Dumbed down

Rating: 5/10 (17 January 2013)

I liked the first 'Madagascar' film; but the third in the series doesn't match it's predecessor, and for a surprising reason: it doesn't make sense. You might think that this is a strange criticism of a film about a bunch of talking animals, but the skill of the first movie, as with many of the best animations, was in placing comic absurdity within a set of very human parameters. 'Europe's Most Wanted', however, puts the emphasis on high velocity action scenes, and tells a story where the world of its characters is totally unconstrained: anything can happen as long as it makes for a spectacular sequence. As a result, the film seems much closer to movies like 'Ice Age' than to Pixar's frequently outstanding output: one for the kids, but without the depths that have made many recent animated movies (includng its own ancestor) something special. However, the train-spotter in me was pleasantly surprised to see quite how accurately the film portrayed not just the tourist sites of Europe, but even Rome's Termini station.