Madagascar 2
Headline: ** Hilarious, Heartwarming Sequel Extolling Christian Values**
Title: MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE TO AFRICA
Quality: * * * * Acceptability: -1 (Caution for older children)
SUBTITLES: None
WARNING CODES:
Language: L
Violence: V
Sex: S
Nudity: None
RATING: PG
RELEASE: November 7, 2008
TIME: 94 minutes
STARRING: The voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, Andy Richter, Bernie Mac, Sherri Shepherd, Alec Baldwin, and will.i.am
DIRECTOR: Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath
PRODUCERS: Mireille Soria and Mark Swift
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: None
WRITERS: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath and Etan Cohen
BASED ON THE NOVEL/PLAY BY:
DISTRIBUTOR: DreamWorks/Paramount Pictures/Viacom
CONTENT: (BB, C, Pa, O, Ho, L, V, AA, M) Strong moral worldview with Christian principles extolling self-sacrifice, honesty, friendship, love, forgiveness, marriage, loyalty, and courage, but marred by some light pagan, occult elements when one of the main characters becomes the witch doctor for the other animals and the animals choose to make a sacrifice in a volcano to the water gods, but this is represented in a humorous and ridiculous way, plus light homosexual elements such as animals make comments implying that another animal is a homosexual but these implications are refuted by that animal's character and his love for a female animal, a male monkey kisses a male penguin, male animal pretends another male animal is a female in order to show him how to profess his love; five light obscenities such as "butt," "freaks," "suck ups" and "fuzz buckets"; mild pratfalls, scatological and action violence such as two animals pick their noses and then feed each other, two animals fight each other to establish dominance, animal gets his head thrown into a rock, animal gets shot in the ear with a gun and falls off of a truck, animal gets into a fist fight with an old woman, animals try to run over an old woman with a jeep, animals are attacked by hungry humans who want to eat them, humans try to roast animal over a fire, animals get squashed and kicked, animal is attacked by hungry shark, animals take pratfalls, animals slam into a wooden dam, animals spit, animal threatens other animals with a knife; light crude sexual allusions, some with homosexual elements, such as animal cross-dresses and says, "I am a woman, which of you is attracted to me?", animal mentions wanting to enter a "breeding program," animal has a fetish in which he is attracted to a Hawaiian dancing bobble doll, human gives CPR to animal calling it "the kiss of life," animal describes another animal as being very "big," animal asks for his nuts to be brought to him on a silver platter on a plane ride; no nudity; animal staggers around after a party before passing out; no smoking or drug use; and, selfishness, lying and deceit by the main bad character, stealing, and blackmail, but these things are resolved in the end.
GENRE: Animated/Comedy
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Older children to adults
Please address your comments to:
Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg
Co-Principals
Stacey Snider
Co-Chairman/CEO
DreamWorks SKG
(Affiliated with Paramount Pictures)
1000 Flower Street
Glendale, CA 91201
Phone: (818) 695-5000
Website: www.dreamworks.com
SUMMARY: In MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA, Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria escape from Madagascar, only to crash-land on the plains of Africa, where they encounter species of their own and grow through some new adventures. ESCAPE 2 AFRICA is one of the most hilarious, heartwarming animated movies of the year, with many positive values, but it has some crude humor and light pagan content that require caution for older children.
IN BRIEF:
MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA opens with Alex, Marty, Gloria, Melman, and the penguins still stuck in Madagascar. With military precision, the penguins have restored an old plane and named it Air Penguin. The animals hope to fly the plane to New York, but one mishap after another leaves them stranded in the wildest place of all, Africa. Here, the zoo-raised crew finds species of their own kind for the first time. This becomes a learning experience for everyone. The story comes to a head when the local watering hole dries up.
MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA is one of the most hilarious, heartwarming animated movies of the year. The cast, directors and writers do an excellent job of picking up where the first movie left off. They have crafted a good script with well-rounded characters who choose to act according to moral, virtuous principles. Among the Christian values extolled in the movie are love, friendship, family, self-sacrifice, forgiveness, and marriage. MOVIEGUIDE® recommends caution for older children, however, due to some scatological humor and some adult humor. There are also some light, humorous pagan elements regarding a witch doctor and a volcano sacrifice.
NOTE from Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of Movieguide Magazine. For more information from a Christian perspective, order the latest Movieguide Magazine by calling 1-800-899-6684(MOVI) or visit our website at www.movieguide.org. Movieguide is dedicated to redeeming the values of Hollywood by informing parents about today's movies and entertainment and by showing media executives and artists that family-friendly and even Christian-friendly movies do best at the box office year in and year out. Movieguide now offers an online subscription to its magazine version, atwww.movieguide.org. The magazine, which comes out 25 times a year, contains many informative articles and reviews that help parents train their children to be media-wise consumers.
