Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most WantedRating: 3A Disappointing EndAfter the high of Madagascar 2, improving on the okay movie that was Madagascar, I came to Madagascar 3 hoping that the trend would continue and it would be even better than the second. I was sadly disappointed: it was dumb, dull and dreadful.As is to be expected, the third main installment in the Madagascar series sees Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer) and their friends try to find their way back to New York. This time, they are pursued by a relentless French Pest Control Officer and stow away on an animal circus train, becoming owners of said circus.In contrast to the rest of the movie, the animation was excellent. It was visually appealing, pretty and colourful and was an improvement on the earlier entries in the series. Shame there wasn't a movie to go with it.The plot is by far the worst part of the film, and if it had been up to a decent standard, the other problems wouldn't have seemed so bad. Suspension of disbelief is to be expected in films, but this goes so far beyond this as t become utterly ridiculous and render the film pointless. Characters literally do the impossible in a huge way and on a frequent basis and it's lazy. In many ways, the film is all over the place and makes no sense. On other occasions, chunks of the plot are resolved far too easily and so become (I've said it before) pointless. In terms of comedy, it is almost non-existent. I remember about three occasions it made me smile and many jokes seem very forced.Apart from Alex, the main characters from the previous film are shunted to the back to get even less development than Alex and the new characters that replace them. This is sad because they are as much a part of this series: I would have loved the penguins, the lemurs and even the chimps to get more screen time and lines. In fact, I don't even remember if the chimps got any dialogue at all and King Julien seems to be constantly drunk or high. Furthermore, the main quartet suddenly pick up new talents out of nowhere just to fit the plot. In my opinion, bringing in lot's of new characters is a sign of laziness and for the most part the new characters and predictable and dull. I say for the most part, I kind of like Vitaly, although I don't know if it's just his accent I like. The villain is unoriginal, unrealistic and dull.Another thing that bugged me was the constant use of songs, some which I didn't even feel fitted the scene. In the previous films, they were strategically placed but here they are everywhere and they lose all meaning because of it. And don't even get me started on that horrible "Afro Circus" song - no, don't play it at the end like you're proud of it! It's sad for me because the original film was quite a big part of my childhood. My siblings and I even had cuddly toy versions of the main characters, so it pains me to see the studio stoop to such levels of laziness and money grabbing it. A five year old might enjoy how colourful it is but there is nothing else to enjoy in this disappointing end. Now, I'm going to create fake accounts and dislike the "Afro Circus" YouTube video.

Madagascar 3 : Europe 's Most Wanted is much greater than before, more does not make it a good movie, it's just cool , the first 30 minutes are good and fun , the plot is even cool, even with several problems , the characters remain good , now the penguins have more prominence , the soundtrack is good , has some Italian songs , King Julian has more prominence than the other films , I had the opportunity to watch this movie in the theater , and it was good fun, has to pass time, also the film is not even over, the villain of the film is better than the second film, more does not make it great , even more so she convinces , Madagascar 3 : Europe 's most Wanted is a good pass time for when you bored. Note 6.6

Original Score:2.5/4Following up the story of the New York Zoo animals that have escaped from New York Zoo and was supposed to be sent back to the wildlife preserve of Africa, and accidentally ends up at the island of Madagascar. Where they reside and make friends with the residents of the island, the lemurs with their King Julien. From the ending of the first film, we know that the boat is out of gas. From the ending of the second film, we know that they live happily in Africa awaiting the return of the penguins who will take them back to New York after their trip.Opening in African Savannah where the second part of the story left off, we see The New York Giants(which is how the Lemurs addressed the Zoo animals from New York) overlooking a model of the city of New York. Including the New York Zoo where they call home. Alex and the other animals decides to swim for Monte Carlo in search of the penguins Skipper, Private, Rico and Kowalski who can take them back home. In addition, when they did, an animal control member named Dubois chases them across Monte Carlo (and later all over Europe). Was this the suggestion of the film's plot by the film's title? Absolutely. Some of the sequences are absolutely a visual delight for the audiences. I really did like the circus show that they did, which really did impress the American promoter. And also the finale where they did Trapeze Americando which delighted both the audiences in the show and the audiences who were watching the show. Do not exclude me because I am among the theater audiences as well. Still, I like the ways that Alex talked about following good passions, and how they inspired the Circuis Zargoza's animals to train hard and create a show that literally blew the American promoter away. However, that is pretty much one of the few things I like about the show. Other moments, not by a long shot due to the galling content. Unlike it's predecessors, Madagascar 3 has improved significantly compared to the first or second entry in the Madagascar film series. The characters of the third film have their own respective personalities, and I mean the characterizations are somehow there for the circus animals. But other characters, not so much. The plot, on the other hand, has tuned down it's humor's level of explicit content, but it is still on a level that offers kids and adults some enjoyment and entertainment without too much irrelevance, but note that irrelevant content is still present in the film. Which is what I did not like about it.Here is an example (along with the predecessors of this film) that you should not add any of that unnecessary stuff in the film, including rude humor, offensive dialogue, disturbing scenes and stuff like that. So, here's to hope that the fourth entry in the series would not be like it's predecessors, which contains a lot of unnecessary stuff.Overall, kids will enjoy the third entry in the Madagascar film series with the appealing circus performances, vocal performances and characters that they will like. But I didn't exactly like the whole thing, here I hope that the fourth entry in the franchise would tune down upon it's rude humor and focus more upon it's story, creating a film that would be as appealing as How to Train Your Dragon, which is perhaps Dreamworks's best and most relevant franchise to date.

