My Movie Review on Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa · 4:27pm Aug 28th, 2020

Yo, what's up, Kemosabes?

This is your friendly film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.

Today, for my 175th film analysis, I'm gonna give you guys my take of "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa".

Here's the rundown of this sequel:

After being stuck on the island of Madagascar for so long, Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman finally get to go home to New York thanks to the penguins reassembling an old plane. And accompanying the quartet on their trip back are the penguins, the chimpanzees, King Julien, Maurice, and Mort.

However, when the plan suddenly runs out of fuel and breaks down, the group of animals find themselves stranded on a nature reserve in Africa. There, Ales is reunited with Mom and Dad, Florrie and Zuba, whom he was separated from after being kidnapped by poachers as a cub. Along the way, Marty joins a zebra herd, Melman becomes the reserve's newest doctor, and Gloria dates a male hippopotamus named Moto Moto.

Could Africa be the place Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman truly belong in? Or are they forever New Yorkers at heart?

After I reviewed the first film a while ago, I knew that I wanted to review the sequels as soon as possible. I just had to take the time to review other movies outside of them first.

And let me just say with complete honesty that this film...was spectacular! When it came to making a brilliant sequel, Dreamworks didn't mess around!

For instance, the direction by Tom McGrath and Eric Darnell, and the story by them and Etan Cohen, were wonderfully well-done. When I was a kid, I did think that the film was a little similar to "The Lion King" and "Happy Feet" because it carried plot elements similar to them. Watching this film recently, though, I found that it wasn't as similar to the films as I remembered it being, mainly because the filmmakers came up with a narrative that was still entirely its own. At times, the film did take itself all over the place, but the characters drove the film marvelously and helped everything connect in the long run.

The film's humor was hilarious, if I may add. Among other things, the comedy had a zaniness that hardly stopped itself, and the way the jokes were executed reminded me of people at a birthday party jumping out and yelling surprise to the birthday person. The one thing I will admit is that much of the comedy may be a little adult for children, but that's okay. This is why I'd recommend this film more for pre-teens and older than children under eleven.

The film also contained a vast amount of heart and emotion that it extremely soul-tugging and alive. The particular that gave this movie life were the bond between the lead characters, the romance between Melman and Gloria, and the family bond between Alex and his family. There were great morals in the film too.

The animation was astonishing as well. I loved how the filmmakers and animators retained the same visual style that its predecessor had while making it bigger than ever before, as well as how much more crisp everything appeared to be compared to the first film. The lava in the volcano was perhaps the most accomplished of the animated elements, and when it came to visual comedy the animators managed to bring the house down.

The music by Hans Zimmer and will.i.am, and the songs by the latter, were nicely done too. Combined together, Zimmer and will.i.am created a soundtrack strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Randy Newman's work in the Toy Story films, and the music carried a distinct sense of personality that made it all-the-more compelling. Dreamworks and will.i.am mix together perfectly, that's for sure.

Finally, the vocal performances, casting, characters, and character development were outstanding!

Something that I couldn't help but take note of was that the filmmakers went all-out in giving Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman a greater amount of depth, further exploring and expanding on each of them. Alex's backstory and origins are prime examples of this, along with Melman's upgrading from a mere hypochondriac to someone with a sense of purity and care, especially for Gloria. To top it all off, Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith, and David Schwimmer gave terrific performances, and their characters developed marvelously throughout the film. And once again, Sacha Baron Cohen stole the show with his portrayal of King Julien, and his character had a lot of the funniest moments. It was also remarkable how the filmmakers upgraded the Nana character from a mere minor in the first film to a larger supporting character in this movie, and Elisa Gabrielli's performances was gut-bustlingly funny. throughout the film.

The film's new characters and cast members were brilliant additions, if I may add. Each of the new characters had amazing personality, depth, and development, and the performers portraying them sounded like they were having a great time being a part of the film.

In my opinion, the guest performer that gave the best vocal portrayal was Bernie Mac. He gave his character of Zuba a lovable warmth and kindness, incorporated hilarious comedic-timings and wit, brought an astounding sense of authority and power, and portrayed his character with instantly genuine emotion. He sounded like he was putting his heart and soul into portraying Zuba, and I literally couldn't help but feel his performance emanate onto me.

In conclusion, "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" is an awesome sequel, and it showcases Dreamworks at one of their very best. As one of the final films to star Bernie Mac before his death, I have a feeling this is by far the best of them.

So, I rate "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" five out of five stars.

Before I conclude this post, I'd like to show you guys a video that I made to promote my review of this movie on YouTube: