A Funky Madagascar Retrospective

[Music] growing up at the height of Pixar and dreamworks's rivalry in the 2000s what distinguished the two studios in my head was dreamworks's drive to create franchises pixel wasn't about churning out sequels yet it liked to craft complete cinematic stories that would stand on their own DreamWorks on the other hand always wanted an excuse to franchise their characters sequels prequels Shorts TV spin-offs TV specials those were in the cards at all times and there was one movie that thrived under the system until it simply didn't one day Madagascar this movie was asking to be a small piece of a big puzzle it was a serviceable kids movie with many issues built in to improve upon in potential sequels The Perfect Crime I won't be calling the first Madagascar bad for that because it was definitely a hit with audiences in 2005 and would be remembered well enough today for its merits but this was a franchise made to build to something greater as it was being released so you have to put a lot of trust in it first but given its development I can see why there would have been a desire to trust it the first ideas that would come to define the Madagascar franchise were devised in 1998 after finishing the first DreamWorks movie ANS director Eric Darnell was put on a project called rockumentary a satirical documentary about a four Penguin rock band akin to A Hard Day's Night but the project didn't go anywhere because companies weren't willing to clear music licenses for it in 2001 Eric darell was assigned a new project with DreamWorks newb Tom McGrath about zoo animals winding up in the wild DaNell put his penguins in this new story and the rest his history there but it took a long time for them to find a selection of zoo animals that would work best for the story by the time they did they had Direct competition from Disney yet again it's not easy to talk about Madagascar without mentioning the wild a computer animated movie distributed by Disney that was also about zoo animals from New York winding up in the wild hence the name the timeline is unclear these days on which of these movies was conceived first but Madagascar beat the wild to theaters by just under a year premiering on May 27th 2005 many were not willing to give DreamWorks the benefit of the doubt here with ant gate still being recent history and that may have reflected in the critical reception too no strong consensus on it with some tabloids calling it good and others calling it mediocre little arguing it was more childish and less sophisticated than the Shrek movies but it performed very well at the box office so to anyone's charging this wasn't the last they'd be seeing of these party animals we're going to the Wide Open Spaces of Antarctica to the wild New York home of Jay Sherman hello I like to move it move it and the Central Park Zoo the star attraction Alex the Lion couldn't be happier with his life there but his best friend Marty the zebra is yearning to head out to the wild the night after his 10th birthday he finally gets the courage to escape the zoo but when Alex and some of his friends try to bring him back they get caught by the police tranquilized boxed up and sent to Kenya until the boxes fall overboard and drift towards Madagascar Marty gets his birthday wish but Alex gets mad hungry and eventually Primal the movie makes no detailed critique of zoos or setting zoo animals free in fact it shows the benefits to both these animals are shown to live safe and catered lives in captivity but Marty for one is ready to throw that away for more adventurous lifestyle that's been built into him it's all about how your environment shapes you and once they get to Madagascar the country begins to shape the New Yorkers into something else Alex is the character whose POV is shown the longest and it's one that's continuously challenged while at the zoo he's always Overjoyed to be the star attraction but as the adventure unfolds he can't keep up his prior security can't stand being away from the environment that catered to him and loses his mind and hunger more frequently this is an adventure that's transforming him into a wild animal and we all know how dangerous Lions can be in this state it's Marty and his journey that get the story going though while zy his desire to see what his life is meant to be what is depicted on the mural he's treading towards every day gets them all into trouble after surfing to the new Shore his goal is to make the best of the situation which gets hard it takes a whole movie for his actions in the First Act to completely bite him so to speak but bit late the never I suppose Gloria the hippo is The Unofficial boss of the quartet if one of them's getting out of line she'll get them back and cheick pretty easily let's not forget that hippos are quite intimidating animals too so there's some real parallel to her being top of the picking order in squabbles she's otherwise sweet and considerate so not all business Melman the Giraffe is the neurotic and health obsessed one the only serious reflection of zoo issues and how they have to struggle to keep their giraffes healthy he was my favorite of the quartet as a kid because I found his body and movements to be so strange it made him and his medical needs seem more neglected out here but he's a fun presence if hypochondriacal to a