Product Details

• Actors: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen
• Directors: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath
• Writers: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath, Etan Cohen
• Producers: Lorne Orleans, Mark Swift, Mireille Soria
• Format: Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English, French, Spanish
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed: French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: DreamWorks
• DVD Release Date: February 6, 2009
• Run Time: 89 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (282 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001NCDFTW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,802 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (Widescreen Edition)" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

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

Product Description

All of the loveable characters are back – Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippo, King Julien, Maurice and the penguins – in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. They find themselves in the wildest place of all – the vast plains of Africa – where our zoo-raised crew encounter species of their own kind for the very first time. While discovering their roots, they quickly find the differences between the concrete jungle and the heart of Africa. Despite long-lost relatives, romantic rivals and scheming hunters, Africa seems like a great place...but is it better than their Central Park home?

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars More heart, humor than the first February 8, 2009

By Poor Napoleon VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

Dreamworks' animated films have not been able to hold a candle to caliber of Disney/Pixar films, but let's face it: who can? That said, Madagascar 2 is learning from Pixar at the very least. Animated films work when they are able to successfully blend humor, heart, and a good story to keep the audience sustained for at least 90 minutes.

Madagascar 2 starts in the right direction by presenting a very nice opening featuring a brief origin of Alex and how he got to New York. It's probably less than 5 minutes, but already set the tone for the heart of the picture, which focuses chiefly on Alex fitting in with his fellow lions. The other chief characters are also stumbling as they interact with their own in Africa.

Also back is the humor. I sometimes feel like the movies would be funnier if the penguins had more screen time, but they are still funny in whatever scenes they're in. The granny who beat up Alex in the first film is also back for some humor. The humor is better and more consistent than the first.

The only flaw in the film is that it is fairly predictable. The chracters are a little bit better here than in the first and it has a good heart, but sometimes they don't spend as long on the emotional aspect as they could. It's still good entertainment and I like to see Dreamworks progress with their films.

36 of 44 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars penguin adventures February 1, 2009

By bob

Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase

note: this blue ray includes the nick penguins episodes available in the dvd 2 pack

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another awesome BD with all the extras February 5, 2009

By Steve Kuehl VINE™ VOICE

Format:Blu-ray

Wow. One could spend some serious paragraphs dissecting all that is great about this one. Clarity, picture, colors, sounds, extras - they are all there.

As listed earlier, the much sought after Penguins episode is included on this BD, along with four music videos, fun games, trivia and plenty of material to give the kids some additional insight about all the that is Madagascar - and all in hidef! Oh yeah, the story is funny and has lines to keep both the adults and kids entertained.

The movie has been a hit in the store and shows off any HD display beautifully. The sound and music are mixed very well but the animation clarity even shows through enough for kids to say how "totally cool" it looks. Just had a pre-school class of girls visit the store for a field trip and all 7 of them loved it.

Hope you enjoy...forgot to mention: I laughed out loud more than a few times, those penguins are great ("...you're all males..") - gotta love it.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A strong sequel February 27, 2011

By D. Knox

Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase

Surprisingly Madagascar Escape2Africa is as enjoyable as the first film, which these days of shoddy sequels of a feat unto itself. The Bluray transfer is excellent. Picture 5/5 Sound 4/5 (Because it is 5.1) My wife and kids loved the first film and were just as entertained by this one. Also the decision to include DVDs and not digital copies was a wise choice. Every other digital copy I try to download into iTunes fails because they are expired. Why oh why do the studios do this. Digital copies are splashed over the covers of DVDs and now Bluray. So kudos to Dreamworks for including proper DVDs. For those of us that have children and travel, at least me, love having a DVD to play in the minivan and my portable DVD player.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything and More February 6, 2009

By Pyanfar Chanur TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Blu-ray

After the Furious Five fiasco, Dreamworks has decided to give you all the goodies--and more--in the Blu-Ray release of Madagascar 2. Not only do you get the behind-the-scenes, commentary, and other extras of the DVD, you also get the two Penguin cartoons from the 2-pack DVD bundle...and...

