The only memorable thing about Madagascar was Sacha Baron
Cohen’s voicing of Julien, the king of some rodentlike species. Julien
had the arrogance of a medieval king, spoke with an East-Indian accent,
had that depth of dementia in his eyes, and controlled his community
with an infectious dance song: “I like to move it, move it/You like to
move it, move it.” In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Cohen (Mr.
Borat, or Ali G) returns as Julien, but his character is not that
funny. And because Julien is not that funny, the film as a whole lacks
the one thing that made the original worth anything.
The story about a tamed Manhattan lion meeting his wild parents in
an African safari is not interesting. The story about the Manhattan
zebra meeting a herd of wild zebra in an African safari is, again, not
interesting. There’s another story about a melancholy giraffe that
falls in love with a hippo—yawn. As for the penguins, they were
never appealing. As for the chimpanzees with the British accents, that
joke was completely spent in the first half of Madagascar.
What we want to see in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is Julien
ruling his kingdom of rodentlike things with insane declarations and a
Caribbean dance tune: “I like to move it, move it/You like to move it,
move it.” In the history of literary criticism, there has been much
talk about the possibility of creating a society out of a poem; in
Madagascar, we saw a rodentlike society that found its meaning
and happiness in a dance tune—move it, move it. 
I believe the “rodentlike” species you are speaking of is a ring-tailed lemur?
I may be wrong… but it may be safe to assume that they are a lemur species because of their locality…
Madagascar…
Wikipedia, indeed, authoritatively affirms that they are ring-tailed lemurs, which are of the primate order, not the rodent.
This is not as grave as mistaking the post-apocalyptic cockroach in Wall-E for a beetle.
there is a “madagascar: escape 2 africa” jack-in-the-box in one of our work bathrooms. when it pops open “i like to move it move it etc” plays louder than any noise a jack-in-the-box should ever make. it scared the fuck out of me and my heart rate took several minutes to slow down. i can only imagine what effect the actual movie would have…
Thank Ford for Wikipedia…
And to think, lemurs are our ancestors.
Very distant, but still.
We’re haplorhines, they’re strepsirhines.
Very true, elenchos. Such a mistake should lead to ostracism…
The reviewer here is missing the one main ingredient about this movie: IT IS FOR CHILDREN. He reviews this movie as if it was made for adults and therefore the movie is an abomination. It is for kids and thus the humor (as in the first movie) will appeal to them. I am starting to suspect that this reviewer was born an adult, or just forgot what it is like to be a kid. With that, my review of the reviewer: one star!!!!
holy cow! This guy has NO sense of humor. And definitely never let him review a kids film again.
“…in teh history of literary criticism…” WTF? Go review some tortured indie films dude and stay away from pop culture.
My 4 year-old loved it, and I did too! We actually have seen it 3 times now and my girl’s favorite character is Moto Moto and Gloria and of course Melman, well i guess she kind of likes them all. Actually there are some really good underlying messages, one in particular that sometimes love is not as you might imagine it…:-)