Madagascar 3 – Europe’s Most Wanted
English (U/A)
Cast: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen
Director: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath, Conrad Vernon
This time Alex the Lion, Melman the Giraffe, Marty the Zebra, Julian the Lemur and Gloria the Hippo meet Gia the Jaguar, Vitaly the tiger and Stefano the sea lion (plus rest of their bum-chums of Circus Zaragoza) while trying to make their way back to Big Apple from Africa where they were stranded by wily penguins and chimps.
The ‘Zoo-bies’ worm their way onto the train ferrying the circus animals on their tour of America via Rome and London.
With Alex, a zoo lion promising to teach Gia — Trapeze Americaano (with specific emphasis on the last syllable — Italian style), helping Vitaly get over ‘performance anxiety’; Gloria teaching Melman how to dance on a tightrope and Marty playing the buffoon (and less of a zebra) with a pack of dogs dressed as ‘drags’ — what a thrilling ride/return to Central Park Zoo, NY, it turns out to be.
Adding to the general chaos is the chase by French animal control led by Captain Chantel DoBois (Sacha Baron Cohen with a fantastic French accent) whose sole ambition in life is to get Alex’s head as a trophy for her wall under the overt motive of keeping wild beasts off the streets of Monte Carlo.
With action sequences rivalling any live action film, Madagascar 3 turns out to be Dreamworks’ most ambitious and well-crafted creation. In its 3D avatar, the fun in Madagascar 3 is tripled with trains swerving at high speeds, flying bullets and darts which you keep dodging as they come flying and fireworks which you want to reach out and touch.
The thing with good animation films is that you tend to never outgrow them and so shall be the case with Madagascar 3 too. This one is meant for kids of all ages.