After their stint in Madagascar and Africa in the prequels, the gang of animal escapees from the New York City zoo continues its world tour with a lively, cool and funky adventure through the picturesque European cities in the correctly-titled Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.
The movie starts off with Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe, and Gloria the hippo stranded in Africa by their crafty penguin chums, who’ve taken off with their airplane for some high-stakes gambling with a bunch of monkeys in Monte Carlo. They promise to come back and take the rest of the gang home. As the foursome are running out of patience they decide to go to Europe by themselves along with king Julien and his posse. They somehow reach Europe. But they get embroiled into some situations, and pretty soon the gang is chased by a psychotic animal-control chief, Chantel DuBois, who seems to be firm on capturing her first lion so that it would add to her glories. It is a mad chase but a funny one!
They escape her and meet a circus heading to Rome, and offer to join the troupe with a package of fresh tricks to enliven the circus acts. The 3D effect adds to the laughter and vivid colors. It gets fast paced and seems to leave you slightly confused and feel lost due to some loopholes.
There are a few cute moments too. Like lemur king Julien’s romance with a big she-bear on a bicycle, and the sheer bonhomie that develops between our four leads and the new friends they make in the circus. Julien’s sidekick Maurice has a funny moment too and Marty doing his Afro circus song was ticklish to the mind. But more than often, the movie simply resorts to the slapstick and foolish humor. The penguins aren’t funny anymore. Their acts and tactics seem jaded after some time.
Madagascar 3 is light, enough fresh and not-that-funny film. It should have been edited after a careful consideration. The film is good in bits and pieces; however, it doesn’t make an impact as a whole film. You feel that the enough sequels have been made as this one leaves you nostalgic about the prequels and uninterested in the next ones.