Easter Eggs! Go to the Penguin episodes menu. Highlight an episode. Move the directional controller on your remote and a penguin appears! Each episode will let you slide off the menu to two penguins, for a total of four extra "short" animations that launch when you select the penguin.

The Penguin episodes (and shorts) are hilarious. The quality of the Blu-Ray version is eye-popping: while Kung-Fu Panda produces lots of color and detail, Madagascar 2 goes it one step further with some pretty amazing depth of focus. Some of the panning shots, for example, seem to pop off the screen.

In addition to all this, BD Live will connect you to other extras: we watched a pretty good short documentary about lions, for example. The way the menu is built makes me think there might be more to come.

If you haven't seen this movie yet, Madagascar 2 is a bizarre and hilarious sequel. It introduces new characters, keeps the favorites from the first, and adds yet more movie spoofs and references for the grown-ups, some of them obvious (the Lion King) and some more obscure (The In-Laws). If you're buying for a small child, chances are they might not follow the nuances of blu-ray: the DVD will upscale enough on most players. But for the best experience, this blu-ray is the version to buy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as toddler friendly the first one January 9, 2013

By HawkeyeMom

Format:Amazon Instant Video|Amazon Verified Purchase

My husband and I enjoyed this but our son just keeps wanting to watch the first one. This one is more adult, the opening scenes were a little troubling for our son (lion cub kidnapped by very scary poacher types - daddy tries to save him and is shot by the poachers - then baby lion screams for daddy as baby lion floats in a box down a river alone...)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The popular castaways of "MADAGASCAR" are back! February 19, 2009

By Dennis A. Amith (kndy) TOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Blu-ray

Hilarious and extremely entertaining! If you enjoyed "MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA" in the theater, you're going to enjoy the picture and audio quality on Blu-ray! Fantastic!

The popular castaways of "MADAGASCAR" are back!

In the first film, we learned about how the popular animals that came from a New York zoo ended up in Madagascar but now, the gang try to return back to New York but things don't go quite as planned.

"MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA" is a very entertaining film and the animation just screams of CG awesomeness that can be seen from the hair on Zuba with the white strands among the darker strands of hair to the water and the physics of water and just the beautiful landscape of how the animators really tried to capture the beauty of Africa from its weeds, the hills, the trees especially the clouds.

Also, what was amazing is the number of talent used in this film and I didn't know until watching the special features is that "MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA" was the final film which featured popular comedian Bernie Mac before his death and that it was screened for the family and even included a dedication for him in the ending credits.

The voice acting was very well done by each talent and again, I am totally impressed by the storyline and how beautiful the film looked and how great it sounds on Blu-ray.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

The film is featured in 1080p High Definition (AVC-encoded) transfer that is beautiful! Needless to say, when it comes to picture quality, DreamWorks Entertainment has not let anyone down. If anything, I think there is a high anticipation that the film look great on Blu-ray and the animators successfully have done so.... Detail on nearly everything from the land, the clouds, solid objects, the water, the ground, the hair on the characters. You name it, they went all out in making sure the visual experience of watching this film, videophiles will just fall in love for it. For me, water physics is one of the most difficult things for animators to do. And to see how far they have gone with making liquid look natural, especially in this film and how it reacts and how great it looks is amazing! I didn't notice any artifacting and overall, the picture quality is perfect!

As for the audio, audio is featured in TrueHD5.1. Equally as impressive as the video quality, dialogue is clear, music is alive (especially how it's used in the rear channels) and a great use of ambient noise. From the noise of the airplane to several actions sequences especially near the end of the film, really great delivery of audio. Again, another perfect soundtrack to along with the perfect video quality!

