I love Madagascar. Especially King Julien. And the American Beauty Scene. And the penguins. So, it was hardly a suprise that I was excited to see Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed.

Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria are still stranded on Madagascar – but together with the penguins, they attempt an escape. The penguins built an airplane, which they plan to fly back to New York. Unfortunately, the plane crashes somewhere in Africa, where Alex is rejoined with his family and a treacherous uncle and discovers that he’s the next King of the animals.

So… why was I disappointed?

I can live with the Lion King rip-off plot quoting. Especially, since Lion King might be my favourite childhood movie. Unfortunately, they took all the depth out of the story before using it, but, hey, not everything has to be deep.

While I could live with Madagascar being portrayed as a solitary island, without any people living on it and nobody noticing a stranded freight ship at it’s coast, the treatment of Africa pushed me over the edge – apparently, Africa is one country (and if it isn’t, nobody cares where exactly they are, because it’s all the same anyway) [I’m pretty sure they were in Kenya, Kilimanjaro being kind of a pointer, but a kid wouldn’t be seeing that], where they speak one language only [I think the most conservative ways of counting language still come up with several hundred African languages], also completely devoid of people, except for the American tourists.

King Julien

Speaking of American tourists – while I found the “bad kitty” granny funny in Madagascar, in Madagascar 2 she was overused and it really seemed such a stretch that she was there at all. [I know she was included because people thought her so hilarious in the first part.]

Well. That was the bad stuff. But the rest of the movie was good. This includes

– the penguins, of course. And the love affair with the doll.

– Baby Alex was extremely cute

– Moto Moto had me under my seat [plus, it’s a step towards fat acceptance, which is cool.] [Oh, and Moto Moto means very hot in Lingala, and I think in Swahili as well.]

– The love story between Melman and Gloria was really sweet. And it could be seen as a support of interracial relationships, which is always good.

– Will.I.Am’s version of “I like to Move It” is really good.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen it in German, so I can’t comment on the English speaking. In German, it was fine, especially Die fantastischen Vier, who spoke the penguins.

So, it’s definitely a movie to watch, even if the first one is better. But if you see it with kids, tell them a bit about Africa.