Realistically, there was no way that any sequel to Madagascarwas going to measure up to the artistic and technical accomplishments of Pixar’s WALL-E, but it’s nice to see that the Dreamworks animators didn’t even try. This sequel to the 2005 hit doesn’t stray very far from the formula by playing the fish-out-of-water sitcom antics of four sheltered zoo animals caught a drift half a world away from Central Park. This time they make it all the way from Madagascar to continental Africa, and wouldn’t you know it, they have to prove to themselves that a life of ease in New York doesn’t make them weak in the wilds.

Now, I never saw the first Madagascar, I was rather scarred after two Shreks and a Sharktale that also featured the oil and water combination of kiddie humour and adult pop culture reference jokes. Not to mention the all-star voices, which I’ve thought for a long time now are past the point of being a draw to a film and are really now more of a distraction. On this account though, it’s worth seeing Madagascar 2 in tribute to the late, great Bernie Mac, who comes onboard in this film as Alex the Lion’s (Ben Stiller) long, lost father, Zuba. This is Mac’s second to last film, and I think it’s one of his better roles.

There’s an interesting subtext to Zuba, kind of haunted and lost because of what happened to his son, but this isn’t a film for subtext because there are penguins afoot that act suspiciously like they just broke out of The Great Escape. If you can find any kid that’s ever even heard of The Great Escape, I’d like to meet them. Or for that matter, a kid that’s ever heard “I Like to Move It” in context as a song from 1994 by Reel 2 Real. And a point for the even more obscure is a reference to the classic Twilight Zone episode “Nightmare at 20,000 feet,” or Lawrence of Arabia, or West Side Story.

Now none of these references are particularly problematic, unlike the Shrek films they’re not very recent and so the film won’t be dated later. And I guess if WALL-E can get away with using Hello Dolly, I can forgive other obscure (for kids) references here and there. After all, there are bigger reasons that Madagascar 2 doesn’t connect: the plot is pretty light in the making, the big jokes don’t always generate big laughs and the big bad villain isn’t all that villainous despite his Elvis hair and voice by Alec Baldwin. The character seems to be both an unintentional reference to Baldwin’s 30 Rock character, NBC boss Jack Donaghy, combined with the imagined effeminate gay cousin of The Lion King’s Scar, which is why as an antagonist he doesn’t work.

The four main voice actors, Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith and David Schwimmer, seem bored and the real appeal of the film belongs to periphery characters like Sacha Baron Cohen’s Lemur King Julien, the aforementioned Penguins and Andy Richter’s put upon Mort. Mort’s a smaller character (literally and figuratively) that gets some good laughs that involve a certain type of ocean killer in a recurring joke that’s really too good to spoil. But the liveliness of these small scenes doesn’t translate to much of the rest of the film, which is kind of all over the place without a single really unifying plot element.

It’s a kids’ movie for sure, and as much as filmmakers have tried, and frequently succeeded this year in animated and non-animated family films, Madagascar 2 doesn’t seem too concerned in pushing its potential. I guess considering its success so far at the box office it really doesn’t have to, and that’s a shame for the poor parents that have to sit through a really stagnant effort save from some signs of occasional life. But it’s talking animals though, so maybe I should just take it easy.