I haven’t seen the first Madagascar movie so I have nothing to really base my opinion on but I really liked this sequel! It probably helped that I was in a mood for a nice laugh. Madgascar 2 is sweet, endearing and hilarious. It also had some tear-jearker moments though with me that doesn’t really take all that much to make me shed a tear.

At about 70-75 minutes (not including the credits) the movie is not very long at all. Probably just the right length to tell the story though if you’re looking for bang for your buck in terms of time in the cinema this probably hits lower on the scale!

We take the main quartet to Africa where they are stranded when the plane that was taking them …. crashes. Alex, the lion, is reunited with his family from whom he was separated as a young cub when he was first taken to the Manhattan zoo, a place where he has never learnt to be a lion but has learned to dance to perform to entertain. The reunion is sweet and touching though over too soon when Alex is challenged to a fight. His father is leader of the pride and the return of Alex prompts his evil nemesis to challenge young lion to a battle for leadership. Alex thinking it’s a dance-off rather than a fight-off loses horribly and as a result loses his father leadership of the pride. Of course the timing coincides with loss of water to the pride and Alex sees this as the chance to restore his dad to the top by solving the problem.

It’s a story of acceptance, forgiveness and redemption. Being a kiddie movie of course it ends happily and with some good laughs along the way. Totally enjoyed it.