The pampered, fur-covered creatures of 2005’s “Madagascar” are back, as “Escape 2 Africa” continues the thrilling and wacky animal tale, adding a bit of syrupy drama to the joyful plot established by its forerunner.

Notwithstanding the rather dappled storyline, as well as the multitude of narratives which strive to fit in the not very lengthy film, the movie’s inspired and entertaining episodes manage to compensate for the useless complications and soothe plot discrepancies.

As “Escape 2 Africa” picks up where its prequel left off, we find the much-adored zoo crew returning to New York. However, as they have no other choice but to embark on a plane piloted by the evil masterminds, a.k.a. the penguins, they get on, although the jet is barely functioning. And here comes trouble. The plane crashes and the side-splitting creatures find themselves lost in Africa and menaced by its spine-chilling perils.

Alex the Lion, voiced by Ben Stiller, Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the Giraffe (David Scwimmer), Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) and King Julien XIII the Ring-tailed Lemur (Sacha Baron Cohen) offer the movie a bristly kind of energy, as they save the moments every time they risk to become either puzzling or bewildering.

“Escape 2 Africa” is amply entertaining to atone for most of the plot’s paucities, as well as for the lack of density several quirky characters emit. However, once the animals get to identify with the African traditions, the flick seems to drown in evenness, as the profusion of talks unfortunately overtakes the poor action scenes.