Madagascar 3 Review

The daughter and I caught the preview to Madagascar 3 and were sucked in by the image and accompanying song above. We had seen the first Madagascar film from Dreamworks Animation and enjoyed it but didn’t see Madagascar 2.  Yesterday we went to see the movie (non-3D) and here’s what we thought:

Madagascar 3 is the story of Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (voiced by Chris Rock), Melman the giraffe (voiced by David Schwimmer) and Gloria the hippopotamus (voiced by Jada Pinkett Smith) who are living in Africa but dreaming of returning to the zoo they left in the first film.  We get to follow along on their journey to try and find their way back home.

Madagascar 3 brings in all of the usual elements of the series. The penguins are extremely smart and witty. King Julien the lemur is over the top and as usual there is a song that will get stuck in your head - an earworm. In Madagascar it was “I Like To Move It, Move It” and here it is “Afro Circus” (see trailer below).

The story is definitely geared to the tween and younger crowd. At one point the crew rehearses for a few hours and in the next scene puts on a circus extravaganza, but hey – it’s a movie about talking animals don’t take it so seriously. All of the kids in the audience enjoyed it and laughed and that is good enough for me. The writers also seem to make fun of themselves with Skipper the leader of the penguins (voiced by Tom McGrath) stating at one point that they could have bought a plane if they hadn’t bought a circus.

The penguins are a riot as usual and Chris Rock’s Marty has the most memorable moments in the film with his dance and song. This is a fun one to take the kids too for a matinee. I give Madagascar 3 three Mick Happies. You will not get "Polka Dot, Polka Dot – Afro Circus" out of your head.