22. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
I greatly underestimated this film.
I first saw it in a car on a road trip on my phone. It was an incredibly small screen and it was back when Itunes was a thing I bothered trying to make use of. Now that we have Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu apps on our phones it’s pretty useless. All the things I bought using Itunes, including all the episodes of The Life and Times of Juniper Lee are either gone or stuck on an old computer somewhere.
Not only did I not watch this film under the best conditions but I did it under the worst frame of mind imaginable. It was that teenage era of considering myself a movie critic. I assumed that everything in the film was just a random assortment of different stories done for the sake of finding all the characters something to do, balanced on top of a flimsy rip off of the Lion King. However, I only thought that, especially that last thing, because everyone on the internet thought it too.
People would swear up and down that these are actually bad films and I understand where that idea comes from. The atmosphere around films like this that focus on the absurd and being highly exaggerated and comedic wasn’t the best, especially considering what Pixar was doing around this time. These films were just seen as inferior and the idea of making a film that was just baked in the message of “lighten up and have some fun” and nothing much deeper than that was a little easy to roll your eyes at.
We find that Alex the Lion used to live in Africa and was taken as a cub by some poachers. His dad, played by the late Bernie Mac, tried his best to find him but was unsuccessful. Then he ended up at the zoo. Ever since he was a kid he always had an affinity for dancing and putting on a good show, though. That’s why he fit so well at the zoo.
Of course, now, they’re escaping from Madagascar using a busted up old plane and because of how unstable it is they end up crash landing in Africa. Here is where everyone gets to split off and have their own adventures. Alex meets his parents and reunites with his tribe only to be tricked by the “Scar” of the film, Makunga (Alec Baldwin), into competing in a right of passage fight that sees Zuba giving up his staff that signifies him as chief for the sake of his son. This is all despite the fact that Zuba doesn’t really like that Alex’s title as “King of New York” is just a stage name given to him because he really likes dancing.
The film goes around the stories of the other characters and does lead to Zuba finally realizing what’s awesome about Alex’s talent to the point where he ends up dancing with him. It’s very heart-warming.
Then of course you have his relationship with Marty, which is put to the test when Marty comes across a horde of zebras that all look like him and are all played by Chris Rock. The identity crisis he goes through is one thing but Alex not being able to recognize him sets him up to realize how much of a jerk he’s been to Marty ever since the first film and it leads to a reconciliation. It’s not the best or most fleshed out part of the plot but as a subplot it does well to connect back to Alex’s journey in a decent enough way. Because Marty isn’t given a ton of screen time here it actually does help it come off as servicing that too, ironically.
The real, actual subplot of the film is everything going on with Melman and Gloria. Melman admits that he loves Gloria to Alex and Marty, on accident, but can’t do it to her. He then finds use in being the witch doctor for the animals and then is talked by the other giraffes into believing that a spot on his neck means he’s going to die. At the same time, the watering hole dries out thanks to what’s happening in another plot line involving the old woman who kicked the shit out of Alex in the last film (Elisa Gabrielli) leading a band of stranded New Yorkers in the jungle to survive by building a dam. So King Julian offers the solution of throwing someone into the volcano as a sacrifice.
Melman figures he’s going to die anyway so he volunteers to do it.
It’s incredibly messed up but the scenes between him and Gloria are genuinely fantastic. Especially when put on the heels of Gloria meeting the living meme, Moto Moto. He’s a big hippo with Will.I.Am’s voice and he’s attracted to her because he likes ‘em BIG and he likes ‘em CHUNKY.
That’s all he knows about her though. So when Melman comes in and tells Moto Moto to treat her the best way he possibly can and rattles off all the things she likes and what he loves about her laugh, it’s super cute.
All the comic relief from the last film is here too. The Penguins are the ones who got the ship flying in the first place and when they crash land, they have Mason (Conrad Vernon) and Phil, the two chimps, recruit a bunch of other chimps to help rebuild it. This works because they have opposable thumbs. Don’t question it. Shut up.
Skipper is also in love with a plastic hula bobble head and they get married at the end of the film. Congrats.
As for King Julian, he and Maurice decided to tag along but decidedly try to abandon Mort on Madagascar because he’s so annoying. At least to him. Mort ends up hanging onto the wing of the plane and ends up in Africa but a shark chases him throughout the rest of the film.
When the sacrifice of Melman is botched, Mort shows up with the shark still chasing him and it falls into the volcano right at the exact same time the dam that New York grandma built was demolished by Alex and Marty’s team. They had teamed up with the chimps and the Penguins to save Alex and his dad and destroyed it.
I know I just rattled off all the characters in a confusing sequence of events but that’s kind of where the magic of this one is. The first one had a very interesting premise behind it and while the premise of this one is less interesting, it’s a lot more fun and funny. On top of that, unlike Despicable Me 3, these side stories aren’t just random things happening in the background. They’re all connected.
They’re LOOSELY connected, which is what tripped me up the first time I watched it, but when I saw how literally everything and everyone’s stories came together in the end it really hit me how much of a balancing act (or a dance) this film’s set-up truly was. I was impressed.
This film wasn’t bad at all. I’m glad my re-watch made me realize that it was better than I gave it credit for all those years ago. I would even say it’s better than the first one now, which I really didn’t expect at all. Good job.
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2 months ago
07 Apr 2025 03:56 CEST
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