Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa 2008

The penguins were the best thing about the first Madagascar movie and they are once again the stars of this sequel. While the main characters Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe, and Gloria the Hippo go searching for themselves, the Penguins are all business. They salvage and rebuild the plane that they crashed in Africa and have hired a crew of monkeys to work for them. The Penguins' special forces personas and their rapid-fire dialogue and joke delivery make them the funniest thing in Black & White since The Three Stooges. They totally outshine the other characters, especially the main character Alex, who's unfunny and conceited in an uninteresting way.

Now, the self-centered character of King Julien the Lemur, he's a different story. He's the source of many laughs; hilariously voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen.

Twilight Zone fans will find another tribute gag, this time "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" is parodied with a little lemur being spotted hanging off the flaming engine of the wing of the plane (remember the first movie had a panicked lemur yelling "It's a cookbook!" while the cover read, "To Serve Lemur").

I haven't been overly impressed with DreamWorks animation's offerings but have enjoyed the "Madagascar" movies. Their light-hearted approach and funny gags are enjoyable, especially compared to Pixar's recent efforts, which have been beautiful to look at but I've found to be a little preachy and aloof in their execution.