After ending up in Africa at the end of their last adventure, our four accidental escapees from the New York Zoo – lion Alex (Ben Stiller), zebra Marty (Chris Rock), giraffe Melman (David Schwimmer) and hippo Gloria (Jada Pinckett Smith) – are no longer feeling quite at home as they thought they would.
In fact, they’re tired of waiting for the penguins to collect them in their monkey-powered plane and take them back to their real home, the New York zoo.
So it’s off to Monte Carlo, where they find the penguins but attract the attention of Monaco’s chief animal catcher, Captain Chantel DuBois (Frances McDormand).
After a crazy chase they end up with a crashed plane and DuBois (who has the nose of a bloodhound) hot on their trail.
A nearby circus offers both a great place to hide and the possibility of getting back to America – but first they have to turn the circus into an act people will pay to see.
The Madagascar films have always been the funniest – or at least, the silliest - of the current crop of animated kids films, and this is no exception. There are the occasional flat path, but for the most part this powers along with a rapid-fire mix of visual comedy and surprisingly funny lines.
It’s no Pixar film but the animation is even slicker this time around too (the bare and stylisied backgrounds of the first film are long gone now), with a couple of impressive action set-pieces to break up the laughs.
It even manages to wrap up the whole series in a logical way... until next year's penguin-focused sequel comes out, at least.
3.5 out of 5
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted Australian release: 13th September, 2012 Official Site:Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted Cast: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Sienna Guillory, Kevin Durand, Shawn Roberts, Colin Salmon, Johann Urb, Boris Kodjoe, Li Bing Bing Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
