Dishing Up: Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted

by Le Anne Lindsay, Editor

Warning! Seeing Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted will have you singing “Afro Circus, Afro Circus, Polka Dot, Polka Dot, Polka Dot, Afro” with a mash up of “I Like to Move It Move it” hours later.

On Saturday, PFS had a huge turn out of members and their kids for the preview screening of Madagascar 3 in vivid, looks like you can touch their fur, 3D. I thought of bringing my niece and nephew, but I didn’t want to be distracted, as this and the Toy Story series are the only animation features that are a must see for me. Toy Story’s a bit more clever with its tongue-in-cheek humor; but Madagascar may be more visually creative with tight compositions and dramatically colored close ups. I also like the crazy, fast-paced havoc and antics of those inventive penguins, versatile monkeys and the sheer lunacy of King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen),
Maurice (Cedric the Entertainer) and creepy little Mort.

When we last left the main characters –  Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller)  Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock) Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) and
Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer) had decided to remain in Africa for a little while longer while the penguins made a trip to Monte Carlo. They, the penguins, were supposed to return shortly and then fly everyone back to New York in the monkey powered aircraft.

However, when this movie opens, Alex dreams they’ll all grow old and gray waiting for the penguins to return and decides it’s best to go and find them.  Now I’m not great with geography, but I don’t believe any part of Africa is a hop, skip and a jump to Monte Carlo, but there, a la Ocean’s 11, is where their new adventure begins. Unfortunately, attracting the attention of a crazed Animal Control Agent, Captain Chantel DuBois (Frances
McDormand) who is determined to have Alex’s head mounted to her wall. She winds up chasing the group, often sniffing them out on all fours like a bloodhound, all over Europe. The group join a European Circus in an effort to throw Captain DuBois off their scent and must deceive the Circus animals into believing they are performers from an American Circus.

And what do you get when you take an already vibrant cast of characters/voiceovers and add to it – Vitaly, the once great hoop jumping Tiger (Bryan Cranston), Stefano, the dense Sea Lion (Martin Short), Gia the sexy, trapeze artist lioness (Jessica Chastain) and Julien’s big, silent infatuation, Sonia the bicycling bear – a mad, colorful, crazy Cirque du Soleil Madagascar style.