'Madagascar' Sequel Entertaining but Not '2' Funny 

By Martha Brockenbrough
MSN Cinemama

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Perhaps the most memorable thing about "Madagascar" was that "I Like to Move It" song, which has become a staple of birthday party song mixes for 5-year-olds across the land.

So it's not a surprise that they brought the song back for the sequel to the 2005 DreamWorks hit about a group of animals that escaped from the Central Park Zoo only to be shipped to Africa and shipwrecked instead on Madagascar.

This time around, the animals escape Madagascar only to be stranded in Africa, where Alex the lion is reunited with his past. But first we have to detour through an ungrammatical flashback in which Alex, a bouncing cub, fails to learn how to fight from his father in the golden grasses of the African plain.

"You and me are different, son," says his lion-king father, Zuba (Bernie Mac).

Apparently you don't have to be good at grammar to be a leader of lions, either. But what can one expect, really, from a movie whose tagline is "Escape 2 Africa."

Best not to expect "2" much. Thankfully, the movie lives up to these modest hopes. It's bright and splashy with highly improbable humor that kids will love.

Each of the four main characters gets a meaty story line: Alex must find a way to fit in with the other lions. Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippo need to recognize their species-bending brand of jungle fever, and Marty the zebra needs to realize he's not just another identically striped zebra in the herd.

Along the way, there are some funny moments. Kids will be happy to watch it, even if it's one of those utterly unmemorable movies that fade from the brain as soon as the curtain drops.

What's in It for Kids

Children who watch any television at all probably know the best joke in "Madagascar 2," because it's in the oft-broadcast trailer. My own 4-year-old thinks it's hilarious to say, "The good news is we're landing. The bad news is we're CRASH landing!" Nyuk nyuk.

Plane wrecks aren't particularly sidesplitting for people who are old enough to read the newspaper. But for the booster-seat brigade, the people at DreamWorks know how to evoke the giggles. There's also a funny scene in which Marty shows the other zebras how to spit, and kids will find that hilarious.

It's going to be a hard movie for many kids to follow, though, because the story jumps around a lot. There's a flashback to Alex as a cub, then young Alex growing up in the zoo, doing his Billy Elliot thing. Then we have the animals on Madagascar, where Sacha Baron Cohen once again steals the early part of the show as the lemur king Julien. Then there's the crash-landing on Africa.

In addition to all the time shifts, the movie is rife with subplots. Alex has to show the lions he's not just a fluffy performer. Melman has to admit he loves Gloria. Marty needs to feel special. The group of wacky penguins from the first movie needs to fix the plane. Two separate groups of tourists from New York, including the first movie's feisty old lady with purse, need to survive after they're lost in the jungle.

The fragmented storytelling does keep things lively, but it's going to flummox a lot of kids.

There aren't too many scary parts, though there is quite a bit of violence involving old people and penguins. Some people will find this funny. But to me, this gag is as tired as the image of New Yorkers being somehow more capable of survival than people from other cities, a myth that lost its luster after all those reports of New Yorkers lining up on the streets when they finally got their own Trader Joe's.

The movie is rated PG for some mild, crude humor.

What's in It for Parents

From the grown-up's point of view, the "Madagascar" franchise is probably the weakest of the DreamWorks franchises. Though the charm of the "Shrek" movies has paled a bit with each successive release, the original contained some quirky and surprising humor, as well as an endearing trio of main characters. It also had a story that resolved itself in an unexpected way.

"Kung Fu Panda," which did well enough that it's being turned into the next DreamWorks sequel factory, is carefully crafted, beautifully animated, and has themes that resonate with grown-ups as well as plenty of excitement and entertainment for kids.

"Madagascar" doesn't really have either. It's like the loud kid in elementary school, going ever bigger to get attention. Yes, the other kids find this funny. But none of the adults in the room do.

Its relative weakness can't be blamed on the voice talent, which ranges from adequate to excellent. Ben Stiller is fine as Alex. Chris Rock is a memorable Marty, and Jada Pinkett Smith makes for a spunky hippo. David Schwimmer, meanwhile, reprises his Ross character from "Friends" for the lovelorn giraffe, which he's good at, even if it feels a bit schmoopy. They're all outclassed by Cohen and Alec Baldwin's bad lion, Makunga. Is there any evil Baldwin can't do?

The real problem is the scope of the imagination brought to the movie. It never gets wider than penguins-as-comical-masterminds, and as a result the movie is thematically thin even as it leaps from story line to story line to entertain. It'll make for a fun family trip to the theater, but one that's largely forgotten the next day. Unless you fell in love with the first one, don't feel any need to "move it move it" over to the theater. This'll make a swell rental.

One last thing, DreamWorks: What's with all the blue eyes in your movies? Po in "Kung Fu Panda" had 'em. Your characters in "Over the Hedge" look like they're wearing pastel contacts. And in "Madagascar," Alex the lion has them, too, even though real-life lions have golden-brown eyes. Just as you can have dark skin and be heroic, you can have dark eyes and be a good character, too. Is this one of the last vestiges of racism in Hollywood? I don't know. But I, for one, will be watching.

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