Rewind Rewatch Review: “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” is more than a typical kids comedy, reminding and informing us of the current climate crisis. PHOTO CREDIT: imbd.com
One week before moving into college, my 4-year-old niece begged me to have a movie night. So, being the fun aunt that I am, I gathered all of the movie night essentials: popcorn, pizza, ice cream and candy. As we scrolled through the long list of kids movies on Netflix, my niece spotted “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa,” and immediately started jumping up and down in excitement.
As a kid, “Madagascar” was my favorite movie. I remember watching all three movies in theatres as they were released, and singing along to “I Like to Move It” with my friends. Also, growing up in New Jersey, I was constantly visiting New York City. So when I saw Grand Central Station and Central Park in “Madagascar,” I thought it was so cool that I had been there in real life, and how close it was to where I lived.
I have not watched “Madagascar” since I was a kid, yet I was certain that I would love it just as much as I did when I was a 6-year-old, but watching it again as a soon-to-be college student, I felt like I was watching a totally different movie. The first thing I noticed was that David Shwimmer, who I know as Ross from “Friends,” voices Melman the giraffe! I was pleasantly surprised to see a connection between my favorite childhood movie and my favorite television show of all time. I also thought of how the song “I Like to Move It” was trending on TikTok this past July, and one of the most popular TikTok sounds from last year was “I think Moto Moto likes you!” with #motomoto having 1.2 billion views.
On a more serious note, I also noticed how they addressed global issues that we are still facing today, such as climate change and human impact on the environment. For instance, the human characters set up camp and dammed the river, cutting off water supply for the animals on the reserve. This made me think about how we need to “move it, move it” on climate change. Human impact on the environment has become worse over the years, and animals are suffering from human actions, like deforestation and air pollution. We are destroying animal habitats, thus impacting their food and water supply. I was glad that they incorporated this relevant global issue into a children’s movie to teach children about how our actions affect the environment and animal habitats.
Watching “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” again was a great experience. It was just as good, if not better than the first time I watched it, and was fun to connect it to social media and issues in today’s world. “Madagascar” has taught me that we need to “move it move it” on climate change, and start taking care of our planet now — if not for us, then for all of the animals and other living things on Earth. It has also gotten the song “I Like to Move It” stuck in my head, but overall, it was definitely worth the rewatch.