I can’t say I’m all that excited about Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (formerly The Crate Escape). In fact, I’m pretty quick to forget it even exists on the horizon except when some news piece pops it back into view. Honestly, that’s not good to say about a movie that is coming out later this year, especially a sequel that sort of requires your investment from the previous film.
The full cast list for Madagascar made its way online this week, reported on by Coming Soon. Honestly, this makes the movie even less impressive to me, since the biggest names involved are the ones we’ve already heard. Most of the original cast is returning, including scene stealer Sacha Baron Cohen as the lemur king.
Since the story is taking the Madagascar crew from the island to the wilds of Africa, you’d expect some new cast members to join the fun, and there are some new names, although they aren’t as impressive as I’d expect, with the biggest of the new names being Bernie Mac. I liked the comedian’s more serious turn in last year’s Pride, but isn’t the Mac’s popularity a few years gone by now? At least we’ve gotten Alec Baldwin in there, who is more “2008.”
And where the hell is William Shatner? Why isn’t he returning? Oh, right, he wasn’t in Madagascar - he was in that other movie with the exact same plot. Here was their chance to amend that grievous error, but no such luck.
Here’s a look at the full vocal cast for Madagascar. Since it’s pretty lame, we’re also throwing in the first poster for the movie. Oddly, much like the cast list being highlighted by Sacha Baron Cohen, the advertising is being dominated by the actor’s runaway catchphrase from the first movie: “You’ve go to move it, move it.” Yup, I’m moving it, moving it – right out of my memory until the next news story about the sequel comes along.
Voice Cast
Existing cast:
Ben Stiller – Alex the lion
Chris Rock – Marty the zebra
David Schwimmer – Melman the giraffe
Jada Pinkett Smith – Gloria the hippo
Sacha Baron Cohen – King Julien the lemur king
Cedric the Entertainer – Maurice the lemur advisor
Andy Richter – Mort the chimp
And the new guys:
Bernie Mac – Zuba, Alex’s dad
Sherri Shepherd – Alex’s mom
Alec Baldwin – Makunga, challenger to Zuba
Will.i.am – Moto Moto, a watering hole lothario
And here’s that poster; click over to Cinematical for a larger version.
