Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in Las Vegas, NV

It's rare that we make it to the movies. It's even rarer that we make it to a movie on the night that it opens. This has to be the first time I've seen a kids movie on opening day. Give me my wings -- I have officially made it into full fledged mommyhood.

The wings would certainly come in handy with Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa. As the movie opens, we get the backstory on the consummate performing feline -- Alex the lion. Soon it jumps to the fabulous four (Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria) as they pack up and attempt to leave Madagascar for the Big Apple. (Note for future reference -- don't put penguins in charge of your travel arrangements.) The crew crashes very short of their destination -- this time in the wilds of the African savannah. In the motherland of their species, and, as it turns out, the homeland of our not-so-ferocious hero, Alex, the friends explore their roots and embrace their natural surrounds as they reconcile their realize they can still embrace their uniqueness within the herd.

The film is filled with some great teaching moments for a preschooler including empathy, friendship, loyalty, and resourcefulness. More importantly, it was fun to watch with elements that appealed to all ages.

I doubt that any of the kids and most of the parents in the theater fully appreciated the West Side Story dance sequence/reference, but it was an example of some of the very Bugs Bunny-esue moments that keep parents coming to these shows. My personal favorite moment was the "I appreciate you for who you are" scene between Alex and his newly discovered father. It reminded me of all of the stereotypical coming out of the closet scenes from every other Lifetime movie. You could have taken the dialogue and put it into the mouths of humans and the rainbow flag in the back just jumps out at you. I'm not saying that Alex is gay (not that there's anything wrong with that), it was just funny and even funnier given the bro-mance between Alex and Marty that comes to a head with the herd scene.

My nearly five-year-old loved the movie. She's a notorious scaredy cat, but she made it through the whole thing without jumping on my lap or running out of the theater. Ironically, her favorite scenes were those with the little furball tagalong being chased by a rather ferocious great white shark. She cackled madly as the shark misfired and landed in the volcano's pool of lava.

So, here's the rating on Marge's movie scale (Five stars being the highest):

Kid Friendly: 4.5 stars - There were some tense moments, but they were resolved quickly. The plot was easy to follow, even if you haven't seen the first movie a gagillion times.

Parent Friendly: 4 stars -- There were some really funny scenes in this movie. The little old lady was a total crack-up.