Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted

Movie Review: «Madagascar 3».

English Title: Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.
Production: USA, 2012.
Release Date: 18.05.2012 (France), 08.06.2012 (USA).
Russian Distributor: Central Partnership (07.06.2012).
Official Website:
Genres: 3D / Adventure / Animation / Comedy / Family / Sequel.
Directors: Conrad Vernon, Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath.
Voices: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith, David Schwimmer.
Running Time: 85 minutes.

Nearly 4 years of production with a budget around 145 mln. USD can be a pleasure many directors dream of, but rarely get, even in scale of the feature films starring live actors. However, the creators of the animated film Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted found a good use for these resources. The result is full of incredibly bright colors and lights working in contrast to emphasize the surroundings of certain scenes, letting you easily distinguish Rome’s colosseum from a freight train’s interiors. The 3D-effects in IMAX look amazingly stunning, and we would include them to list of the best 3D-movies released this year, where we also praised both Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012) and the 3D-conversion for famous Titanic (2012).

Still there is more room nowadays for the usage of 3D-technologies in the animation, and the directors have fully explored the circus topics visually, while trying to beat the stunts performed by Cirque de Soleil. Of course, it is possible, if you involve animated animals instead of real humans. The team at DreamWorks has taken all the characters and sent them out to show all the exciting aerial acrobatics and pirouettes. At the same time in IMAX 3D saved frame brightness retains high definition without excessive darkening, and the abundance of effects here does not tire the eyes, though some might consider a few 3D-objects to feature too much light. If we could pick one scene in 3D we liked the most, probably, it’d be the one with the money trying to fly out of the screen.

The official soundtrack of Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted was written by a legendary German composer named Hans Zimmer. His students and friends are now providing the best film scores in Hollywood. Though for this animated film Hans Zimmer has created only 5 music themes out of 13 in total, while all the other tracks include some well-known representatives of the popular and dance music genres. Here, roughly for 40 minutes you can listen to a pack of very familiar songs like Firework (2010) by Katy Perry, which really compliments the grand circus performance, and more semantical We No Speak Americano (2010) from the Australian duo titled Yolanda Be Cool. All in all, there are some communication problems, initially, between the animals from the New York zoo and their new friends.

Other musical surprises are presented with cover versions of such popular tunes as Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now, 1990) by C+C Music Factory, track Hot in Herre (2002) by Nelly, even with Wannabe (1996) by Spice Girls and the anthem for Chantel DuBois praising the Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (1956) theme, originally performed by Édith Piaf. Musical parodies have become a remarkable feature of the new animated film, but the most of them are delivered by the American comic’s voice of Danny Jacobs, though Frances McDormand contributes some time to this with her own singing. British guitarist Peter Asher gave away his recent track Love Always Comes as a Surprise (2012) to the album, while Chris Rock sang the national anthem of the circus animals mixing the Afro Circus tune with I Like To Move It (1994) melody by Reel 2 Real.

GameScope Verdict

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted gets the franchise out of a close dead-end, which might be possible after a somewhat disappointing previous sequel. However, the new episode easily surpasses all its achivements. Although the topic of the Americans travelling across Europe is nowhere new, the writers were able to use the canon the right way, while not forgetting about adding charming characters to compliment all the usual main cast. The adventure is joined by penguins, lemurs and monkeys, as always, and 3D here plays all the right notes with the humour being able to entertain both kids and adults, who still watch animated films.

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Madagascar 3 Film Trailer

Movie Score by GameScope:

8.5 / 10