Ben Stiller and Chris Rock lend their voices to best buddies Alex the lion and Marty the zebra in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa the sequel to 2005's box office blockbuster, Madagascar. The original movie found Central Park Zoo residents Alex, Marty, Gloria the hippo (voiced by Jada Pinkett-Smith), and Melman the giraffe (voiced by David Schwimmer) stranded in Madagascar. This time around the foursome, along with a batch of Central Park Zoo penguins, Madagascar's ruling lemur King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen), his right-hand man/lemur Maurice (Cedric the Entertainer), and the adorably cute Mort (Andy Richter) attempt to fly to New York but find themselves crash landing in Africa where some of the group gets the chance to reconnect with their roots.

Finding the Funny

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa marks a return to family-friendly fare for Stiller who scored box office success this past summer with his controversial adult comedy Tropic Thunder. "I think it's important to do whatever interests you, and I’ve always been interested in different kinds of things," said Stiller on how he picks and chooses films. "It just depends on what projects are in what stage when you make them. You know, what’s ready to go, so it just happened that for me this year like with Tropic Thunder, an R-rated movie, happened to [be released]. I’ve been working on that for a few years. And Madagascar we’ve known for the last three years that it was going to come out now. So, I mean, I think it's great to be able to go in and out of different kinds of things because it keeps it interesting."
Since Stiller's mostly associated with comedies and Rock comes from the world of stand-up, both say people expect them to be funny – no matter the circumstances. "Have you ever been at a funeral and somebody’s like, 'Why are you so quiet?' 'Because my mother’s dead!' Wherever you go, 'Why are you so quiet?!' But my mother’s alive, thank God'…," joked Rock.

Stiller responded, "Yeah, thank God. I’ve actually been asked for an autograph at a funeral, which I find inappropriate. Right? Right?! I gave it to them. I mean, you don’t want to lose a fan! But it was a family person and I figured that their family was actually closer to the deceased than I was, so I didn’t want to rain on their parade even more. I think there is some expectation, I guess, to be funny. But I guess it's sort of like how you take it in yourself. Like, whether you care about that or not. I feel like it you go on a talk show or a situation like this, people want to laugh and they want the funny guy to be funny. But in life I don’t feel any sort of pressure to have to do that, because it's just too much pressure, I think. When you’re living your life, you want to relax a little bit - enjoy the funeral - you know what I mean?!"

Revisiting Their Animated Animal Characters

Now that the voice cast is so familiar with their Madagascar characters, the actors were able to go off the script and throw out lines. "I think we're encouraged to ad-lib," explained Rock. "I don't know if everybody is. You direct, I've directed, some people you want to ad-lib and some people, 'Hey, stick to the script.' 'Kobe can shoot whenever he wants. You pass the ball.'"
In the film, Rock's character Marty hooks up with a herd of zebras all of whom look like him, talk like him, and have the same quirky personality traits. Rock had to provide the voice of any animated zebra who talked since they all sound exactly alike. "I didn't really differentiate the zebra voices," explained Rock. "I did consult, and they mixed them different. So there were like different mics and stuff. Some had reverb, some didn't have reverb, to give them a little… Like, I used to love this rapper Slick Rick. The guy used to rap to himself in the records. 'Here's a little story…' Anyway, he used to rap to himself and they would basically have two different mics. He'd kind of answer his own questions, so I told them to do it like that."

In between the first Madagascar movie and Escape 2 Africa, Rock recorded the voice of a mosquito in Jerry Seinfeld's Bee Movie. That experience was a lot different from this one, and from how most actors work on animated films. "Bee Movie, me and Jerry did it together. I was coming to have lunch and ended up in the movie," said Rock.

Connecting with Kids

Rock credits his kids with helping him stay connected to his childhood, and Stiller feels the same way. "My kids keep me connected to what kids like, because you see what they respond to. They like silliness and fun. It keeps it sort of loose when you realize they like kind of crazy stuff."
"Like dancing. I don't have a boy," said Rock.

"Yeah, boys like…like my son really likes anything his sister likes," said Stiller.

"It's weird. I showed my kids Bugs Bunny and it's all hitting. Girls did not like Bugs Bunny. There's nothing for a girl," explained Rock.

"My son is obsessed with Thomas trains. Oh my God, he's like every train, he knows them each: James and Gordon. He knows every single one of them by name. Yup, the Useful Engine and Sir Top'em Hat. It's like a crazy cult," joked Stiller.

"The thing about it, a kid would actually prefer Carrot Top in this movie than us. 'Obviously the redheaded guy is the better choice,'" added Rock.

And speaking of kids, Stiller's children even got into the act in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, a fact Rock hope never reaches the ears of his wife or kids who'd be green with envy. "In the beginning sequence which shows the young Alex, both of my kids came in and did a little bit of voice work," said Stiller. "They did about 45 seconds worth of air time there! But in terms of the actual recording session…well, I couldn’t get them to work. They really weren’t that into the confines of being in a recording studio."

But don't look to Stiller to push his kids into following in his footsteps. "I’d never force them to do anything they didn’t want to do, in terms of that. I don’t understand how kids can do it at a young age - get out there. You have to really want it, I think."

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