Now, DreamWorks Animation Studios has always come off worse when compared to Pixar. Most people come off worse, admittedly, but DreamWorks have always been like Simon Cowell compared to Pixar's Brian Eno: in it for the money rather than for the love of the medium.
So it continues with this sequel to Madagascar; our animal friends from the first film leave the island only to crash land in Africa. What kind of hi-jinks will ensue? I think we already know.
I don't have a problem per-se with the the first film, it just wasn't that good. It was fun and everything but never more than that.
Do we need that fun a second time? Probably not but we'll get it anyway because the kids like it and makes the studio a lot of money.
Everyone from the first film is back but now we get some backstory crowbarred onto them that makes no sense: if he arrived in New York in a crate wouldn't he of mentioned this in the first film? When did the monkeys arrive on the island? Two of the characters are in love? Really?
To be honest, most kid films collapse when you think about them too hard* but the whole thing just comes off as lazy. The point is: there is no need for this film to exist. The reason Toy Story 2 works so well is because there was a new story to tell with the characters. There is no story in this film that wasn't already told in the first film, it's just a collection of set pieces hamfistedly strung together in order to get the kids in.
Which works, because my son loves it.
In a word? Roar-ful.
* Except for Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Wall-E etc.
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