Thursday, June 7, 2012
Film / Review / Pop Culture 'Madgascar 3' finds its niche in the circus
Posted by Curt Holman @Curt_Holman on Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 9:10 AM
- Courtesy of DreamWorks
- FUR POWER: The cast of 'Madagascar 3'
Fortunately the third chapter builds a plot that feels organic to the films’ defining joke, which equates the four-footed heroes with modern-day celebrities. Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller) basked in the attention of adoring crowds as the Central Park Zoo’s star attraction, while Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock), Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer) also served as privileged New Yorkers. Alex’s jokes about, say, being a Bob Fosse-style dancer in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa always felt imposed on the films’ fish-out-of-water situations.
When Madagascar 3 eventually makes showbiz part of the story, the comedy clicks where its predecessors felt contrived. Homesick for New York, Alex and company leave Africa for Europe, where they become the quarry for a hilariously ruthless animal control officer, Captain Chantel DuBois (Frances McDormand), who combines the relentlessness of Les Miserables Inspector Javert with the euro-diva bearing of Marlene Dietrich and Edith Piaf. A madcap chase through Monaco proves more outlandish and inventive than a similar sequence in Pixar's Cars 2.
The gung-ho team of commando penguins (who star on their own TV series, “The Penguins of Madagascar”) steal the film’s first act, much like they did with the previous two movies. When the animals take refuge on a circus train, the story feels like it finally starts, about 30 minutes into the movie. Both to secure passage to New York and to help their new friends, the Manhattan mammals resolve to rehabilitate the washed-up circus performers, which include a bumbling sea lion (Martin Short), a comely jaguar (Jessica Chastain) and a brooding Siberian tiger (Bryan Cranston) who resents the interference of outsiders.
Alex suggests that their new friends flip the script of the animal-free Cirque du Soleil by making a circus with nothing but performing beasts, and Madagascar 3 unexpectedly puts a fresh spin on a real-world pop phenomenon. When they grapple with problems like stage fright, disgruntled audiences and the challenges of evolving a performance to match changing times, the voice actors seem energized by material they can clearly identify with. “You get stuck in a rut, you start going through the motions,” says Alex, and Madagascar 3 makes an honest attempt to get the film series out of its rut.
Even Captain DuBois takes a moment in the spotlight to rally her bedridden gendarmes with a rendition of “"Non, je ne regrette rien” (a gag that probably no kid in the audience will get). The animals’ spruced-up circus looks like an overdose of neon lights, lasers and death-defying acrobatics, but would probably be a huge hit in Vegas. And even audiences weary of 3-D must admit that the gimmick suits characters who rocket from cannons or swing from trapezes. Replete with high-energy sight gags, Madagascar 3 mostly offers a trivial, empty spectacle, but at least the animators get the spectacle right.
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted. 3 stars. Directed by Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath and Conrad Vernon. Stars Ben Stiller, Chris Rock. Rated PG. Opens Fri., June 8. At area theaters.
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