YMMV / Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Julien wanted to help the animals gather water out of geniune concern? Or due to his It's All About Me personality? While most of his actions can easily be read as the latter (heck, he himself wasn't sure if his plan of offering a sacrifice to "the water gods" was a guaranteed success), he privately tells Maurice that he would be willing to sacrifice himself if it weren't because of his "whistling talents", which seems to suggest the former, especially because there was nobody else (sans Maurice) around to hear him saying that.
• Alternative Joke Interpretation: Were Julien's antics on the plane just because of his normal Cloud Cuckoolander nature? Or was he drunk, as there was alcohol on the plane?
• Badass Decay: In the first film, a major plot point was that, despite his friendly demeanor, Alex is still a ferocious lion who is much more dangerous than he seems, to the point that after going two days without eating he regained his predatory instincts and became a savage killing machine capable of single-handedly defeating an army of Fossas. In this sequel however, Alex's main conflict with his father is that apparently he's completely unable to fight "like a real lion" and the only thing he knows how to do is dance. Not only does he suffers a humiliating defeat during his rite of passage, he's also pretty much helpless against the New-Yorkers in the climax. While the film's depiction of lions' behavior in their "natural habitat" is significantly Lighter and Softer than the implications of the first film suggest, and Alex's ferocity during the first film's climax was chiefly activated through having been deprived of his main food source and marooned thousands of miles from any kind of home, indicating that his effectivity as an apex predator may be hindered by his conscious reservations (which he never relinquishes at any point in this film's runtime), it's nonetheless jarring when viewing the two films in close succession.
• Cargo Ship: Skipper marries a bobble head. It was originally played for laughs, but then one thing led to another...
• Catharsis Factor: Come on. Is there anyone who didn’t enjoy watching Nana beat up that smug bastard Makunga?
  • In turn, watching the penguins beat up the old lady after she picked on the other zoo animals throughout the franchise is also entertaining to watch.
• Contested Sequel: Some people say that Escape 2 Africa is an Even Better or Surprisingly Improved Sequel, while others dislike it and accuse it of ripping off The Lion King.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Pretty much everything involving Nana, really.
  • The rematch between Alex and Nana. This movie took a fist fight between a lion and an old woman, with a polka remix of the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly used as a background track, and made it both hilarious and badass.
  • An old lady getting thrown out of a tourist jeep? Not funny. An old lady getting thrown out of a tourist jeep driven by the penguins? A little funny. Private asking if she's dead, Skipper snarling "No!" when she sees her bounce right back up then deliberately hitting her with the jeep? Now that's funny.
• Demographically Inappropriate Humor: He's talking about plane classes, but...
  Julien: Whatever happened to the separation of the classes?
  Maurice: I'm sure this whole Democracy thing is just a fad!
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Moto Moto. If he wasn't the most popular character introduced in the movie when it was aired, he sure became it after the "Moto Moto likes you" meme exploded in popularity in 2019. Reasons include being a genuinely funny (if shallow) character, being a rather nice guy despite his shallowness by helping out the other animals search for water and having a very catchy song during his introductory scene. It tells you something when he only has 4 minutes of screentime in a movie with 89.
• Fanfic Fuel: The Zoosters' time in Africa between the events of this movie and third movie.
• Genius Bonus: The chimps link arms like the classic plastic Barrel of Monkeys toy monkeys.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The film features some poachers luring cub!Alex away from an animal reserve where he promptly gets kidnapped. This is exactly how Cecil the Lion was killed.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • This isn't the first time Hans Zimmer composed a score to an animated movie centered around a lion and set in Africa.
  • Julien gets the line "I would invade a neighboring country and impose my own ideology, even if they didn't want it!" His voice actor, Sacha Baron Cohen, later played The Dictator.
• Ho Yay:
  • It's been pointed out that Alex's interaction with his father seems like a metaphor for a Coming-Out Story.
  • There's a scene where Julien is giving Melman romantic advice while climbing all over his head and stroking it repeatedly. Not to mention he assumed, or pretended to assume, Melman was going to tell Gloria he hated her...
  • Like in the last movie, there is a lot of implied sexuality stuff with the monkeys. Mason and Phil still seem to be in a relationship, they demand maternity leave (Skipper even looks under the table to assure that they're men), and when the monkeys go gather a few extra thumbs, Skipper states that he could kiss Mason. Mason obliges, with the only sort of reclutance coming from Skipper's own looks rather than his gender.
• Magnificent Bitch: Nana is a seemingly innocuous old lady who loses her unpleasant demeanour from her previous appearances but proves herself to be one of the toughest characters within the series. After the Penguins rob her tourist group's jeep, Nana heads into the woods to avoid being eaten by animals where she meets other stranded groups. Rallying the humans to become survivors, Nana has them be able to create an inhabitable land for them — building a dam to conserve water and having the villagers hunt animals for food. When the humans capture Alex, Nana almost has him cooked to be eaten, commending the other survivors for the capture. After attempting to shoot both Alex and Zuba after their performance — noting it to be beautiful — Nana stares down the plane as it comes to crash into the dam with no fear. Surviving the hit and noticing Makunga holding her handbag, Nana beats the Smug Snake and leaves the film dragging him by the ear.
• Memetic Mutation: Shares a page with the rest of the series.
• Moe: Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman were adorable as children.
• Narm Charm: Melman's professing his love of Gloria through Moto Moto is as heartwarming as is cheesy.
• Signature Scene: The plane crash, which is an easy candidate for being one of the funniest scenes in Dreamworks Animation's entire filmography.
• Signature Song: "The Traveling Song"/"Alex on the Spot".
• Sweetness Aversion: Melman's heartfelt profession of his love for Gloria and later his smaller speech as he is taken to the volcano may be too sentimental for some viewers.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Teetsi acts as the primary henchman of Makunga during the first half of the movie and gives Alex a brutal beatdown. Oddly enough, he's nowhere to be seen during the second half, and never receives any comeuppance for his actions.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The animation is a massive step up from the previous film, in addition to the characters’ movements being more natural and smooth and less stiff and over the top, the backgrounds look darn near photorealistic, with the only thing really giving it away being the animals’ cartoony designs.
• Watch It for the Meme: After the "Moto Moto likes you" meme became a thing, it's not uncommon to see people watching the movie only for Moto Moto.

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