Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted - Afros, Afros Everywhere

After following the journey of four zoo animals as they try to make it back home from a shipping accident, two movies have gone by with a good deal of humor as well as a few anomalies in the continuity. With their last stop, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, we finally get to see if the 7-year journey from Point A to Point B was worth it. As it turns out, I still have no idea if it was.

Following up from the end of the Madagascar 2, Alex the lion (Ben Stiller) is still waiting for the penguins to come back in their makeshift plane to bring him and his friends back to New York. After a nightmare relating to the passage of time, Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer), and Gloria the hippopotamus (Jada Pinkett Smith) surprise Alex on his birthday with a mud replica of New York city, complete with a miniature zoo. This ends up making the lion even more homesick, and he comes up with an idea to go after the penguins. Cut to the four of them rising out of the waters of Monte Carlo (yes, it seems they managed to swim the great distance from Africa to Europe), Alex's plan is put into action. All goes according to plan until they crash through the ceiling of the casino where the penguins were, at which point they make their getaway, but not without attracting a very persistent woman from animal control. After another crash landing in the plane from earlier, the animals manage to evade authorities by hiding in a train full of circus animals, who are coincidentally on their way to New York. With animal control still on their tail, the animals decide to use the circus as a way to get home, forming friendships and learning secrets along the way.

With the amount of time between this installment and the second, the animation has greatly improved, appearing and flowing more realistically. Seeing this in 3D certainly helps the presentation as it brings a certain amount of depth to the action, though I will admit that several parts of the movie seem to be made specifically for 3D viewing, like seeing characters' faces even closer to your own. Aside from that, I also enjoyed the voice acting for the most part, including the voices of new and returning animal characters and Frank Welker's performance as a bear.

The humor, on the other hand, is debatable as to whether it has gotten better. While there aren't any lowbrow jokes in this one, the best lines to me again came from the penguins, who are laugh riots as usual whenever they have screen presence. Otherwise some scenes have their moments, but more often than not fall flat in the funny department, although I'm sure someone much younger than me would be able to find the movie even funnier than I did.

The movie also seems to have mixed feelings on humans. The aforementioned persistent woman, Captain Chantel DuBois (Frances McDormand), shows feats of strength comparable to the Hulk and seems to be a bit too thorough in her animal tracking skills. On the other hand, she and her comrades are at the end placed in a situation that bookends with the first movie, which seems to imply a swift demise when one stops to think about it.

One thing that I personally had mixed feelings about was the music. Hans Zimmer once again proves that he knows how to set up the tone of a scene and does so flawlessly. On the subject of the other music though, while the soundtrack was mostly good, there was a particular moment where a French song is used to rile the spirirts of hospitalized animal control people, in fact instantly healing them, which seems like it would make more sense to someone who actually spoke the language. Then of course there's the bit with Marty singing about Circus Afros, used endlessly in the advertisements, which only gets more and more grating every time it's heard. However if the audience I was with is any indication, younger kids may find it enjoyable, as the Madagascar series largely appeals to that crowd.

If I may, there was one small thing that bugged me a little, and that was a piece of product placement. In a scene where DuBoi escapes from a cell, an Italian guard asks about a couple of sounds, the second of which blatantly describes a printer as one from HP. While this was the only instance of this sort of advertising, it seems rather odd that that of all things would be written into the actual script.

Overall, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted is actually better than I expected, but I still feel kind of iffy about it. It has a good plot and most of the music and performances are strong, but there are a few moments that drag the experience down a little. In the end though, I would still recommend this movie, if only for someone to be able to complete their Madagascar experience. If this is the end of the road for these characters, then while I'm satisfied that it ended well for them, this isn't exactly a journey I would take again any time soon.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa - I Still Can't Move It, Move It

In preparing for Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, it's become a necessity to go over the first sequel to Madagascar, subtitled Escape 2 Africa in order to create a number joke. At this point I wasn't so hip to viewing this one due to the original's overall quality. Regardless, I came out of my latest viewing of this movie with a better sense of satisfaction, yet still with a feeling that some things just didn't seem quite right.