fault not too deep in the jungle There lives a tribe of lemas led by King Julian a big kid who only wants to party not a Shabby leader if he can meet the needs of his subjects but he wouldn't get anything done without his right-hand man Maurice whose role is to be skeptical of the new arrivals especially Alex but he is an advis to the inadvisable with Julian not seeing the harm and befriending them their Rapport is fun but it was Mor that they really wanted to steal the show he's the disgustingly cute one which works to his favor more than anything the Penguins oh those Penguins Skipper Kowalski Rico and private are a group of Escape experts who break all the rules they can to reach their bright shiny destination of Antarctica well this sucks to reach their bright shiny destination of Madagascar I'll delve more into what sets each of them apart when I review their spin-off which is getting closer the more I think about how great they are the monkeys Mason and Phil don't do much for me or the plot they have one use for Phil to read what the crates say because the penguins cannot all there is beyond this is Mason saying poo one of the closest things this movie has to an antagonist is the fousa a of carnivores that prey on the Lemur they also serve as a reminder of how dangerous the wild can be and the kind of mindless meat eer Alex is in danger of transforming into no wonder this country's population is 93% religious the second closest thing to an antagonist is the old lady who kicks Alex in the groin old ladies are funny third closest is the NYPD who graciously allowed DreamWorks to use their likeness to make jokes about whiteon zebra police brutality yeah yeah that's right a zebra right in front of me can I shoot it I guess the deepest the first Madagascar movie goes is some mild racial allegories with Marty gu just wants to see where he came from he doesn't know yet if he's black with white stripes or white with black stripes I can't speak for the black experience but it's an element of the journey they snuck in quite well no surprise for a Chris Rock Character either but after they leave the zoo the POV shifts from Marty to Alex now the story is led by a fish out of water who misses being treated like a king by the zoo and its visitors for most of the second act there is a danger they'll make one or the other too unsympathetic and while it takes some time for Marty to regret what's happened it's never like their friendship is seriously on the line until Alex starts wanting to eat him he can't go without steak for very long after just 3 days out of captivity everyone around him learns the hard way that Lions need to eat meat so it turns into a story that in some sense is about the verge of cannibalism this first entry isn't afraid to get a little gloomy especially with this plot swth there are some attempts to lighten the mood like having a baby duck get eaten by a crocodile okay lightening the mood is a misleading term dark humor is more like it but as long as Alex's carnivorous diet is sorted out it'll feel like something's solved by the end the moral of the story is try new food most of the characters are informed by the celebrity they got to voice them without all being typ casts Ben Stiller is known for his very animated performances already the same can be said for Sasha Baron Cohen Jada pinket Smith David schwimer and Cedric the Entertainer are there for the parents and to flex their range but the Penguins and Mason are all voiced by Folks at DreamWorks so good thing the former took off showing that celebrity voiced characters aren't always the ones to CCH on so it wouldn't be so easy to write off as a basic consumer product CGI kid movie this was one of the first attempts from any major Studio to make a fulllength computer animated cartoon something that took more influence stylistically from the Golden Age of American animation than liveaction movies there's some cartoon logic applied where it counts like the shipping crates having air holes but not filling up with water when they all fall overboard it's not an air hole plot hole there's not going to be much realism in a world where talking animals can ride the subway and build Lady Liberty shrine they even made the old routine of seeing others as food while going nuts integral to the story that makes it clear this is closer to Looney Tunes than Toy Story but that doesn't absolve Madagascar from having any problems and there are a few I have it's difficult to take New Yorkers to Madagascar without jumping through a lot of Hoops and while them getting shipped to Kenya first then heading to the island country helps smooth us over how many characters they need to get there makes some aspects of the setup a little little contrived how convenient that all three groups of animals are caught at Grand Central Station how convenient all four of the main characters wash up on Madagascar how convenient this is the island the Penguins land on after visiting Antarctica how quickly they getting there as cartoon logic I don't have any issue with that but the other logistics border on Magic something that might become annoying is the movie being very reliant on pop culture references and licensed music now in moderation the were Staples of Looney Tunes and others as well but Madagascar is not moderate with these things there are references in