6. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted
I FUCKING love this movie!
I will not compromise on my opinion! Judge me all you want! This film is masterful! It's pure distilled cartoon shenanigans and heart!
There are movies I’ve placed above this one that I don’t love as much as this film and at the time of me writing this I rewatched it in a time where I just really needed to see it.
In a hellish year like 2023, that’s left me tired, drained, thinking about funds, in pain, worried for my stability, and sad, here comes along a film that reaches through the screen, slaps me across the face with unapologetic absurdity, and DEMANDS that you have fun!
You ever have a film literally speak to you without it saying anything? This one just straight up told me to be happy. It’s just a film that wants me to be happy and wraps itself with joy and excitement in a manner that isn’t flinching.
The thing about this film is that it’s the first Madagascar movie to fully, fully embrace the fact that it’s a cartoon with a premise that’s ri-goddamn-diculous and it uses that as a motivation to do whatever the hell it wants without sacrificing the characters, the journey, or the development they’ve all gone through.
Even the scenes with the more extraneous parts of the cast serve a purpose in the end. King Julian (Sacha Baron Cohen) wants to “rule New York” but he falls in love with Sonia the Bear when the gang stows away on a train that houses the circus. Why not? It’s how Captain Chantel DuBois (Frances McDormand) manages to find them after a certain point and the scene where he falls in love with the bear is funny.
Our animal friends have made it out of Africa and head to Monte Carlo to pick up the Penguins after they’ve felt like they’ve taken too long to come back and pick them up. This leads them on a chase throughout Europe that sees them joining the circus to eventually get back to New York and finally return home to the Zoo, where they’re certain they still belong after all that’s happened.
What follows is insanity. From the instant she steps on the scene, Captain Chantel DuBois demands your attention. Because this movie has embraced it’s true nature, she’s able to come at you with full force. She’s a terminator who struts on the scene with Jaws like French music embodied with the terrifying might that only Animal Control can provide and runs through buildings, slides on oil slicks with her bike over her head, and jumps past gaps between skyscrapers to hunt down these animals.
However, the one she wants to capture the most is DE LION!
She’s a psychopath but one that carries herself with such style and grace that it serves her well to stand atop the pact as one of Dreamworks best villains. She’s so good that people called her the franchise’s first villain even though the last one technically had that, sort of.
The real shot in the arm for our main cast are the new circus characters that enter the picture. Not only are their designs more angular and round in places but the smoother animation breathes life in them in a way that the first two just didn’t. Gia (Jessica Chastain) is Alex’s (sort of) love interest for the film and despite having a bit of an edge to her it’s mostly overshadowed by how wide-eyed, loving, and adorable she is when she’s taken in by his stories of the Trapeze Americano he talks to her about. Well, lies to her about.
Stefano is an Italian seal played by Martin Short that acts as the glue that holds the new cast together. He claims to be of average intelligence (perhaps even slightly below) but really it just reads as charming, bright naivety. His infectious smile at the end of the film when he says “What do you say?” to the cast running off with the circus is legendary to me.
The star of the new cast here though is Vitaly. He’s a big Russian tiger played by Bryan Cranstan and despite being a massive hardass when they first meet, the love and care he has for the circus that he’s cultivated together with his friends makes him easy to see through. Plus, he comes with a haunting backstory. Pledged by the PTSD brought upon by failing his act, the circus has fallen on hard times. He was their inspiration and when his left so did it for everyone else.
Of course, despite how straight-laced and dramatic it’s played as the act they give Vitaly is so incredibly strange that you can’t help but be admired by it. It does what I love about One Piece so much where it just takes an absurd concept and plays it straight.
The remarkable use of camera work and animation helps to sell the nature of the many impossible things that happen in this film though. It’s better than its ever been. The angles, the zooms, the pannings shots, and the direction of the film making is incredible. Not only does it look gorgeous and colorful but the wonderful vistas and lighting help make it stand as a work of art.
Oh and the music~! The music by Hans Zimmer in this film is so good! The entire sequence of Dubois chasing the animals through Monte Carlo could be played completely silent with just the backing track to it and it would likely feel like you just watched a play of some kind. The scene where the main theme kicks in right before transitioning into Dubois’ theme when she runs through the walls of the building is an especially good highlight. The Madagascar theme in and of itself was the most noticeable part of the soundtrack of the previous films but it’s used to its best effect there without question.
Of course, it does have licensed music here too, mostly sung by King Julian, but it’s always so fast and energetically woven in that I can’t help but get into it. The most breathtaking scene in the movie is set to Katy Perry’s Firework and it’s a scene that just demands to be seen in a theater. I SAW it in a theater and was blown away. I wish people today could get that kind of experience again. It’s what 3D in films was made for.
One of the more impressive things about the storytelling here though is the underlying theme of set-up and pay off. Throughout the film they keep making mention of how glossy Alex’s hair is and bring up his hair conditioner, as a side-joke. But it comes full circle when the hair conditioner ends up being the solution to Vitaly’s problem.
However, the most obvious thing comes in at the end when Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman finally do return to the zoo and we just get this wonderful scene of them looking at it and not being smitten with their home anymore. The mural on the wall doesn’t capture the real thing anymore. Gloria is noticing the wall between her and Melman for the first time. Alex has come so far that the line he said in the first movie about Marty making that wish being the worst thing that ever happened to them is flipped to him saying it was the best thing that ever happened to them. That was something I noticed a while back and it really made my heart melt when I caught it.
Even worse is what happens later. When Dubois does capture them and they get returned to the zoo, the lighting is way harsher and darker when they’re back in their pens. Not only that but there’s actual cages with barbed wire around them on top of them. Their home looks like an actual prison now. None of them even have to say it too. It’s obvious that’s what it’s supposed to emulate.
Of course, the climax is awesome. It wonderfully animated, it’s action packed, and it ends with a wonderful reprise of the songs that highlighted the best parts of the film to close us off with a celebration that just warms the fucking soul. I almost cried goddammit.
Sometimes you can just feel happiness on the level of getting emotional. It just happens. This movie wants me to be happy and I relented. It feels good watching it. I’ve seen it so much and I seem to only ever love it more each time I do. Maybe there are better films than it but right now it feels like the one that exemplifies the state of mind I most want to be in right now. Really living it!
“Trapeze Americano~!”
“It is real.”
“IT’S REAL!”
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24 Apr 2025 01:02 CEST
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