Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
11/8/08
It's funny to think back
to my childhood, when one could go an entire year without a new animated
movie being released, and the ones that did trickle out were generally
flops. Now, the Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks revolution has firmly entrenched
the animated comedy as one of our most dominant movie genres. A big
part of that formula is the use of popular comedians doing the voices,
and we're always assured that lots of improvising went on while recording
the dialog. But because an animated movie is essentially one long
special effects sequence, it's rare to see one that truly has a sense of
spontaneity to it. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is such
a movie, a big-budget modern day Hope/Crosby Road movie that puts
a cast full of clinically insane talking animals through a bunch of loosely
connected sketches that add up to a fast-paced, fun-filled story.
It's not without bumps in the road, and in one particular case falls victim
to the sequel curse of giving far, far too much screentime to a throwaway
gag from the original that now just won't go away. But directors
Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath have pulled off a pretty tough job:
turning a smart, funny movie in a smart, funny franchise.
As an opening news report
reminds us, the original Madagascar involved animals from the Central
Park Zoo who attempted an escape and then were shipwrecked on the titular
island en route to a wildlife preserve. There, Alex the lion (Ben
Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer),
Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), Skipper the Penguin (Tom McGrath)
and Mason the Chimpanzee (Conrad Vernon) met the mad Lemur King Julien
(Sacha Baron Cohen), whose lemurs have salvaged an old airplane Skipper
and his fellow penguins believe they can fly back to New York. Julien
and his right-hand Maurice (Cedric the Entertainer) join them on the doomed
flight that makes it as far as continental Africa before crashing.
As the penguins join with Mason, his pal Phil and the local monkeys to
try to rebuild the plane, the other animals meet the locals. Turns
out, Alex is the long-lost son of Alpha Male Zuba (Bernie Mac), who's locked
in a decades-old power struggle with Makunga (Alec Baldwin), and the prodigal
son's lack of killer instinct is just the break the usurper needs to turn
things his way. Meanwhile, hypochondriac Melman becomes the official
Giraffe Witchdoctor until one of the other giraffes spots a disturbing
brown spot on his shoulder, Marty enjoys meeting dozens of other zebras
just like him until he discovers that they're all EXACTLY like him, and
Gloria attracts the attention of a macho hippo (Will i Am) who might force
Melman to finally express his cross-species love for her. The penguins
need parts for their plane, and start sacking the jeeps of tourists, leaving
an ever-growing mob of stranded humans in the jungle, led by the same old
lady (Elisa Gabrielli) who beat Alex senseless during their escape attempt
in the first movie. When the local water hole dries up, there's no
doubt what species is responsible: can a gang of big city animals
outsmart them before it's too late?
That's the plot, but the
glory of Madagascar 2 is in the details. When Skipper
divides the chimps into three teams, he dubs them “Team A”, “Team B”, and
“Team George Peppard”. When the animals show up needing the plane
late in the game, they find that the chimps have unionized and they're
locked in intense negotiations with the penguins over maternity leave.
Julian devises a scheme to sacrifice someone to the local volcano to bring
the water back and can't understand why it doesn't work: “The science
was sound!” Like the original Madagascar, the movie has great
fun confronting the anthropomorphized critters we expect from a modern
animated movie with the ways of real animals. The giraffes need a
witchdoctor so they don't just have to go off to the “dying holes” any
time they get a cold (cut to a giraffe buried up to his neck in the dirty
sneezing), and a good witchdoctor needs a bone through his nose.
Luckily, the one they give Melman is “just a clip-on”. And whether
you're a dog owner who's noticed how some of his activities are suspiciously
similar to those of others of the same breed or an animation fan
tired of recycling the same drawings and vocal performers to represent
an entire species, you'll love the business with the Zebras: here,
poor Marty thought he was special, and every other Zebra is both the same
drawing and the same actor!
The performances are solid:
Stiller has his “macho guy who's really a wuss” act down pat. Marty
is a fun role for Rock because it allows his boundless enthusiasm to run
free without any of his trademark cynicism and Schwimmer voices a delightful
hypochondriac. Andy Richter is a hoot as the overcaffeinated Mouse
Lemur Mort. Cohen's cheerfully pompous insanity is a nifty creation,
and he and Cedric make a good team. Among the guest stars, the late
Bernie Mac is wonderfully warm as Alex's father and Baldwin does great
things with his sinister pipes. But it's McGrath's work as
Skipper that once again steals the show. Like Robert Stack at the
end of Airplane!, this mad penguin plows through life with a square-jawed
intensity that knows no compromise, especially when those “commie” monkeys
dare to unionize! Verdon makes a fine foil for him as the urbane
chimp Mason.
As I mentioned, there are
bumps in the road. Worst is taking the Old Lady who had a cute scene
that was featured prominently in the original's trailer and blowing her
up into a full-fledged supporting character who seems incapable of doing
anything other than repeating her couple lines from the original over and
over (guys, that “bad kitty” thing isn't funny even once, stop it already!).
The hippo subplot is also a non-starter, typical of most movies'
fear of giving female characters the same kind of endearing quirks and
comic business male characters get as a matter of course. And yeah,
I know that “I Like to Move It” is a catchy song, but the movie leans on
it like one of those old 70's flicks that existed for no other reason than
so Debbie Boone could sing a huge pop hit at the end.
The animation is as crisp
and colorful as you expect from a Dreamworks event movie, with the lions'
manes and the visibly molten volcano standing out as highlights.
But what's most noteworthy about the work of McGrath and Darnell (the later
teamed with Tim Johnson to direct the glorious 1998 Woody Allen action
epic Antz) is that they've not only created a funny and visually
impressive kid's movie, but one that actually seems to be making its' own
plot up as it goes. In a genre where you can almost always feel the
gears of a merchandising empire turning behind every frame, that's no small
achievement. Now, I'd better get out of here before somebody plays
that song again... |
