Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Madagascar - Escape 2 Africa (2008)

This is topic Madagascar - Escape 2 Africa (2008) in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-08-2008, 09:02 PM:

From what I've seen/heard so far, the movie has a lot of the "wisecracking" humor that's supposed to appeal to adults, with liberal doses of the "bathroom" humor that the kids love so much.

The animation is surprisingly subpar to what we're now spoiled with thanks to Pixar. The Lion's mane looks like it's either made of plastic, or been dipped in a vat of hair spray.

The kids seem kind of bored with it - we've had a couple of "I wanna go home!" walkouts and the concession is doing a brisk during-show business.

Further comments on hold until I actually have a chance to sit and watch it.

Posted by Brian Michael Weidemann (Member # 2243) on 11-09-2008, 01:58 PM:

I didn't see the first one, but this was a fun little film. It had me laughing a couple times.

I thought the animation was good. Of course, it was the IMAX version (in a GT theatre). Bright, colorful, and very high resolution! The characters were designed for the first one, so there wasn't much room for improvement in the overall style. They're cartoons, so I think that "plastic" look is consistent with the style. At no point are they actually trying for photorealistic textures, but some of the shots are still amazing. In particular, that final shot!

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 11-09-2008, 09:47 PM:

Today at Regal 15 in Eugene, #15, NEC 2K DLP.

The animation & character detail looks great in DLP. Is it the best ever? No. But more importantly, the movie itself was subpar for me. Kids in the audience seemed alternately bored and restless. The touches of humor seem sparse and, well, not all that funny for the most part.

I didn't hate it but I wouldn't recommend it either.

2 out of 5 stars.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 11-10-2008, 06:49 AM:

Regal Salisbury Stadium 16, 3:15 p.m. show, 11/09/08

Hmmm, this movie wasn't that great. Besides several presentation problems, overall this movie's plot sucked, the dialogue sucked, and the background music sounded like it was playing on an old record player.

Anyways, don't ruin your memory of the original film by seeing this one.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-11-2008, 01:33 AM:

Having read the above comments, I was fully prepared to hate this film, but wound up liking it quite a bit. The animation is actually quite good, especially the water (I'm always impressed by good animated water) except for the damn lions' manes which look just a leeetle bit too stylish in my opinion. Maybe a little bit scraggly would have looked better?

There were a lot of laughs - "Two passengers unaccounted for? That's a number I can live with!" - although I can see why the little kids are a bit restless with it, due to the story being somewhat over their heads and not as much action as expected. But I was entertained and so was my wife.

We both liked it a lot more than Wall-E. There was the usual obligatory cartoon message here (anti-hunting) but it was lighthearted and didn't bang you over the head like Pixar's message did. Wall-E beats this by far in the animation dept, of course, but as a fun movie this gets the nod from me.

The anti-piracy audio-CRAP sound dropouts weren't noticable in our theatre (we have Dolby Digital sound) but I thought the sound mix overall was weak.

3.5 stars.

ADDENDUM: I thought it was a pretty gutsy move by the film-makers to show the NYC skyline featuring the World Trade Center towers in the opening shot. I know it was meant to convey a "flashback" but they could have easily used a different shot and put a "TEN YEARS AGO" card in there. And no public outcry! I hope this means it'll be OK to show the WTC in films set prior to 9/11/01 again.

[ 11-13-2008, 06:43 PM: Message edited by: Mike Blakesley ]

Posted by Galen Murphy-Fahlgren (Member # 4535) on 11-14-2008, 11:29 PM:

9:50 at Goodrich Canton, #3, P35GPS, SRD. Presentation in this auditorium has gone downhill recently, maybe someone mixed up aperture plates with the other Christie in the complex somehow. The dropout was two minutes into the third reel and I found it quite irritating.

The movie was okay, but I hate it when they feel they have to shove some social agenda down your throat. We get it, the son is gay, and the backwards dad can't cope. If they had been a little less blatant with it and maybe left out the racism (all black people look and speak exactly the same, how can you even tell them apart?) I might have enjoyed it more. As it was, I was distracted throughout by the blatant gay agenda. Hollywood has no business telling me how to think, and I resent any movie that has such a brutishly presented message to try and brainwash our unsuspecting children, they don't need to be hammered with messages all the time.

See what I did there?

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 11-27-2008, 10:26 PM:

CINEMA: Megaplex 17 at Jordan Commons, Sandy, UT
AUDITORIUM: Spring Mobile IMAX
PRESENTATION: IMAX
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: None [Cool]

RATING: Two stars (out of four)

Wow. They've gone from a wireless telco sponsorship to a wireless telco reseller sponsorship. Well, as long as they didn't take out the...AW CRAP! They took out the leather seats.

THE PLOT: A plane crashes. Wackiness ensues.

I didn't see the first movie. I have four words for this movie. What. In. The. HELL.

Two stars for the penguins, though I know I'm in the minority when I say I DON'T think the penguins should get their own franchise. I don't think they can milk that act for 90 minutes.

Picture looked great. They actually filled the whole IMAX screen top to bottom.

Posted by Michael Hossen (Member # 4274) on 12-16-2008, 07:07 AM:

CINEMA: Ace, Busselton, Western Australia
AUDITORIUM: Cinema 1
PRESENTATION: 35mm
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: None
RATING: 3/5

Saw the first one. Thought it was worthy of a laugh or two. I feel much the same about this one.

Not a brilliant film, but it had it's moments. I like how they include jokes which only adults would understand in kids movies nowadays...

Kids would probably enjoy it much more I would suspect.

Audio drop-out wasn't a problem as we rarely receive a DTS disk with the print. Usually a few days later.