Movie Review

Compiled by Tawsif Saleheen

WHETHER you like to 'move it, move it' or not, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is sure to move you into laughter. In this quirky sequel to Dreamwork's 2005 blockbuster, four best friends and former stars of the Central Park Zoo--a dancing lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), a wacky zebra (Chris Rock), a hypochondriac giraffe (David Schwimmer), and a hippo diva (Jada Pinkett Smith) - look forward to trading their current island residence on Madagascar for their old island home of Manhattan. But their return flight, piloted by the crackpot crew of Air Penguin, crash-lands on an African savannah, where the four are reunited with their own species. Lessons about family loyalty, tolerance, ingenuity, and sacrifice add depth to the screenplay by Etan Cohen and directors Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath, but thankfully don't detract from the lunatic manoeuvres of a delusional lemur king (Sacha Baron Cohen).
The movie starts with a flashback where an African lion named Zuba squares off against his scheming, underhanded rival Makunga (Alec Baldwin), and in the process loses his tiny son Alex to poachers. Years later, a grown-up Alex and his zoo-animal buddies from the first film attempt to leave Madagascar and return home to New York. Instead, they crash-land in Africa, where a family joyful reunion between Zuba and Alex turns sour when Makunga uses Alex as a pawn to oust Zuba from leadership of their pride. Meanwhile, Alex's buddies briefly find Africa to be a hyperbolically awesome wish-fulfilling paradise. Then, in a series of particularly half-hearted, dumb developments, they learn that it isn't perfect enough to hold their interest. The film's best bits mostly come as Pinkett-Smith's character gets romanced by a size-obsessed hippo voiced by Will.I.Am.

Source: Internet