Madagascar - Escape 2 Africa/Nick Penguins 2-Disc Move It, Move It, Double DVD Pack

Madagascar - Escape 2 Africa/Nick Penguins 2-Disc Move It, Move It, Double DVD Pack

Directors: Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath
Writer: Etan Cohen
Starring (voices): Ben Stiller as Alex, Chris Rock as Marty, David Schwimmer as Melman, Jada Pinkett Smith as Gloria, Sacha Baron Cohen as Julien, Cedric the Entertainer as Maurice, Andy Richter as Mort, Bernie Mac as Zuba, Alec Baldwin as Makunga, Will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas as Moto Moto and Sherri Shepherd as Mom
Rating:

List Price: $34.98

Format: AC-3, Animated, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English
Number of discs: 2
Studio: Dreamworks Animated
DVD Release Date: February 6, 2009
Run Time: 113 minutes

From the studio: The sequel to 2005's "Madagascar", in which New York Zoo animals, Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe and Gloria the Hippo, still stranded on Madagascar, start to leave the island. All of a sudden, they land in the wilderness of Africa, where Alex meets the rest of his family, but has trouble communicating with them after spending so much time at the Central Park Zoo.

In the highly-anticipated sequel to 'Madagascar,' Alex, Marty, Melman, Gloria, King Julien, Maurice and the penguins and the chimps find themselves marooned on the distant shores of Madagascar. In the face of this obstacle, the New Yorkers have hatched a plan so crazy it just might work. With military precision, the penguins have repaired an old crashed plane--sort of. Once aloft, this unlikely crew stays airborne just long enough to make it to the wildest place of all--the vast plains of Africa, where the members of our zoo-raised crew encounter species of their own kind for the very first time. Africa seems like a great place...but is it better than their Central Park home?

from Amazon.com: The sequel to the animated movie Madagascar gives more of everything audiences loved in the first movie: More of the penguins; more of Julian, king of the lemurs; more musical bits of classic rock; and many, many more lions, zebras, hippos, and giraffes. In the first film, a quartet of coddled zoo animals found themselves shipwrecked on the island of Madagascar in a misguided effort to return them to the wild. InMadagascar: Escape 2 Africa, a failed attempt to fly back to New York maroons Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), and Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer) in an animal preserve on the African continent, accompanied by the four deranged penguins and the lunatic lemur king (deliriously voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat). By wild coincidence, this is where Alex was born--and where his father is still the alpha lion, and where his malevolent uncle seeks to take over (let's call this an homage to The Lion King). The other beasts have their own story arcs, but really it's all an excuse for daffy comic bits. Though the result is disposable, it's also entirely entertaining. The action sequences pop with dizzying spectacle; though some jokes are mainstream fodder, more often they're surprisingly quirky and engagingly oddball. This is the best kind of cotton candy filmmaking--it dissolves into nothing, but it's oh-so-sweet to the taste. --Bret Fetzer

From CPA Mom: On a recent Friday night, I curled up on the couch with my 4 and 6 year olds for some much needed "mommy and me" time (it's tax season and I'm a CPA in public practice, so I'm rarely home these days). We decided to watch this 2-DVD pack together, starting with the penguins extra DVD. Both of them had seen the original Madagascar movie but I still have not (our copy of it has disappeared into whatever hole our toys seem to disappear in!). But like most animated movies (with sequels and sequels to sequels) you don't need to see the first movie to enjoy the second.

All of us thoroughly enjoyed this fun family film, and the two short Penguin episodes. The story arc for the little old granny (who apparently was in the first film) cracked me up ("We're New Yorkers - if we can make it there, we can make it anywhere!"). And the whole time I was watching the movie I was thinking the story line was a bit familiar and after reading the amazon.com review (see above) I realized I was thinking of the Lion King, another animated movie we all enjoyed - some of the story line is exactly the same. My kids loved all the characters but my favorite were the "gangster" penguins...every time they came on screen, their dialogue made me laugh out loud (these are really directed to the adults rather than the kids as I don't think anyone who has not yet seen The Godfather or The Sopranos could appreciate the subtle parody of those characters). All and all it was an enjoyable evening, the whole family eating popcorn and laughing together at the silly animals. A nice lesson on the importance of family and appreciating your friends as well.

4 out of 5 binkies.

This review was sponsored by: Mothering Heights