I rented this DVD to see what it was like compared to the first two I had seen at the cinema and it is just as good. The first fifteen minutes were filled with laugh-out loud moments such as Alex imagining himself and the other three main animals as elderly animals, the lemurs jumping out of Alex's birthday cake that had a sense of scatological humour (Mort vomiting pink icing) and the antics in the casino and the possible parody of 'The Matrix' involving the monkeys shooting from 'banana guns,' thus making these the funniest first fifteen minutes in the entire 'Madagascar' franchise. As for the soundtrack, this has the best of all three 'Madagascar' films. Its highlights were the opening African-inspired music; the spy-movie-type music playing as the four main animals swim towards the hotel in Monte Carlo; sing-songs of 'Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now),' 'Wannabe,' 'What's New Pussycat?,' 'New York, New York' from the 1949 film 'On The Town' and 'Hot In Herre (in which King Julien replaces, "so take off all your clothes" with "so take off all your fur"); the piece of classical music played over the shot of the Colliseum; Chantal's rendition of Edith Piaf's 'Je Ne Regrette Rien;' the brief Psycho-sounding music playing before the lemurs encounter the bear on the train; Yolanda Be Cool's 'We No Speak Americano;' Katy Perry's 'Firework;' and last but not least, 'I Like To Move It (probably the signature song of the 'Madagascar' franchise)' mixed with typical circus music. The character animation is on par with that in the first two and while the film includes my favourite characters of the main four, the penguins, the monkeys and the lemurs, I also liked the side characters consisting of circus animals (especially Gia and Stefano) and dogs. Chantal was a menacing villain and while I was initially worried when she rolled on the train track in case she got electrocuted or run over by a train she was okay, although her most amusing moments involved shooting various Italian police officers with tranquillisers, getting shot in the bottom with one herself towards the end and being shipped towards Madagascar in crates along with other human characters in a similar manner to the main animals in the original. I must admit I do miss the presence of the elderly woman who called Alex a "bad Kitty" in the first two films because she was comical. There is a wide variety of backgrounds such as the picturesque surroundings of Monte Carlo and the mountains as well as a lovely flythrough of London at night with Big Ben and the London Eye being beautifully illuminated. The interior circus scenes in the latter half use beautiful fluorescent lighting too.Moving onto the dialogue, it is as smart and witty as that in the first two films, especially Stefano's line "My tears are real, you're not!" when the four main animals reveal they are zoo animals rather than circus animals, which makes this a typical use of the 'liar revealed' trope. The script also mentions clichés such as Chantal labelling the idea of running away from the circus as one. I also liked Alex mentioning his ancestors (I.e. other lions) used to perform at the Colliseum and one of the circus animals saying, "That's Bolshevik!" as a play on a profanity. As usual, the voice acting from Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett-Smith, David Schwimmer and Sacha Baron Cohen was superb as was Frances McDormand voicing Chantal with a convincing French accent. I also liked Stefano and Gia's Italian accents.Overall this is an amusing third instalment of the franchise with the creme de la creme consisting of the witty dialogue, the character animation and the soundtrack. 8/10.