7/31/2019 Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted movie review

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Madagascar 3: Europes Most Wanted(2012)

I dont recall if Ive seen the second Madagascarfilm I may have, but could find

no review but I recall the first, a mildly amusing film with boring centralcharacters and terrific supporting wackos. For those largely uninterested in this flick,you can stop reading now, as essentially, that description fits this movie.

Once again the main stars are back Ben Stiller as Alex the lion, Chris Rock asMarty the Zebra, David Schwimmer as Melman the giraffe, and Jada Pinkett-Smithas Gloria the Hippo. They begin the film in Africa (where Im guessing the last onedeposited them) homesick for the zoo in NYC, which, I dimly remember, is wherethey started this whole affair. The penguins take off early in the movie (too early),and proceed to fly to Monte Carlo, where the monkeys dress up like a Frencharistocrat (dubbing themselves The King of Versailles) and the penguins rake inthe cash. But the main cast are all depressed and decide that the penguins can helpget them back in captivity (?) and so they and King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen),the other best part of the film, head to Monte Carlo to get the penguins to helpthem. Oh, and theres a super-obnoxious French animal control officer (FrancesMcDormand) who chases them all over Europe, justifying, I suppose, the title.Finally theres a circus they run into, full of animals all of whom have worseproblems than the leads, and so the leads must help them.

I spend most of my time in the Madagascar films waiting for the penguins andJulien to do something funny (the lemur-kings romance with a Russian bear is byfar the best part of the movie), and the main issue with this film is that there aretoo many other characters to give the funny ones enough screen time. When they

are there, the penguins and Julien are hilarious but aside from the four leads, youalso have a half-dozen circus characters, all of whom have their own emotional

issues, so you dont really have much (and certainly not enough) time to give thefunny guys much to do. Pity, because the movie really picks up when they takecenter stage. Most of the rest of this believe in yourself, be true to your friends,get over your troubles from the past we have seen before, done at least this welland probably better. Chris Rock gets a few funny bits dealing with a rainbow afrowig (which somehow turns into the showstopping musical finale, which is fun), butmostly, Madagascar 3is more of the same. If youve enjoyed the other two, youlllike this one; if not, then likely you wont. Ive heard theres a spin-off with just thepenguins and Julien, and that sounds like it would be a lot more amusing.

October 23, 2012