About the movie
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
Rating: 
Cast:
Alec Baldwin; Chris Rock; David Schwimmer; Sacha Baron Cohen; Jada Pinkett Smith; Will.i.am; Cedric The Entertainer; Ben Stiller; Bernie Mac; Andy Richter
Directed by:
Eric Darnell; Tom McGrath
On the web:
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READER FEEDBACK
'Lion King' lite
THERE ARE all sorts of ways to make money in the animation business.
You can go the Pixar way of, say, "WALL-E" - marvelous technology and the industry's best storytellers in the service of a bittersweet ode to man, machines and the environment. That'll net you $200 million.
Or, you can dig up a 10-year-old Reel 2 Real disco song like "I Like to Move It," play it over the image of a hippopotamus shaking its butt, and that'll get you to $200 million just as fast.
I don't fully understand the power of the dancing, talking animal. I can't explain why "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" ruled the box office for three weeks. Nor can I explain why "Madagascar 2" and the booty-shakin' video that accompanies its umpteenth "Move It" remix has attracted 10 billion hits on You Tube.
All I know is, I'm glad that "I Like to Move It," with its hypnotic Pied Piper power over the minds of children, does not instruct them to bind their sleeping parents in duct tape.
There is nothing so sinister in the upbeat, friendly, mercifully brief "Madagascar 2," a painless kids movie if you can stand another 10 minutes of that infernal song.
In this sequel, the movie's multi-cultural society of zoo animals leaves the isle of Madagascar for mainland Africa, where Alex (Ben Stiller) discovers that he's heir to a ruling lion clan.
It's "Lion King" lite, with Alex's regal father (Bernie Mac) threatened by a sneaky, jealous male rival (Alex Baldwin). Dad is happy to have his son back, but alarmed to realize that his citified son is a dancer, not a fighter. When Alex shows up for a showdown to determine ultimate control of the pride, he thinks it's a dance contest, and gets his mane trimmed.
Subplots have Alex having a falling out with his zebra best friend (Chris Rock, again), while the giraffe (David Schwimmer) works up the courage to tell the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) that he's in love with her.
Favorite characters return - kooky lemur King (Sascha Baron Cohen), and the army of gung-ho penguins, charged in this sequel with constructing an airplane from scrap.
The jokes fly by at a "Shrek"-ish rate, and a some are even funny. The writers and artists at DreamWorks Animation have a creed. When it comes to pushing gags at the audience, they like to move it, move it. *
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