A Disappointing End

Rating: 3/10 (17 November 2016)

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
Rating: 3
A Disappointing End
After the high of Madagascar 2, improving on the okay movie that was Madagascar, I came to Madagascar 3 hoping that the trend would continue and it would be even better than the second. I was sadly disappointed: it was dumb, dull and dreadful.
As is to be expected, the third main installment in the Madagascar series sees Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer) and their friends try to find their way back to New York. This time, they are pursued by a relentless French Pest Control Officer and stow away on an animal circus train, becoming owners of said circus.
In contrast to the rest of the movie, the animation was excellent. It was visually appealing, pretty and colourful and was an improvement on the earlier entries in the series. Shame there wasn't a movie to go with it.
The plot is by far the worst part of the film, and if it had been up to a decent standard, the other problems wouldn't have seemed so bad. Suspension of disbelief is to be expected in films, but this goes so far beyond this as t become utterly ridiculous and render the film pointless. Characters literally do the impossible in a huge way and on a frequent basis and it's lazy. In many ways, the film is all over the place and makes no sense. On other occasions, chunks of the plot are resolved far too easily and so become (I've said it before) pointless. In terms of comedy, it is almost non-existent. I remember about three occasions it made me smile and many jokes seem very forced.
Apart from Alex, the main characters from the previous film are shunted to the back to get even less development than Alex and the new characters that replace them. This is sad because they are as much a part of this series: I would have loved the penguins, the lemurs and even the chimps to get more screen time and lines. In fact, I don't even remember if the chimps got any dialogue at all and King Julien seems to be constantly drunk or high. Furthermore, the main quartet suddenly pick up new talents out of nowhere just to fit the plot. In my opinion, bringing in lot's of new characters is a sign of laziness and for the most part the new characters and predictable and dull. I say for the most part, I kind of like Vitaly, although I don't know if it's just his accent I like. The villain is unoriginal, unrealistic and dull.
Another thing that bugged me was the constant use of songs, some which I didn't even feel fitted the scene. In the previous films, they were strategically placed but here they are everywhere and they lose all meaning because of it. And don't even get me started on that horrible "Afro Circus" song - no, don't play it at the end like you're proud of it!
It's sad for me because the original film was quite a big part of my childhood. My siblings and I even had cuddly toy versions of the main characters, so it pains me to see the studio stoop to such levels of laziness and money grabbing it. A five year old might enjoy how colourful it is but there is nothing else to enjoy in this disappointing end. Now, I'm going to create fake accounts and dislike the "Afro Circus" YouTube video.