Psycho's Movie Reviews #442: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012)

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted is a 2012 American computer-animated action adventure comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is the third and final instalment of the Madagascar film series, following Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008), and was the first film in the series to be released in 3D. It was directed by Eric Darnell, Conrad Vernon, and Tom McGrath from a screenplay by Darnell and Noah Baumbach, and features Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, Andy Richter, and McGrath reprising their voice acting roles from the previous instalments, alongside new cast members Jessica Chastain, Bryan Cranston, Martin Short, and Frances McDormand. In the film, the main characters—a party of animals from the Central Park Zoo whose adventures have already taken them to Madagascar and Africa—attempt to return to New York, and find themselves traveling across Europe with a circus while being pursued by a relentless Animal Control officer.

After premiering at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted was released to theaters in the United States on June 8, 2012. It was the eighth highest-grossing film of 2012 and the highest-grossing film in the franchise, with a worldwide gross of over $746 million. A spin-off titled Penguins of Madagascar was released in 2014. A sequel, Madagascar 4, was initially planned for a 2018 theatrical release, but was removed from the release schedule following a restructuring of DreamWorks Animation in 2015.

Plot

Following the events of the previous film, the penguins—Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private—and the chimpanzees Mason and Phil leave Africa for Monte Carlo in their modified airplane. When they do not return, Alex the lion convinces his friends Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe, and Gloria the hippopotamus that they should go find them and return to their home at the Central Park Zoo in New York City. With their lemur friends from Madagascar—King Julien, Maurice, and Mort—they find the penguins and chimpanzees at the Monte Carlo Casino. Chaos ensues, and the animals barely escape from Chantel DuBois, a merciless Animal Control officer who is determined to add Alex's head to her taxidermy collection.

When their plane crashes, the animals board a departing circus train. The circus animals—Stefano the sea lion, Gia the jaguar, and Vitaly the tiger—are suspicious of outsiders, so Alex lies about them being American circus animals. The circus is headed for a performance in Rome, followed by one in London where they hope to impress an American promoter in order to get their first American tour. To allay suspicion, the penguins purchase the circus from its human ringmaster. In Rome, Alex becomes enamoured with Gia while King Julien falls in love with performing bear Sonya. DuBois pursues King Julien and Sonya, but fails to catch them and is arrested.

The performance at the Colosseum in Rome is a disaster: the animals' acts go awry and they are chased off by the angry audience. Stefano explains to Alex that the circus was once famous and Vitaly was its star, skilfully jumping through ever-smaller hoops. However, one day he tried to jump through a flaming ring-sized hoop and the olive oil he used as lubricant caught fire. The accident caused Vitaly to lose his passion and the entire circus suffered as a result. Alex convinces the circus animals to come up with a new and exciting all-animal act that will restore their former glory. Marty and Stefano find a new passion in being shot out of a cannon, while Melman and Gloria become adept at dancing together on a tightrope. Gia persuades Alex to teach her "Trapeze Americano" and the two begin to fall in love. Meanwhile, DuBois escapes from prison and resumes her pursuit.

In London, Vitaly is afraid of failing again and is about to run away, but Alex helps him rediscover his passion for performing the impossible. At Alex's suggestion, Vitaly lubricates himself with hair conditioner and succeeds in jumping through the hoop from all those years ago. The show is a spectacular success, and the promoter signs the circus to a contract. DuBois shows up and, though the penguins foil her, the document she was carrying reveals that Alex and his friends were all along zoo animals. Feeling betrayed and used, the circus animals eject the foursome.

After King Julien and Sonya get into a argument, the zoo and circus animals go their separate ways but arrive in Central Park at the same time. Looking in at their old home, the zoo animals realize how much their adventures have changed them and decide that their true place is with the circus. They are then ambushed by DuBois, but before she can behead Alex, the zoo staff arrive and incorrectly believe that she is returning the missing animals. King Julien makes it back to the circus with the news and Gia and Vitaly convince the others that they should rescue their friends. The zoo animals awaken in their old enclosures, now surrounded by high fences. DuBois is being honoured by the zoo staff, but secretly loads a poison-filled dart and takes aim at Alex. They are soon rescued by the circus animals and together they defeat DuBois. Alex and his friends permanently join the circus, while the penguins ship DuBois and her men in crates to Madagascar, reminiscent of the first movie.

