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In the 1980s, Eddie Murphy became the first black superstar in world cinema.
The secret of his success was that he had a rather incorrect sense of humor, which blacks and whites alike could laugh at.
Not least because there were also white positive characters in each of his successful films.
For example, the business partner played by Dan Aykroyd in the business comedy "The Knights of Fortune".
Or Judge Reinhold as the correct cop in "Beverly Hills Cop".
Even in a naturally black-dominated film like “The Prince of Zamunda”, which in 1988 alternated between an African fantasy kingdom and the run-down New York borough of Queens, there was a white identification: the old Jew who hangs out with his black old friends in the hairdressing salon - and was played in an act of
Whitefacing
by Eddie Murphy himself.
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The extremely incorrect senior quartet is also back more than three decades later in “The Prince of Zamunda 2” (to be seen on Amazon Prime) and today, as then, one of the nasty and humorous highlights of the film.
They still call the ex-prince (now king) Akeem "Kunta Kinte".
That was the name of the slave from the legendary television series "Roots", which shaped the image of Africa for many black Americans.
The barber shop of the old cynics: Scene from "The Prince of Zamunda 2"
Source: Amazon Studios / Quantrell D. Colbert
The story of the new film: King Akeem has three wonderful, very clever daughters with his queen who was brought with him from America, but he needs a male heir to the throne to stabilize his kingdom through a traditional succession.
Zamunda's security is endangered by the dictator of the neighboring state Nextdoria, the nasty General Izzi (Wesley Snipes).
So Akeem travels to Queens again because he has an illegitimate son there from a volatile, forgotten affair in a hashish frenzy.
He brings the Crown Prince to Zamunda, but everything is developing differently there than planned - namely, as expected in 2021.
There are also a few new clichés
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As early as 1988, Zamunda was an absurd mixture of positive and negative African fantasies from Americans.
The splendor of colors and beauty, life in harmony with nature and a “good” tradition, as well as a touch of indigenous wisdom, which takes a distant look at the craziness of an industrial country, were positive.
The negative was the idea that in such a country, of course, arch feudalism would have to prevail and that the subjects - and especially the subjects - had to be completely available to the godlike ruler.
In addition, there are a few fresher clichés in the new film: General Izzi's country looks like a
failed state
that is being ruined by half-mad, half-naked bodybuilder militias.
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As a romantic comedy, "The Prince of Zamunda 2" works quite well.
It is not only romantic that the heir to the throne, just like his father, has to find a new path between tradition, inclination and duty.
King Akeem also gets his lesson in contemporary feminism and thus finds his way to the heart of his wife and daughters again.
In addition to the four barber shop cynics, Leslie Jones as the mother of the heir to the throne ensures that all of this does not turn out to be unbearably correct: a great New York precariat plant, which with its sensuality, its giant hatch and its rowdy lack of distance does not only comply with the conventions of the Zamundian court, but also this film stirs up.
Romantic Comedy: Eddie Murphy, Jermaine Fowler, KiKi Layne, Bella Murphy and Akiley Love in "Prince of Zamunda 2"
Source: Amazon Studios / Quantrell D. Colbert
Finally, a footnote for zoological Korinthenkacker, which also has something to do with Western Africa stereotypes: In the first film, the Zamundian elephants were actually Indian, which one does not even - as in old Tarzan films - to preserve appearances taped the big ears of her African relatives.
The continuation is now correct on this question, it works with biologically exact digital replicas.