America’s favorite New York City zoo animals have escaped their life behind bars for more action and adventure in the sequel MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA.As the title identifies, Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra., Melman the Giraffe and Gloria the Hippo inadvertently land in Africa after their departure from Madagascar due to some porous plane craftsmanship by the lemurs, and even worse flying by their penguin captain and co-pilot. Upon arrival, Alex discovers he has family roots in the country, Marty finds some familiar faces and Melman and Gloria begin to feud.
The original MADAGASCAR was a simplistic short story stretched into a full-length feature concept. The sequel is quite the contrary, as it features several storylines, one for each of the main characters, but none amount to much.
There’s Alex attempting to accept himself for who he is, Marty trying to find himself in a sea of look-alike Zebras and Melman and Gloria tangled up in an odd romantic triangle.
The bright spot of the original were the supporting characters, in the form of crazy lemurs and cutthroat penguins. These humorous secondary characters have apparently run their course, with the exception of a strange romance between the penguin Skipper and his inanimate hula girl.
The humor has gone from silly and off-the-wall to awkward and sometimes inappropriate. A relationship, particularly the tone and dialogue, between Gloria and an African hippo is improper for a kids film, and hearing King Julien, a Lemur, spout out political rhetoric is unfitting.
MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA is an ill-conceived, poorly written and tiresome animated feature.
Grade: C-
No comments:
Post a Comment