Production

DreamWorks Animation's CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg confirmed in 2008 that there would be an additional sequel to Madagascar and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Katzenberg stated, "There is at least one more chapter. We ultimately want to see the characters make it back to New York." At the Television Critics Association press tour in January 2009, Katzenberg was asked if there would be a third film in the series. He replied, "Yes, we are making a Madagascar 3 now, and it will be out in the summer of 2012." On August 9, 2010, Katzenberg revealed in an e-mail that writer-director Noah Baumbach had done sixty pages of re-writes to the screenplay.

A significant amount of the animation and visual effects for the film had been done at DreamWorks Dedicated Unit, an India-based unit at Technicolor.

Release/Reception/Box Office

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted opened the Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2012. The American release followed on June 8, 2012. The film was also converted to the IMAX format and shown in specific European territories, including Russia, Ukraine, and Poland.

Based on 134 reviews, the film holds an approval rating of 78% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Dazzlingly colourful and frenetic, Madagascar 3 is silly enough for young kids, but boasts enough surprising smarts to engage parents along the way." This marks the best general review consensus of the film series that has showed improving critical favour; the original film has a score of 55%, and the sequel scores 64%. On Metacritic, it holds a score of 60 out of 100 based on 26 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews."

Lisa Kennedy of The Denver Post gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars and said, "From time to time the improbable occurs: A sequel outdoes its original." Colin Covert of Star Tribune said that Madagascar 3 set a high standard for cartoon comedy and was almost too good for kids. He gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars. Giving the film 3.5 out of 5 stars, Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times said, "A neon-saturated, high-flying trapeze act with enough frenetic funny business that it's a wonder the folks behind this zillion-dollar franchise about zoo critters on the lam didn't send the animals to the circus sooner." Stephen Witty of the Newark Star-Ledger calls the movie "fun and fast family entertainment. the animals' jazzy circus performance, done in black-light colours and set to a Katy Perry song—may be one of the trippiest scenes in a mainstream kiddie movie since Dumbo saw those pink elephants." Film scholar Timothy Laurie writes that the plot development of Madagascar 3 is "met with large servings of personal growth and side dishes of overcooked romance".

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted earned $216,391,482 in North America and $530,529,792 in other countries for a worldwide total of $746,921,274. Its worldwide opening weekend totalled $137.6 million. Worldwide, it is the highest-grossing film in the series, the fourth-highest-grossing DreamWorks Animation film, the second-highest-grossing animated film of 2012, and the eighth-highest-grossing film of that year. Overall, it is the eleventh-highest-grossing animated film and the 52nd-highest-grossing film of all time. The film took between 66 and 94 days of release, respectively, to out-gross its two predecessors. It surpassed Kung Fu Panda 2 to become DreamWorks' highest-grossing non-Shrek film, and the first non-Shrek film to reach over $700 million.

In North America, the film made $20.7 million on its opening day, which was higher than the opening-day grosses of the original film ($13.9 million) and its sequel ($17.6 million). For its opening weekend, the film ranked at the no. 1 spot, beating Prometheus, with $60.3 million, which was higher than the opening of the original Madagascar ($47.2 million) but was behind the opening weekend of Escape 2 Africa ($63.1 million). It remained at the top spot for two consecutive weekends. In North America, it is the highest-grossing film in the series,[20] the sixth-highest-grossing DreamWorks Animation film, the second-highest-grossing 2012 animated film, and the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2012.

Outside North America, Europe's Most Wanted out-grossed Shrek Forever After to become DreamWorks Animation's highest-grossing film. On its opening weekend, it topped the box office with $77.3 million from 28 countries. It held that position for three consecutive weekends. Its three highest-grossing openings occurred in Russia and the CIS ($15.7 million), China ($10.4 million), and Brazil ($10.1 million in 5 days). It set an opening-day record for animated films in Russia with $3.7 million (since surpassed by Ice Age: Continental Drift) and became the highest-grossing animated film (surpassed by Ice Age: Continental Drift) and the third-highest-grossing film ever (at the time), earning $49.4 million. It also set an opening-weekend record for any film in Argentina with $3.80 million (first surpassed by Ice Age: Continental Drift) and it set opening-weekend records for animated films in Brazil, Venezuela, Trinidad, and the United Arab Emirates. Also, Madagascar 3 made $39 million in Germany, $34 million in United Kingdom and $28 million in Italy.

