Sequels are often more miss than hit, but parents being pestered by their children to take them to the follow up of 2005’s successful Madagascar need not worry. This colourful Spielberg-Katzenberg-Geffen-produced compendium of cartoon slapstick and surreal humour does not disappoint, providing perfectly acceptable entertainment for youngsters.
We catch up with the various bred-in-New-York-Zoo protagonists — led by Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), and including Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer) — still adrift on the island in the Indian Ocean but hopefully heading home, accompanied by the lemur King Julian (Sacha Baron Cohen) in a plane piloted by penguins — (“who said penguins can’t fly?”, boasts one of the flight crew).
Actually, they can’t, crash-landing their animal passengers in the African wilderness where their adventures turn out to be both amusing and exciting.
The story features Alex’s rite of passage into lion-hood, which is given a far less shmaltzy treatment than Disney’s take on the subject in The Lion King.
And, rare for the genre, accompanying parents should enjoy themselves without constantly checking their watches.
