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BY MAGGIE SCOTT

“Madagascar Escape 2 Africa,” like all animated features geared to children, has a lesson; and it’s one we’ve been clobbered with over and over in countless animated children’s features in recent years: no matter where you are, there you are, and you’d better stay true to who you are.

From the opening scenes of this sequel, and the words of a father to his son, “You’re a strange one,” you get that sinking feeling that you’re about to sit through one more story about characters saving the day, finding true love, and rescuing a friendship because they decided, “I gotta be me!”

A bit more belabored than its predecessor, “Madagascar Escape 2 Africa” takes its zany menagerie off the Indian Ocean island and crash-lands it precisely in the very game reserve home of that lion father who couldn’t figure out why his cub would rather dance with the butterflies than learn how to fight.

Lion Alex (voice of Ben Stiller) and his Central Park Zoo escapee friends, hippo Gloria (voice of Jada Pinkett Smith), zebra Marty (voice of Chris Rock) and giraffe Melman (voice of David Schwimmer), have had enough of the riotous lemur world of King Julien (voice of Sacha Baron Cohen).

With the anarchist penguins who helped strand them on the island at the controls of a rickety old prop plane, the friends believe they are on their way back to the Big Apple. Instead, with engines smoking and fuel gauge on empty, their plane comes to earth overlooking what Marty jubilantly announces is their “ancestral crib!”

The reunion of these quasi-domesticated animals have their own kind quickly raise unresolved issues. Zuba (voice of Bernie Mac), Alex’s father, isn’t convinced his son is a “real” lion; Gloria wants to hook up with a hefty, hunky hippo called Moto Moto (voice of will.i.am), unaware of Melman’s secret love for her; and Marty discovers that being unique and special to his friend Alex means more to him than the sense of belonging he gets from running with the herd.

While the penguins are hiring the opposable thumb talents of a large pack of chimps (who prove to be hard bargainers when it comes to benefits) to help put the plane back in running order, challenges and perils are testing Alex. To “earn his mane,” he must prevail in a mismatched fight or face exile.

His father could lose his position as alpha lion to his rival Makunga (voice of Alec Baldwin) if the coming-of-age ceremony does not go Alex’s way. And, a dire remedy is proposed to bring rain to replenish the life-sustaining watering hole: sacrifice Melman in the reserve’s volcano. Convincing Marty that he can truly see his old friend as the unique creature he is, Alex resolutely leaves the reserve on a mission to bring the water back.

With Marty by his side, the penguins airborne and Zuba bringing up the rear, Alex is able to face the natural forces holding the water back and the unnatural resistance of a stranded band of photo safari tourists from New York led by a crazed little old lady.

Will Alex make it back in time to save Melman? Or, will that little declaration of love Melman managed as he was being carried off to the volcano bring Gloria to the rescue?

Overall, this story has a dislocated busyness to it, lacking a sufficient amount of truly clever visual gags and verbal quips. Alex and friends may be “home,” but they are still out of their true element; but the writer Etan Cohen can offer no fresh and funny perspective other than a monotonous “Lion King” angle.

Although there are no noticeable advances in their formidable computer style, DreamWorks Animation has delivered a polished, highly engaging visual rendering of the film’s characters and action. Rated PG for mild, crude humor.

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