As a cub, Alex the lion lived in Africa with the name Alakay and was the son of Zuba (Bernie Mac), the alpha lion. Zuba is trying to teach his son how to fight instead of dance, which ends up with him accepting, and winning, a challenge from Makunga (Alec Baldwin) for his position. During this time, Alakay is captured by poachers, who get chased down by Zuba. In the struggle, Zuba is shot and Alakay's crate ends up making its way to New York City. In the present day, Alex (Ben Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer), and Gloria the hippopotamus (Jada Pinkett Smith) are about ready to leave the island of Madagascar for their New York home in a repaired plane piloted by the penguins Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller), Private (Christopher Knights) and Rico (John DiMaggio) with the lemurs King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen), Maurice (Cedric the Entertainer) and Mort (Andy Richter) and the chimpanzees Mason (Conrad Vernon) and Phil on board as well. During the trip however, the plane ends up crash landing on the continent of Africa, forcing the penguins and chimpanzees to begin major repairs while Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria mingle with the indigenous population around the watering hole and in the process discover what life is like with more of their kind.

The major plot line involves Alex, who is basically the main character of the franchise by this point, reuniting with his parents and finding out just who he really is and what the lions' culture entails. By taking some cues from The Lion King, this plot unfolds pretty nicely and ends up creating a bit more of an engaging story compared to its predecessor. It also happens to intertwine with themes involving the test of friendship and figuring out where the grass is greener, an idea carried over from the first film. Through a case of mistaken identity between Alex and Marty, as well as new bonds formed between Melman and Gloria, everyone grows closer together as friends and even though they opt at the end of the film to stay in Africa for a while longer, they come to find that their differences are what truly set them apart from the other animals.

Once again, while the plot moves along pretty nicely, perhaps even a little better this time around, there are some errors I found in it that on occasion were a little difficult to ignore. This is mainly in the continuity errors present, such as Alex suddenly having a significant mark on his paw that wasn't present before and an equally sudden bout of Melman having feelings for Gloria that were never hinted at to begin with. A smaller idea that I still had a hard time believing would be that every single tourist in Africa, whom the penguins steal plenty of jeeps from for airship parts, just happens to be a New Yorker.

This leads once more into a discussion on the humor. While the humor is a bit smarter, relying much less on pop culture references and containing the ideal absence of common scatological jokes, there are still a couple of times where it falls flat. Mainly, it's the fact that the old woman from the previous film returns, this time with an unnecessarily prominent role in the survival of the tourists; her inclusion seems to just be for the sole purpose of either reminding the audience that she exists or pandering to them by bringing back a popular character (because it's not Madagascar without every single character from before, right?). Otherwise, the movie is still firing on all cylinders in the funny department whenever the lemurs or penguins are in the spotlight, along with some surprisingly funny bits with the chimpanzees.

The effects of this movie are a bit improved, three years will do that I suppose, with water that flows more realistically and big stunts like the plane crash to show off what they can do. I also still liked the voice acting, including Alec Baldwin's role as the main antagonist and Bernie Mac as Alex's dad (in fact the movie is dedicated to his unfortunate passing). Hans Zimmer still does a good job with the score, but I didn't quite like will.i.am's cover of Reel 2 Reel's I Like to Move It, which sounded altered to suit the events of the film and didn't have the same infectiousness or memorability as Sacha Baron Cohen's take on it before.

In the end, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is improved a little from its beginnings, but some of these bouts of inspiration are negated at some points to create a sort of compromise that gave me a very mixed outlook. The humor is smarter this time around and I did appreciate the near lack of pop culture references, minus an out of place iPod joke, along with better production and voice work. I would recommend at least one viewing just to see how the sequel turns out in your eyes, or more justifiably if you want to see more of the antics from King Julien or the penguins.

Next time this blog will look at Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, which, if the ads are true, appears to contain a high concentration of bright rainbow-colored wigs in the shapes of afros.

Madagascar - I Can't Quite Move It, Move It

As mentioned before in this blog's review of Men in Black, the summer lineup of 2012 is riddled with Hollywood sequels, one of which is Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. Having seen the previous two movies at a younger age, I've decided that I might as well see the third one anyway. To get to that point however, I've started watching the prequels so that I may have my memory refreshed. After watching Madagascar again however, I'm worried that maybe it wasn't such a good idea.

