Saturday, October 6, 2012

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted


This time around the foursome hits the road and makes a real push to get back to New York. In the last episode (apparently) (I didn’t see it), the penguins left, promising to go to Monte Carlo, win big at the casino and come back to get them. Well, they never came back, so, the plan for the foursome is to go to Monte Carlo, find the penguins and get to New York. When they find them, the penguins have indeed won big, but getting out of town proves tougher than they thought, as the formidable animal control officer, Chantel DuBois, is bound and determined to stop them. So, how can a group of animals sneak their way out of Europe? Well, why not a traveling circus.
What to say about this one? The storytelling is lazy, the plot formulaic, the premises and their set ups are downright preposterous and many of the ethnic characters are shallow (the Russian does little more than eat borscht and the Italian cops have the big noses and exaggerated accents of stereotypes).  Yet, despite all that, I did enjoy it and was engaged. Both of my daughters also dug it. Neither of them loved it, though, and neither did I, which about sums it up. It’s fun, it has funny moments, the penguins and Sacha Cohen are great as usual and Frances McDormand’s DuBois is fun and interesting, but none of it comes off as all that original and all of it is very predictable. So, it’s fun, but nothing life changing for sure.
SA

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