Mini reviews of new movies from a family perspective

'MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA'

• Rating: PG for mild crude humor.

• What it's about: Those Central Park Zoo escapees make their way from Madagascar to Africa, where they bond with their kin and face new problems of identity and environment.

• The kid attractor factor: Kids loved the original animated comedy, and this is more of the same.

• Good lessons/bad lessons: We each have more than one "destiny."

• Violence: Slapstick.

• Language: Disney clean, though things get a little Shrekish in the innuendo department.

• Sex: Hippo romance, flirtatious but nothing more.

• Drugs: None.

• Parents' advisory: Cleaner and more kid-centric than "Shrek."

'THE HAUNTING OF MOLLY HARTLEY'

• Rating: PG-13 for strong thematic material, violence and terror, brief strong language and some teen drinking.

• What it's about: A teenager tries to put her traumatic past behind her in her new school, but voices in her head won't let her.

• The kid attractor factor: Teen horror, light on the gore and violence.

• Good lessons/bad lessons: Sometimes adults don't have your best interests at heart.

• Violence: Stabbings, a wrist-snapping.

• Language: An f-bomb here, a b-blast there.

• Sex: Flirtation only.

• Drugs: Alcohol involving teens.

• Parents' advisory: Mild-mannered for a horror film, profane for one with religious overtones.