Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted is the third (and I think the funniest!) Dreamworks movie featuring Marty (Chris Rock), Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), and Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer). The story begins where the second movie ended, with the zoo crew stuck in the African desert, still trying to find their way back home to New York City. Skipper and those crazy penguins take off for Monte Carlo in a monkey-powered flying machine, hoping to make some quick cash so that they can repair the plane and finally fly everyone back home. Suddenly Alex gets
really anxious to leave Africa. Maybe it's his nightmares about growing old. Or maybe it was the monkeys laughing "We're never coming back!" as they flew off!
Alex and his friends decide not to wait for the monkeys and head out to Monte Carlo, where they find the penguins gambling and having a grand old time. Apparently wild animals are not welcome in casinos (must've been Gloria's crash landing through the ceiling). Alex and his friends find themselves being hunted by a psychotic animal control officer named Capitaine Chantel DuBois (hilariously voiced by Frances McDormand) who will stop at nothing until she has a lion's head on her trophy wall. Their only chance of escape is to jump onto a nearby circus train.
While King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen) falls in love with a huge, hairy, tricycle-riding bear named Sonya. Alex and the others try to convince the animals - Vitaly the Russian Tiger (Bryan Cranston), Stefano the Italian Sea Lion (Martin Short) and Gia the Italian Jaguar (Jessica Chastain) - to let them join their circus. The fun never stops as they travel through Rome and London to perform in the greatest show on earth, a colorful, spectacular finale that features Gloria and Melman dancing on a high wire, Marty being shot through a cannon, and Vitaly the Tiger soaring through an impossibly small ring of fire. Now if that doesn't get you crack-a -lackin' (as Marty would say), then I don't know what will.
For another funny animated movie, see
Ice Age 4: Continental Drift (click on link to review below).