she convinced her daughter Willow to be a voice (Willow voices Baby Gloria). Willow is actually interviewed with Smith, and they have amusing dialogue together.
There are interesting segments where the animators talk about analyzing the various types of dust in Africa and animating them (who knew being an animator could be so dull) but the animation does look amazing!
I had to go back and take a look at their work in animating African dust, and I have to give the 1080p picture props - you can see the different motes as they swirl around! The clarity is almost surreal, it is that good.
Other features include: The Penguins of Madagascar (all in HD), 4 Mad Music Videos, Alex’s Dance Off, Test Flight of Air Penguin Video Game, and Jambo Jambo: Swahili Speak, which are all great fun.
High recommended, and almost as good as the first one, it was a real treat to see the old favorites of Alex, Gloria, Melman, and Marty back together again for more adventures, as well as enjoying new characters added to the story. Good family entertainment, and very much enjoyed.
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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