Life is great in the Central Park Zoo as Marty the zebra (Chris Rock) celebrates his tenth birthday with his friends Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer) and Gloria the hippopotamus (Jada Pinkett Smith). Throughout the day Marty ponders what life would be like away from his pampered lifestyle in the zoo and instead out in the wild. After escaping for Grand Central Station at night to get to the land of Connecticut, believing he'll find the wide-open spaces he desires there, his friends go off in search of him and arrive at the station just in time to intercept his attempt to get a ticket. Unfortunately for them they all end up getting hit with tranquilizer darts so that they may be shipped off to a wildlife preserve in Kenya. On the bridge of the ship however, the penguins Skipper (Tom McGrath), Rico (John DiMaggio), Kowalski (Chris Miller) and Private (Christopher Knights), who also got caught in the escape attempt, manage to take control of the ship to try and get to Antarctica, inadvertently sending Marty and friends overboard. The four animals wind up on the shores of Madagascar, where they must learn to cope with the wild in their quest to go back home.

The story seems to mainly be about two things. First, it has a theme of trying to figure out your place in the world, in this case whether they belong in the zoo or the wild. Marty is the one who instigates this portion of the plot when he wonders if maybe the grass is greener somewhere else, which of course doesn't settle with his friends at first before and after they land on the island. Gradually though, they come to like some things about the wild and end up enjoying their stay. The other thing the movie is about comes into play here, which is a theme of friendship. Alex the lion is the most stubborn of the four, having been accustomed to his previous lifestyle and an endless supply of steak. While he does warm up to Madagascar eventually, his friendship with Marty is truly tested when his animal instincts come forth while under a withdrawal from steak. His actions during this time, including biting Marty and imagining everyone as a steak, cause him to exile himself to a part of the island filled with fossa. During an attempt to retrieve him when the penguin-piloted boat reaches shore, he finally overcomes his feelings about himself and saves his friends from attacking fossa. His arc is concluded when they figure out that fish is a reasonable substitute for Alex to eat in place of steaks.

Based simply on these two themes, the movie does get its job done and is sound in concluding just about every plot thread. Structurally however, Madagascar begins to fall apart in a couple of places. Some logistical errors are present, like the fact that lemurs in the untamed wild seem to know what a steak is or how exactly Marty is able to develop a full lever and pulley system on the beach with only his hooves. In addition, the common elements of a Dreamworks movie are present in a way as to hurt the overall product. There's the numerous pop culture references, including an iconic scene from Planet of the Apes, that some random child viewers aren't very likely to understand, which begs the question of why they even bothered with them besides just doing it because they could. These references extend to using many familiar musical cues, at least to adults, even when they don't seem to fit, like when Marty rides with dolphins to get to the sandy beach of Madagascar while the Hawaii Five-O theme plays in the background.

Then there's the humor in the movie. I will say that overall, the movie can be really funny in places, especially if it involves the actions of the penguins or King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen) of the indigenous population of lemurs. Scenes with them are often the most humorous, which is probably what led to them being popular enough to not only show up in the sequel, but also the spin-off Nickelodeon television series The Penguins of Madagascar. Contrast this however with the sprinkled in scatological jokes, which seem to be standard fare for a movie like this (because kids love it!).

Technically speaking, Madagascar doesn't seem to hold up as well as it probably did back then. The ocean, especially the most voluminous parts, look more like sculpted plastic than actual water and the CG seems more primitive nowadays, though these were probably more impressive when they first came out; I'm not quite sure since I didn't really care in the far off year of 2005. It also seemed a little bothersome as well how the art style for the movie makes the nostrils of the characters more prominent, as well as the fact that Alex's paws are as big as his head.

If there's one thing I can say about this movie, it would be that the voice acting is actually pretty good. Chris Rock and Ben Stiller bounce off each other nicely and Sacha Baron Cohen shows that he can actually do a decent job at voicing a literal party animal. I also enjoyed hearing whatever the penguins had to say, since their contrasting personalities and voices form part of the glue that makes the film watchable. Hans Zimmer's score, when actually present, does a good job at setting the tone of each scene and, while not exactly memorable, shows that he has great talent in his field. The famous cover of Reel 2 Reel's I Like to Move It, performed by Cohen, is also incredibly catchy.

Overall, Madagascar is just alright. While the movie can be really funny and display some interesting character development at times, the common Dreamworks elements serve to get in the way of making the whole picture enjoyable, making the presentation more confused in what it's trying to be. If you want to watch something with kids around and they laugh easily, then Madagascar is for you, unless you just want to watch the scenes with Julien or the penguins.

Next week, we'll look at Madgascar: Escape 2 Africa.