Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008)

 Hi fellow animation fans, welcome to my review of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.

Synopsis: Continuing on from the previous movie the four animal friends, Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer) and Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) are preparing to escape Madagascar for a glorious return to New York. Of course, things do not go as planned and they end up crash landing in an African game reserve, where they meet more of their own kind. This leads to a few confrontations, causing a rift between the friends, but a disaster that threatens to destroy the reserve sees them pulling together and learning some important lessons.

The Good:

* I feel like the story is an improvement over the first movie with the characters showing some real growth, such as Alex who learns where he came from and how to be a better friend.

* The animation is again quite colorful and child friendly, but there are a few moments when many characters are on screen causing a little bit of blurriness.

* The penguins are awesome and steal absolutely every scene that they are in.

* Some of the jokes are amusing.

The Bad:

* Yet again the main characters are outshone by the side characters.

* Even though big-name actors provide the voices there is hardly any chemistry, it really feels like they were all recorded separately and added in when the animation was ready.

* Some of the jokes are re-used from the first movie, for example the Grandma with the "bad kitty" catchphrase.

                     IMDB 6.6/10        Rotten Tomatoes 80% (audience)      Me 5/10

Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman ready for their New York flight.