SPECIAL FEATURES:

And DreamWorks didn't stop with the video and audio quality, they also added plenty of special features to keep "MADAGASCAR" fans busy. Included in the special features are:

* Commentary: Filmmakers' Commentary - A very good audio commentary from co-directors Tom McGrath and Eric Darnell with producers Mireille Soria and Mark Swift in regards to animation, working with the talent, working with the design team and this commentary features optional English subtitles.
* Commentary: The Animators' Corner - Unlike the commentary above, you can watch the four via picture-in-picture but this time you get certain animated storyboards and much more including brief shots of the talent in the recording studio.
* Commentary: Trivia Track - The trivia track well thrown in tidbits that you will see via graphic on the bottom of the screen with tidbits from the film. Such as "animators named the clouds as individual characters when they were working on them" or "creating the movement of the water was one of the difficult challenges for the animators" and many, many more information from the film.
* Featurette: It's a Family Affair: The Cast of Escape 2 Africa HD - This featurette was highly entertaining as each talent was interviewed in regards to their role. And you learn that Ben Stiller had his children involved in recording of the scenes, as did Jada Pinkett Smith had her daughter due the voice of a younger Gloria. Moto Moto's sexy voice by will.i.am and much more. Also, the director and Ben Stiller talking about working with Bernie Mac and so forth. A very entertaining featurette!
* Featurette: The Making of Escape 2 Africa HD - An overview on the production of the film.
* Featurette: Crash Landing HD - A fun featurette in how the crew worked out the storyboard for the crash landing and even coming up with ideas using a couch and how the characters would end up flying around the plane by enacting certain scenes. Interesting featurette on how that scene came about!
* Featurette: African Adventure HD - In order to capture the essence of Africa, the director, producers and some staff had to experience it by going there. Being near wild animals, seeing how they interact, how beautiful the landscape was and trying to capture that in the animation and more.
* Featurette: Jambo Jambo: Swahili Speak HD - An informative featurette on learning swahili. There is about 36 minutes of learning various words and phrases in Swahili (especially in how it relates to the film).
* Featurette: The Bronx Zoo: Madagascar HD - The Bronx Zoo is one of the few zoos to have animals from Madagascar and featuring some of the animals from the exhibit.
* Featurette: Popcorn Panic (#101) HD - An episode from the upcoming Nickelodeon animated series featuring our favorite Madascar penguins, Julien, Maurice and Mort. In this case, a no feeding animals popcorn rule has been enforced and the penguins and animals are not too happy about it and try to get their hands on popcorn.
* Featurette: Gone in a Flash (#103) HD - An episode from the upcoming Nickelodeon animated series featuring our favorite Madagascar penguins and characters such as Julie, Maurice, Mort and other zoo friends.
* Music Videos: "Move It, Move It" Music Video HD, "Big and Chunky" Music Video HD, "She Loves Me" Music Video HD
* Alex's Dance Off HD - If your kids want to learn the dance moves of Alex, this is the way to go!
* Music Videos: Sing Along HD - Sing along to the songs sung in the film!
* Music Videos: DWA Jukebox HD - Featuring a music clip from "MADAGASCAR", "THE BEE MOVIE", "SHREK 1 & 2', "KUNG-FU PANDA, "Over the Hedge" and more.
* Games: Test Flight of Air Penguin Game - A point and click video game for the family.
* Easter Eggs: There are six Easter Eggs according to DreamWorks, I have yet to find them!

JUDGMENT CALL:

"MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA" is an entertaining and highly enjoyable film!

If anything, my son has had "Madagascar in the Brain" with his constant singing of will.i.am's "Move it, Move it" song and for Blu-ray, Paramount has released animated titles that were just solid in picture and audio quality and "MADAGASAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA" does not disappoint in any category.

The storyline was well-written, with so much talent involved, each has done a tremendous job for their characters and you really have to give the crew a standing ovation in accomplishing one of the most awesome animated sequences with the high amount of detail from the characters, outdoors, objects. You name it, they did a spectacular job in making this film look so beautiful! And of course, the audio is just as spectacular and the music and audio during the action sequences is just as alive. To top it off, the Blu-ray is just filled with special features galore!

Overall, this is a great example of a perfect Blu-ray release. Perfect in all categories and a release worth owning! Read more ›