Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted is the full title bestowed upon the third in the Madagascar franchise, which to it’s credit has made gargantuan amounts of money to date. The movie picks up where the sequel left off.
Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman are still trying to get back to the Big Apple and their beloved Central Park zoo, but are stuck in Africa. After an excursion to Monte Carlo, where the loveable chimps clean out the casinos, they end up buying an aging circus, which promises to get them back to the big apple. Cue some circus antics with our likeable lead animals along with some bear, lemur and lion romance and a bunch of cheap but rock solid laughs. Not to mention some subtle, but brilliant little touches.
This is one bright and colourful animated movie. The characters are animated in true cartoon style and are nothing like the hyper-real tones of say something like Shrek. But it works, and will particularly work for the younger audiences. The sets are lavish and well detailed as our bunch of heroes go from scene to scene, with some spectacular set pieces involving everything from high flying seals to a bear riding a Ducati. And it’s the characters themselves are full of personality and likeability. Granted, their real life vocal counterparts at times sound like they’re quite bored and certainly don’t break much of a sweat. Chris Rock though, is the exception and his afro circus song will be ringing around your head for days.
The jokes as mentioned are cheap, but will certainly deliver plenty of laugh out loud moments for your young ‘uns and on occasion yourself as well. The soundtrack features a bunch of high profile pop stars including the likes of Katy Perry who all provide their big hits for the movie.
Overall Madagascar 3 isn’t without its faults. But for younger audiences, these won’t register. Sadly though the adults may find themselves getting a little bored, but your cubs will absolutely love this. And that’s all that matters.
Granted the kids will give it four
