Animation and 3D Dazzle but Madagascar 3 Is For the Kids

Rating: Null/10 (15 June 2012)

For some film trilogies, the third time is rarely the charm. But for viewers beyond 9th Grade {Ages 15 and older}, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted has little.
Picking up where we left off in Escape 2 Africa, Alex the Lion {Ben Stiller}, Marty the Zebra {Chris Rock, acting like an annoying party guest at times}, Gloria the Hippo {Jada Pinkett Smith}, Melman the Giraffe {David Schwimmer} and King Julien, the Lemur {Sacha Baron Cohen} decides to return home this time to the Central Park Zoo. But first, they attempt to pick up their fellow friends, the Penguins and the Monkeys in France's Monte Carlo.
The plan soon goes into danger mode when the animals are being chased by Captain Chantel DuBois {Frances Macdormand}. To hide, the animals then runaway with a group of circus animals including Stefano the Italian Sea Lion {Martin Short}, Vitaly the Tiger {Bryan Cranston} and Gia the Jaguar {Jessica Chastain, soon to star in Broadway's The Heiress this fall}. Soon, the zoo folks buy the circus and use it as their journey home from Europe to New York, while avoiding being caught by DuBois.
Directors and DreamWorks Animation veterans Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath and Conrad Vernon handles the gimmicks for the 3D version amazingly well and the animation look rich and colorful enough. My favorite moment is this film is when the once- lousy circus gets its magic back in a sparking sequence set to Katy Perry's Firework.
But the film's big problem is blamed on Darnell and Noah Baumbach's script. It plays at an elementary school level and doesn't deliver much big laughs as the previous films. For the record, I laughed three or four times during the first 30 minutes and chuckled towards the end.
Even the Monte Carlo chase sequence in the film plays like a rehash from three different films.
Remember a van flying to land on a building? {See Speed}. Remember a person standing on top of a moving piece of transportation {See Back to the Future: Part II}. Remember a villain holding on a rope to catch the heroes, then falling? {See Chicken Run}.
The voice actors including Schwimmer, Cohen, Chaston, Smith and Short are really acting through the motions here. Cranston is miscast here in a role that should have worked better with Nick Nolte. I'm not sure if Stiller is feeling right at home with Alex or taking it forcefully. But Macdormand brings in a just-for-the-paycheck performance as Dubois. I didn't get win over by the captain's Edith Piaf- like song when she rounds up her fellow injured officers. I even didn't understand what she was singing about.
Kids will gobble this so-so taste more than parents, whichever version it is {2D or 3D}. Grownups without kids may want to sit towards the nearest exit just in case.
But I just don't know how the world is going to react to Madagascar 4 {if it happens}.
Rating: **1/2
Parent Advice: Rated PG for some mild action and rude humor. Suitable for ages 4 and up. Maybe parents or grownups could drop off their kids at the film and instead see Moonrise Kingdom, Prometheus, Rock of Ages, or That's My Boy for themselves {depending by the movie theater they're visiting}.