Review 63: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted is by far the best film in the Madagascar film series and if it is the end of the series a good note to end on,

Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe, and Gloria the Hippopotamus set out to return to New York after escaping to Africa. Dependent on the mechanical know-how of the notorious chimpanzees and penguins, their plan inevitably goes awry and they find themselves stranded in Monte Carlo, where they try to escape Europe from animal control led by Captain Chantel DuBois (Frances McDormand) by joining up with a traveling circus by chance. Led by the venerable Siberian tiger Vitaly (Bryan Cranston), the animal-centered circus has seen better days. During the course of a tour through a series of European cities that ends in a fabulous big top in the heart of London, Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria help Vitaly the tiger, Gia the jaguar (Jessica Chastain), and Stefano the sea lion (Martin Short), rediscover their passion for show business and reinvent circus performance.

The plot is beautiful, it's got to be one of the most well written Dreamworks movies since the first two Shrek movies, it's a story about getting back on your feet after a great accident and starting again: The circus Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman come across was once a success and then after a failed show they went downhill and they encourage them to get back in the game and the film shows that Alex and his friends have been through so much since the first film and the story arc throughout the series has been a story about self-discovery and finding were they belong and when they finally get back to the Zoo they realise that going back to there might not be the best thing but from then on I'm not going to reveal anything,

Directors Eric Darnell's, Tom McGrath's and Conrad Vernon's animation direction is precise, the production design is masterful the recreated so many locations e.g. Rome and the Colosseum, London and Monte Carlo, the character design is great, there was a Russian tiger, a Jag and an Italian sea lion, the animation is gorgeous and also the best of the series, the soundtrack is teriffic, it's well paced there are some great scenes of intensity and hilarity and the ending was superb.

The whole voice cast was wonderful, Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith and David Schwimmer give the best performances of the series, Sacha Baron Cohen is as hilarious as he always has been, Cedric the Entertainer and Andy Richter are at their best as Maurice and Mort respectively, Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, John DiMaggio and Christopher Knights are great comic relief as Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private respectively, Bryan Cranston is intimidating as Vitaly, Jessica Chastain is feisty as Gia, Martin Short is great fun as Stefano and Frances McDormand was a fantastic villain.

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted is a beautifully written finale for the Madagascar series and I look forward to the Penguins spin-off movie coming out in 2015, 4/5. 

The Anonymous Critic