It's already March and DreamWorks Animation is starting the press run for Madgascar: The Crate Escape. But is that the name they're really giving it?
According to Coming Soon, the Glendale studio has changed the name of the sequel for the 2005 hit movie to Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. If that is the case, that news came too late for this sneak preview for the flick, which initially appeared on the Bee Movie DVD.
Ben Stiller In Jungle to Promote Madagascar Sequel
The preview starts with star Ben Stiller hanging out in "the jungle" (a rather obvious soundstage set) promoting the new flick.
"I love the jungle," Stiller claims, amid much jump cuts and goofy sound-effect noises. "It's where I hang out when I'm not working. I love the bugs, and the humidity, and the crazy bird back there."
The flick reunites Stiller's character, Alex the Lion, along with his pals Gloria (Jada Pinkett-Smith), Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock), David Schwimmer (Melman the Giraffe) and those paramilitary penguins who helped make the first movie a $193 million hit.
According to Stiller, the flick starts with Alex, Gloria, Marty and Melman trying to get back to New York City. They've found a plane, gotten the penguins to fix it up, and are going to fly it back to the Central Park Zoo. The footage starts with the four characters singing Reel 2 Reel's 1994 hit "I Like to Move It," the first Madagascar's unofficial theme song.
However, there are a couple of snags. The first one is that King Julian XIII of the ring-tailed lemurs (Sasha Baron Cohen) has decided to join them. "It's my plane," he says when Alex and his friends try to dissuade him from coming along.
The second snag is that those penguins really don't know how to fly an aircraft. Cue much mayhem, screaming and (hopefully) hilarity.
Will Madagascar 2 Do Well In Theatres?
Madagascar: The Crate Escape 2 Africa's game plan for box office success is simple: penguins, penguins, and more penguins. Oh, and having Sasha Baron Cohen along for the ride doesn't hurt either.
The first Madagascar was an amusing flick that became DreamWorks Animation's biggest non-Shrek hit. The animation was definitely shy of DreamWorks' usual standard, but the story moved along well. Madgascar landed just shy of making blockbuster status (that's $200 million in domestic box office, for those of you keeping score), but it still made a solid chunk of change, considering it only cost DreamWorks $75 million to make.
The big question is whether DreamWorks' writers have managed to put together a solid, funny script. The last DreamWorks flick to pull that off (and make money) was 2006's Over the Hedge, although there's some decent buzz for the upcoming Kung Fu Panda.
Whether it's called Madagascar: The Crate Escape, or Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, the flick is due in theatres sometime this November.