Budget $145 million

Box office $746.9 million

My Review

There are eager animated film franchises that rehashed the same old themes and gags in all its instalments, and deservedly crashed under its own repetitiveness. Think Shrek, which started brightly, but with each sequel the grumpy ogre and his friends started to become cheap parodies of themselves. There are other film franchises that grow from strength to strength though, such as Ice Age where we get to go on an incredibly long journey with its characters trying to survive the inevitable change and extinction, and then there's Madagascar, with Europe's Most Wanted surprisingly having a lot more to offer than what it had suggested.

We go back to where we last left off, re-joining Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer) and Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) who are still in Africa, but getting homesick and yearn for their lives back in New York. So they hatch a plan to regroup with the Penguins, who had left with the Monkeys in their flying machine to Monte Carlo and its glitzy casinos, and compel them to take everyone back to New York. Granted it's a slow start, but when it picked up with Frances McDormand voicing the French policewoman Captain Chantel DuBois, more of an animal hunter in disguise and hell bent on adding a lion to her trophy wall, it really went over the top with a multitude of action sequences that get set to show off dedicated and meticulously crafted moments for 3D. It's clearly one of the better 3D efforts in an animated feature film that took pains to ensure the medium got milked for the premium ticket you paid for.

Then the narrative goes up a notch with the introduction of some circus animals with whom our protagonists get to mix with in order to momentarily escape the fanatical clutches of DuBois, and in comes the opportunity to expand on its cast, with the likes of Jessica Chastain, Bryan Cranston and Martin Short entering the fray as a cheetah, tiger and sea lion respectively, each with its own distinct quirk, objective and baggage. It's a zoo animal meets circus animal rivalry formed, and Alex and gang wanting to stick around, with thanks to the Penguins, because the circus is en route to Rome and London, where an American circus event promoter would be in town to evaluate if the troupe can make money if brought across the Atlantic, and naturally, New York.

I'm rather surprised by the depth of the narrative here, as Eric Damell and Noah Baumbach's screenplay managed to squeeze a lot in under 90 minutes sans end credits roll. Characters don't get thrown in for fun, but have enough screen time to perform without getting the feeling of being redundant to the whole scheme of things, and how they all blend well together for the major set action pieces, complete with comedy ranging from witty repartee to physical slapstick gags. The major new entrants to this instalment will also become crowd favourites, such as the girly cheetah Gia, the curt Russian tiger Vitaly who has to reclaim his theatrical mojo, and Stefano the sea lion trying his very best to hold the entire troupe together, while not being very bright himself.

Every scene got designed to have the characters endear themselves to the audience, even if they come silent, such as the bicycle riding bear, and a couple of English dogs voiced by the likes of Vinnie Jones, Steve Jones and Nick Fletcher. Paz Vega also lent her voice to a collective group of show-horses, while perennial favourites such as Sacha Baron Cohen's Julien and Cedric the Entertainer's Maurice almost always threaten to run away with the show, given their rather spaced out moments that run outside of the main narrative thread. There are colours galore with gags running wild, and I'd suspect where your sense of humour might have been misplaced if there's absolutely nothing here in the film that can tickle your funny bone.

With an assortment of pop songs ranging from 90s hits to those by Katy Perry, the signature theme song only got an airplay during the end credits, and is an amalgamation of the Afro Circus song written by Chris Rock, that somehow had a strange yet infectious blend that epitomizes everything that had transpired in this film, and set itself up for more. Themes of friendship and sticking together through thick and thin, of never giving up and the likes, are good themes to have for a film that's going to appeal to the young for sure.

I'd like to think there's a stop at three policy and to leave the franchise as it is now, going off at a high, rather than to continue with a formula that would ultimately show its age. Madagascar 3 worked and delivered everything you'd expect of a crowd pleaser that can appeal to all age groups, and I'm very much compelled to earmark this for a 3D blu-ray title for keeps. Definitely highly recommended in my books, given its rarity of it improving upon the strengths of its predecessors, and finding room to add more characters, not caricatures, to its mythos. 8.6/10

{The songs in this series are forgettable but fun}

{I ship Alex and Gia (I didn't even know until now that Jessica Chastain voices Gia, like what?!)}