As a child my favorite animated movie out was "Madagascar" I absolutely loved the humor and the gorgeous animating (which stands to this day) from Dreamworks Animation Studios. Then the sequel which was in my opinion even better, with so much character background and development throughout it was an animated masterpiece. Every character was well played and enjoyable to say the least. I was about 15 years old when I first heard Madagascar 3 was being released and I was excited to revisit my childhoods favorite characters. Man was I wrong! Madagascar 3 just didn't feel the same. It was the same characters as before which I appreciated and the introduction to characters was good too. Animation was gorgeous as always also. The problem that I have with this film is the writers. What were they thinking? The story is so separate and different and unrelated to the previous two films which were great. The story winds the characters to end up travelling with a travelling circus of animals that are touring Europe. From this point on the story goes downhill. It decides to develop the characters from this circus and cover their back stories and why they are what they are like. Which in my opinion takes up to much time throughout the movie and totally spoils it. As for the "Bad Guy" or "enemy" in this film I would say is what ruined this film. The protagonist is a female Russian police officer who decides to hunt down all of the main characters and kill them. Alright then?..I found her character quite dark, sadistic and very annoying to say the least. Although there are a few factors that in my opinion ruin the " Madagascar" franchise the main characters are still lovable and have great character. If you haven't seen this film and have seen the first two then probably don't watch this. Children who aren't bothered by films that have a very different feel to the first two will enjoy this none the less.

It took me back that when I saw this in theaters I was so amazed by it. I enjoyed both the first two films, but this one, oh my god! By now the characters are welcomed friends, and the story is just super fresh and fun. The main enjoyable aspect here has to be the addition of Madame Dubois. She brings so much pizazz and spunk to this movie. What a devilishly hilarious antagonist. This one just really hit it out of the park: settings, jokes, characters and story-wise. The vibrant, colorful circus scene is enough to captivate someone.Let's start off by saying that from the get go the humor is super quick and witty. I love the opening of Alex visioning everyone as much older and being stranded forever. The immediate transfer to Europe as the setting is brilliant and a perfect way to kick off the rest of the movie. Like I said, this movie would be absolutely nothing without Madame DuBois though. Pretty much from the second her character comes on screen, the movie is a non-stop action packed, jolting fun thrill ride that I am glad I had the pleasure of enjoying in theaters.We also have the wonderful new addition of the circus crew. They are all incredibly likable with their own personalities and welcomed on the screen immediately. The story is fast paced and constantly changing it up, with lots of new great aspects. I enjoyed the love affair between King Julien and the bear on the bicycle, how all the relationships in the movie blossom and grow stronger actually.There really is not a moment that Madagascar 3 is not pulling either pulling at the heartstrings, entertaining with flashy visuals, or causing laughter with it's outrageous characters, like the films before it did. Some more scenes that make this movie brilliant are the "Non Je Ne Regrette Rien" singing sequence that had me in tears the first time I saw it, as well as when Madama DuBois is first chasing them and completing unimaginable and unbelievable human feats like a mad Rhinocerous or something. I swear, the creators were so high when they wrote this.It is all just in your face and random, and that completely worked for me. It is the highlight of the Madagascar series thus far. Great usage of characters, story, songs, everything. It is a completely sleek animation. Even the new update of "I Like to Move It" is funny, and not as annoying as many would think considering the marketing and public follow of it. So hilarious and fun from beginning to end, I recommend it to every individual for the goodness of their soul.

DreamWorks is still nothing compared to Disney, but they are working their way up the animated ladder, producing effective and fun movie series such as this, along with the "Shrek" and "How to Train Your Dragon" movie series.The plot of this movie is still centered around Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melvin, four domestic African animals who are shipped to the island of Madagascar after a breakout from the zoo. However, this story is now further developed as a colorful cross-continent escape from Captain Chantel DuBois (voice of Frances McDormand).Coupled with new, color-filled characters in Gia (Jessica Chastain), Vitaly (Bryan Cranston), and Stefano (Martin Short), this movie is filled with excitement, laughter, and fun for the whole family. A perfect addition to a hilarious movie trilogy.

I rented this DVD to see what it was like compared to the first two I had seen at the cinema and it is just as good. The first fifteen minutes were filled with laugh-out loud moments such as Alex imagining himself and the other three main animals as elderly animals, the lemurs jumping out of Alex's birthday cake that had a sense of scatological humour (Mort vomiting pink icing) and the antics in the casino and the possible parody of 'The Matrix' involving the monkeys shooting from 'banana guns,' thus making these the funniest first fifteen minutes in the entire 'Madagascar' franchise. As for the soundtrack, this has the best of all three 'Madagascar' films. Its highlights were the opening African-inspired music; the spy-movie-type music playing as the four main animals swim towards the hotel in Monte Carlo; sing-songs of 'Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now),' 'Wannabe,' 'What's New Pussycat?,' 'New York, New York' from the 1949 film 'On The Town' and 'Hot In Herre (in which King Julien replaces, "so take off all your clothes" with "so take off all your fur"); the piece of classical music played over the shot of the Colliseum; Chantal's rendition of Edith Piaf's 'Je Ne Regrette Rien;' the brief Psycho-sounding music playing before the lemurs encounter the bear on the train; Yolanda Be Cool's 'We No Speak Americano;' Katy Perry's 'Firework;' and last but not least, 'I Like To Move It (probably the signature song of the 'Madagascar' franchise)' mixed with typical circus music. The character animation is on par with that in the first two and while the film includes my favourite characters of the main four, the penguins, the monkeys and the lemurs, I also liked the side characters consisting of circus animals (especially Gia and Stefano) and dogs. Chantal was a menacing villain and while I was initially worried when she rolled on the train track in case she got electrocuted or run over by a train she was okay, although her most amusing moments involved shooting various Italian police officers with tranquillisers, getting shot in the bottom with one herself towards the end and being shipped towards Madagascar in crates along with other human characters in a similar manner to the main animals in the original. I must admit I do miss the presence of the elderly woman who called Alex a "bad Kitty" in the first two films because she was comical. There is a wide variety of backgrounds such as the picturesque surroundings of Monte Carlo and the mountains as well as a lovely flythrough of London at night with Big Ben and the London Eye being beautifully illuminated. The interior circus scenes in the latter half use beautiful fluorescent lighting too.Moving onto the dialogue, it is as smart and witty as that in the first two films, especially Stefano's line "My tears are real, you're not!" when the four main animals reveal they are zoo animals rather than circus animals, which makes this a typical use of the 'liar revealed' trope. The script also mentions clichés such as Chantal labelling the idea of running away from the circus as one. I also liked Alex mentioning his ancestors (I.e. other lions) used to perform at the Colliseum and one of the circus animals saying, "That's Bolshevik!" as a play on a profanity. As usual, the voice acting from Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett-Smith, David Schwimmer and Sacha Baron Cohen was superb as was Frances McDormand voicing Chantal with a convincing French accent. I also liked Stefano and Gia's Italian accents.Overall this is an amusing third instalment of the franchise with the creme de la creme consisting of the witty dialogue, the character animation and the soundtrack. 8/10.