Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (PG.)
Directed by Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath and Conrad Vernon.
Voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Martin Short and Frances McDormand. 89 mins
Like the Ice Age movies, Madagascar has grown into a global franchise without its central recurring characters – Ben Stiller’s Lion, Chris Rock’s Zebra and the others who escaped from New York Zoo and have been desperate to get back ever since - ever really entered the public consciousness. As a result, the film doesn’t give them a moment’s peace.
These movies can’t just sit back and lazily coast along on the audience’s affection; they have to work hard for the money. Watching Ice Age 4 this summer it seemed like the characters were kept in constant motion throughout with the land continually splitting apart beneath them or them being tossed about on the stormy ocean. Any moment that didn’t have them falling from a great height or being pummelled by the forces of nature quickly saw the children’s interest drift.
Madagascar 3 is even more frenetic, yet rather than desperation it seems to be fuelled by giddy enthusiasm. The previous instalments were competent but empty concoctions; a job to be done. This time it feels like everybody involved has made a commitment to put some love and spirit in it. The film starts at a stampede and doesn’t let up for the whole ninety minutes, adding in new characters and new situations and throwing out laughs and wonders throughout.
None of it makes much sense. The premise is that the main animals pine for a return to New York from the African plain where they finished the last film but which seems to be beyond them. Yet in the opening ten minutes they manage to make it to Monaco at the drop of a hat to reunite with the super intelligent plane-building penguins. The plot then has them hiding away in a rundown circus trying to forge a ticket back across the Atlantic.
The idea of comparing a Madagascar to the work of Pixar is sacrilege but while they have hit a plateau everybody else has caught up. This film has images so beautiful you wish you could get the projectionist to freeze frame for a minute just to look at a bit longer, whilethe levels of slapstick invention that are right up there with the best. You really are spoilt for animation at cinemas at the moment but if had to choose I’d say that this was perhaps the best of the year so far.
.
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (PG.)
Directed by Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath and Conrad Vernon.
Voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Martin Short and Frances McDormand. 89 mins
Like the Ice Age movies, Madagascar has grown into a global franchise without its central recurring characters – Ben Stiller’s Lion, Chris Rock’s Zebra and the others who escaped from New York Zoo and have been desperate to get back ever since - ever really entered the public consciousness. As a result, the film doesn’t give them a moment’s peace.
These movies can’t just sit back and lazily coast along on the audience’s affection; they have to work hard for the money. Watching Ice Age 4 this summer it seemed like the characters were kept in constant motion throughout with the land continually splitting apart beneath them or them being tossed about on the stormy ocean. Any moment that didn’t have them falling from a great height or being pummelled by the forces of nature quickly saw the children’s interest drift.
Madagascar 3 is even more frenetic, yet rather than desperation it seems to be fuelled by giddy enthusiasm. The previous instalments were competent but empty concoctions; a job to be done. This time it feels like everybody involved has made a commitment to put some love and spirit in it. The film starts at a stampede and doesn’t let up for the whole ninety minutes, adding in new characters and new situations and throwing out laughs and wonders throughout.
None of it makes much sense. The premise is that the main animals pine for a return to New York from the African plain where they finished the last film but which seems to be beyond them. Yet in the opening ten minutes they manage to make it to Monaco at the drop of a hat to reunite with the super intelligent plane-building penguins. The plot then has them hiding away in a rundown circus trying to forge a ticket back across the Atlantic.
The idea of comparing a Madagascar to the work of Pixar is sacrilege but while they have hit a plateau everybody else has caught up. This film has images so beautiful you wish you could get the projectionist to freeze frame for a minute just to look at a bit longer, whilethe levels of slapstick invention that are right up there with the best. You really are spoilt for animation at cinemas at the moment but if had to choose I’d say that this was perhaps the best of the year so far.
.
