Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa

film: Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa

April 8 2009 | Arnold Pistorius

These days, you’d be hard pushed to find a cartoon in the cinema. By cartoon, I mean a real cartoon, of course, of the two dimensional variety. Disney, formerly the big boss of the genre, has all but ditched its 2D operation in favour of the more popular computer animated adventures proffered by the likes of Pixar.

The woes of Pixar’s arch-nemesis in the CGI movie world, DreamWorks, are well-chronicled. But on paper, at least, the Madagascar franchise should have been the one to turn it all around - great characters, lots of animals (everyone loves animals!) and a stellar cast of vocal talent, from Ricky Gervais and Ben Stiller to Alec Baldwin and Chris Rock.

Madagascar didn’t set the box office on fire, but that hasn’t stopped DreamWorks from coming back for a second stab at it with Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa.

So 4 zoo animals are stuck on the island of Madagascar and are pining to return to their New York home. Despite their sterling efforts to re-build a functioning airplane, the animals crash land into mainland Africa. The films protaganist Alex the Lion is reunited with his long lost parents and must prove he is worthy of the family name.

I have a confession to make, dear readers. I have recently become a single man. Yes, unbelievable as it may sound, I have found myself cast out from the cosy nook we call relationshipdom and hurled into the glacial plains of singledom. I won’t go into the where’s, the why’s or indeed the what, but suffice to say the pain has been deep, the soul searching long and the pizza consumption heavy. Face it kids, there’s nothing like a 14 inch American Hot with cheesy stuff crust to take away the pain.

Now being single has pros and cons. The pros, limited as they are, revolve around increased wardrobe space, 100% mastery of the TV remote and complete and utter global domination of the bathroom. Hell, it’s hardly Romeo and Juliet but if you’re having fun…who cares about being deeply in love with the woman of your dreams. Who gives a fig about the enriching pleasure of sharing a life with another, of planning for a baby, of dying old with someone you care about so much it hurts. It’s fine, it really is. I’m fine. Seriously. Never been better.

So…ok…ok..you want to hear about the bad stuff. The moments where I curl into a foetal position and sob and rock on my own. Naked. The times when I’m so lost in self-pity that drinking lighter fuel for breakfast seems like a good idea. You want that, don’t you, you bastards, you want that. You want to take me down, like some little broken fat kid who had candy ripped from his hand by the school bully and instead fed to Gary, the adopted school dog that’s in fact half dog and half brick. Well I shan’t give it to you, I shan’t.

Well OK. I shall. The worst bit of being single is bars folks. Yes, bars. When you’re 22, confident and thinner bars are fine. You own the bars, their your fucking playground, a skate park for your cock and balls. Everyone’s your age, you blend in, you’re one of the team. But when you’re 31 and you walk into a happening joint, they look at you like you’ve got ‘watch out folks I’m riddled with aids’ tattooed onto your face and an enormous dog shit stapled onto your front like some sort of terrible foecal terrorist bomber. But the biggest problem is dealing with groups of single men.

They’re bastards, these groups, they really are. Sneering, drunk, simian collectives, these men are. They behave like bonobo monkeys, randy, immoral and predatory. And there’s always one bloke in these groups that’s just a bit louder and brasher then the rest. Probably ignored by his parents and, well everyone that mattered to him, this sort of man prides himself on having the biggest gob, the best put downs, the funniest jokes. Not that they are jokes, mind you, just observations like ‘look how big that girl’s tits are’ or ‘doesn’t that girl over there look like she needs a good seeing to’.

Madagascar 2 shares a lot in common with this kind of alpha male bar fly. By god does it talk a lot, and often needlessly. The writers have crammed in plotlines and half-baked jokes like their lives depended on it, like thirsty attention seekers supping at the well of comedy scared that it will dry out at any minute. And part of the problem is that the film’s protaganist – Alex the lion, gets most of the action in a plotline that’s so derivative of the Lion king that this film should be arrested for shoplifting.

Unfortunately, Alex – played by thirsty attention seeker Ben Stiller – is an utter bore. Charmless, irritating and – worst of all – deeply unamusing. The lion is worthy of an ornamental rug, perhaps, but that’s about it. Through sheer overload, Madagascar 2 loses sight of the sheer silliness and joie de vivre that carried its predecessor. New characters including Alex’s Dad and Uncle makes vanilla look exotic whilst the movie’s themes of responsibility and filial/paternal bonding are so 2001. This isn’t to say that there aren’t moments of joy. The penguins are a sheer delight as are their new partners in crime, the chimpanzees. And what’s not to like about Sacha Baron Cohen’s self-obsessed lemur king.

But when you start wishing that these bit part characters were the film’s central characters you know you’ve got a problem. It’s a shame because the flick looks damn good and could have been a winner. But by opening it’s big damn mouth just too many times, Madagascar 2 just gets 3 of my valuable stars.

For the best of the rest:

Empire:
You may recall Alex as the leonine variation of Ben Stiller’s road-tested neurotic New Yorker schtick: a motor-mouthed CG dumpkof discombobulated by the call of the wild. His first adventure was a Looney-Tuned about-face: critters with human foibles crave the sanctity of their zoo-life when confronted by nature’s party animals. It was lightly knowing and refreshingly silly by contrast to the grandeur of Pixar, slyly deconstructing the nutty fixtures of modern living.

Timeout:
This is one of those rare occasions where the sequel is better than the original – but only by a whisker. In the first instalment, Alex the dancing lion and his mismatched cohorts escaped from a New York zoo on a mission to reach Africa. They missed and wound up on Madagascar instead. Roll on part two and Alex (voice of Ben Stiller) et al are on board a home-made aircraft bound for Africa where they hope finally to meet members of their own species. The film then shatters into a trillion plotlets involving reunions, rites of passage, water shortages, volcanic sacrifices, even a little romantic interaction. Yet, despite this splintered storyline, the film manages to remain more coherent than the last. The animation, too, is improved. Great pre-Chrimbo fun for under-tens, then, but a chore for anyone else. Tip: for best results, see it in gigantiscope at the IMAX.

Channel 4:
A prologue establishes that Alex (Ben Stiller), the lion beloved of New Yorkers for his dance moves, was born in Africa but separated from his parents by poachers. Then it’s back to business, this sequel picking up where the first film left off. Four refugees from Central Park Zoo - Alex, sassy zebra Marty (Chris Rock), neurotic giraffe Melman (David Schwimmer) and the secret object of his affections - hippo Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) - embark on a journey home in a plane repaired and crewed by dangerous, devious penguins and launched with a giant catapult. Also accompanying them are demented lemur king Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen) and his sidekick, Maurice (Cedric The Entertainer).

comments

Rod Pennant

April 9th, 2009 - 4:13pm

Now it may be me, and it usually is, but I detect a certain bitterness creeping through into this review. Subtle, but it’s there.

Spence

April 22nd, 2009 - 6:03am

Just when I think you’ve skewed into an extreme tangent to which no connection could possibly be made you - once again - tie it all together, with a nice neat little bow as well. I can think of many films that we could attribute the same problems to. Well stated…well done.

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The UK's Finest Video Channel for Switched On Men

film: Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa

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