Economics in Madagascar 2...

Synopsis :
Hopelessly stranded on the remote shores of Madagascar, the New Yorkers hatch a plan to get back to Central Park that instead finds them soaking up sun in the picturesque plains of Africa. Madagascar may be a nice place to visit, but for the gang of animals who spent most of their lives in New York, there is truly no place like home. After discovering the remnants of a crashed airplane, the penguins quickly set about making the repairs needed to get the craft airborne again. When the plane finally takes to the sky, it begins to look like it's only a matter of time before Alex the Lion (voice of Ben Stiller) and friends are soaring over New York Harbor. Unfortunately the penguins weren't the aviation experts they claimed to be, and before long the crew is coming in for a crash-landing in the untamed plains of Africa. Now, as the animals reared in the safety of the zoo come into contact with their decidedly wild counterparts for the very first time, they get a better feel for their roots while marveling over the differences between life in the concrete jungle and life on the world's second largest continent. Of course, while there's plenty to love about wandering the open plains, romantic rivalries and the risk of running into dangerous poachers soon begin to outweigh the joys of some long-overdue family reunions. With some particularly heavy cases of homesickness causing hearts to weigh heavy, the group gradually starts to wonder whether they'll ever find their way back home. (source : http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie-synopsis/madagascar-escape-2-africa/).

I just finished watching the movie 5 minutes ago. I believed many of you have watched it before (it is not that new animation). Anyway, here I want to point out how I see economics relevance in the movie. Here we are :

1. Division of Labor
In the movie, there is a scene where the penguins are fixing the plane and they are grumbling why the two monkeys are not coming back to help them. Seconds after that, the two monkeys just came and said 'we have recruited a few extra thumbs for you, shipper' showing hundreds of monkeys.
Afterward, the penguins split the monkeys to different tasks (group alpha : sheet metal fabrication, group bronson : assembly, and group george peppard : craft services). Here we see division of labor. The most famous concept created by the Father of Economics, Adam Smith. Indeed, division of labor makes people specialized in a particular task. And by specialization, higher efficiency is created. Higher efficiency implies that more product (maybe with better quality) might be produced with the same amount of time. This division of labor is the driving force of all kinds of development in the world (science, technology, economics, etc). Nonetheless, this division of labor has created interdependence among us. People these days are so specialized until they cannot live without others, unlike when we are in the pre-historic times.

2. Labor Union
There is another scene where the two monkeys are negotiating with the penguins. In the scene, the monkeys are asking for a maternity leave. But at first, the penguins do not want to grant the request. Then, the two monkeys threatens to distribute the pictures of penguins's stupid affair to the whole savanna. Afraid of the threat, the request of the maternal leave is granted. If the request is not granted, the monkeys will not help flying the plane.
Here is the dialogue :
[Start]
Penguins : You are male. Maternity Leave?
Monkeys : Maybe a certain someone wouldn't want these things blowing around the savanna (while showing the pictures)
Penguins : All right. You get the maternity leave.
[End]
This scene shows the power of labor union. It is a fact that in our economy, labor union has certain powers to negotiate with other economic units (especially government, firms). When the labor union is strong, there will be huge pressure in government and in firms. That is why government always tries to limit the power of labor union. Labor union usually acts as a shelter for labors (as the name goes). Excessive power has never been good. A game theory is played between the penguins and the monkeys. It is also shown that the monkeys are capitalizing wealth in form of gold (capitalism by humans, monkeys refers to humans here).

3. Government rescue package in this financial turmoil
In the almost last scene, we see that the residents of the savanna was dying due to drought. Then, Zuba and Alakay came to the rescue by breaking the water dam to bring water back to the savanna. And the savanna was alive again.
In this scene, Zuba and Alakay might be seen as US and China (and other strong emerging economies). The residents of the savanna are the world. US and China are the two countries that might have significant contribution to help the world recover from this current financial turmoil. US has to show leadership to other countries. China has huge potential in its domestic market. US, China, India, Russia, Brazil are the strong emerging countries that might help the world curing its problem.

These are the economics morale I see in the movie so far.

Economics is everywhere, even in the children animation. What a beautiful field of study.