Madagascar "Escape to Africa"

I was at the cinema together with my friend looking through the monitor screen which were showing all the shows that were presently being screened. Debating with each other over what is good and what is not we finally decided to go for something in the middle. My mind was so set in watching a horror movie but my friend is not. The answer to our cinema choice was "Madagascar: Escape to Africa".

Not another animation movie I thought to myself. I dragged myself into the cinema seat down. My last animated movie, Kung Fu Panda, I must say has been a pleasant experience but animated movie has always have its ups and down. The movie surprisingly surpasses the quality of the first film made. Though the story is scattered as it tried to wedge several different narratives into a movie that is less than an hour and a half long, but thankfully the animated comedy genre where good joke-writing and cute characters compensated the plot deficiencies. The animation is sharp, and whenever things start to get confusing, a penguin or lemur comes onscreen and does something really funny distracting us from ever trying to figure out what was going on.

"Madagascar 2" begins where the last one left off, with the lion, giraffe, zebra and hippo from "Madagascar" leaving the titular country and heading back to their homes at the New York Zoo. These first 10 minutes of the movie are genius, with the mercenary-for-hire penguins from the first film piloting a restored plane that crashed into the jungle decades earlier. One character reads an old Life magazine with Joe DiMaggio on the cover, trying to ignore the skeletons scattered throughout the cockpit and the engine that's smoking outside the window.

The group detours to Africa, where Alex the Lion runs into his father, Zuba. From here, the story splinters into several directions - some boring and some inspired. Alex's father issues and the romantic subplot between the hippo and the giraffe are tired. Any scenes with penguins or the lemur are bound to generate a few laughs, even though the Julien-related volcano sacrifice subplot doesn't quite work.

Much of the humor in "Madagascar 2" is broad, but the script avoids flatulence jokes and broad slapstick, adding a sophisticated level of parody in several scenes. A subplot involving New Yorkers who get trapped in Africa goes in unexpected directions, which are mostly very amusing. Some monkeys show up to help build a new plane, and spend the majority of their time negotiating on behalf of their union.

However I must say that of all the characters in Madagascar, either the prequel or sequal, the penguins are the most adorable characters. They are the plot-movers and laugh-shakers of the movie, cobbling together a plane wreck and a giant slingshot in a bid to send Stiller's lion, Rock's zebra, Schwimmer's giraffe and Pinkett Smith's hippo from Madagascar back to Manhattan. Unfortunately, Air Penguin as it is known gets no further than mainland Africa before making an unexpected crash landing in a nature reserve. Undeterred, and with the help of enough monkeys only after the Union demands were made, to take a crack at Shakespeare, the penguins set about rebuilding the plane.

I have to say that the movie was worth the time spent. Least I do not have to spend too much time trying to figure out what was going on and where the how the plot was developing and unveiling itself. I just need to laugh as and when the crowd laugh out. I couldn't wait for the next movie to be released only that I hope it will be sooner, to quote Cohen's lemur king, "Hurry up, before we all come to our senses!"