Movie Review - “Madagascar 2″
*** STARS
I have said it numerous times before and I will say it again; I love animated films! The original “Madagascar” was a surprise treat when it was released over a couple of years ago and the sequel “Madagascar 2: Escape from Africa” is even better than the first. Sure this film is nowhere near the perfection that Pixar creates but the charm and laughs in this movie rival that of any other cartoon released this year.
Cartoon sequels never capture the same excitement and sweetness of the original (”Ice Age 2″ anyone?), only “Toy Story 2″ was able to improve upon an already well established classic film. “Madagascar 2″ isn’t as brilliant as the “Toy Story” movies, but it does have a fun whiz bang feel and plenty of laughs. “Madagascar 2″ uses all the things we loved from the first film and improves upon them instead of rehashing the same joke over and over like other animated films have done before (”Shrek 3″ anyone?).
The character work in this film makes it better than your average animated big screen outing. Ben Stiller does some impressive voice work as “Alex” the lion and Sascha Baron Cohen steals the show as Julien the insane king of the lemurs. But we all know the real reason why we love this series is because of the gut busting antics of the penguins. They deliver on the laughs by the truck load in this follow up. I personally love Mort the little lemur voiced by Andy Richter, he has some side splitting moments that left me in tears.
The animation in this series has never been as mind blowing as Pixar or DreamWorks but the silly hand drawn cartoonish look of “Madagascar 2″ makes it a bit easier on the eyes and it lends itself well to the silly jokes and old school cartoon gags. The tight script and hilarious pop culture references in this movie make this sequel one of the best animated follow ups ever. If you are a kid at heart and you can’t get enough of those wise cracking penguins, then this is the movie to go see with the whole family.
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