here that were dated before the movie premiered hey check out my website 24hour alexam watch sleep who's going to get that now and a few licensed songs to surprise you or underscore important moments can work but you look at the credits and they really added up but if one were introduced to Chariots of Fire or Lewis Armstrong through metag then fair enough you just notice there's like five Simpsons episodes worth of Pop Culture references in this 80 minute Zany animal movie when you take a step back and I should be happy with the original music we do get Hans Zimmer of all people was the composer and he didn't hold back there's some very Lively background music throughout that you might be left humming more than you know what made Madagascar a little revolutionary in its day was its animation looking back after two decades it might not seem that great with character designs that look fine in 2D and 3D but not excellent in either but the way they acted was something to consider up to then computer animated movies wanted to come off as realistically as they could but it had been 10 years since Toy Story it was time to see if they could take the animation aspect somewhere new Madagascar's character animation is very energetic when it wants to be they squash just as much as they stretch making you wonder no more what tech ay could do if he lived in the computer age not many errors or seriously unappealing breaks on the models so I get the sense these animators had been wanting to do this for ages a fresh take on computer animation isn't all Madagascar has going for it it features quite engaging computer graphics for 2005 I love the look of Madagascar it's a world apart from New York in all the right ways there's a list color side to the island but it's still shown to be very exotic Beach and jungle settings were nothing new for this medium but the environment they built here is still eye candy I'm willing to admit there might be Nostalgia on my end because this is the only entry in the series my family owned on DVD when I was little that provided a challenge in picking out favorite and least favorite scenes because it's largely consistent in quality from start to finish if there were some I could list as favorites they'd start with with Alex's weird Candyman hallucination gave them the chance to do a classic Disney fever dream in 3D and if this is what you see when you get tranquilized tranquilize me whenever you see me in public on the other side of the world there's the gang talking to each other in shipping crates it's visually symbolic of how they've been cut off from the life they once knew and having to talk to one another without properly seeing each other eye to eye get some strong feelings out of their system I've always enjoyed the scenes on the Madagascar sure it's a set for them to do all sorts of physical comedy they get the plot moving here in small ways and it all looks great at any time of the day not that some of the lunacy can't get a little extreme but for the most part this place is a Vibe and I get it might be a divisive part of the movie but the water a Wonderful World sequence is so dark that it gets quite amusing again there are a few scenes that aren't awful but could have easily been reworked the monkeys only having that one use of translating a sticker does make them feel more worthless to the overall package this is the last day appear in the movie until the ending scene making this feel more like a cheat than it is and as the movie takes a darker turn I'd say the National Geographic end up was in the wrong place at the wrong time for the story one reference too many I understand when you've spent 4 years developing a movie there are ideas you don't want to throw away and a lot of this movie was worth keeping my verdict is that Madagascar is a good movie but just good better than okay and a little better than decent but it would be hard to find anyone willing to call it a full-blown Masterpiece perhaps one of the sequels can approach that title Behold The Lion hey people okay there's much to see moving on plans to franchise Madagascar were formed quickly the Penguins were already given their own Christmas short which played ahead of DreamWorks animations next release and a sequel to Madagascar had been announced by then as well this gave the team the opportunity to dust off elements they thought of for the first movie but feared would alienate viewers this included a whole subplot about Gloria and melman's relationship which is why Melman was just a sidekick for much of the original the writing team was slightly shaken up Eric and Tom were still in charge of the script and directing but instead of Mark bers and Billy Frolic their co-writer now was Ean Cohen someone with a t had more experience in writing animation so everything seemed to be looking up when escape to Africa premiered on November 7th 2008 it made even more money critics were warming up to the story so far and the Penguins of Madagascar spin-off series was first shown on Nickelodeon 3 weeks later Madagascar was now a franchise that was cracking the mainstream but to be honest this was around the time I was going to see list DreamWorks movies as an avid follower of the studio I saw escape to Africa and liked it it but never owned it on DVD afterward same with the Penguin series but I caught it occasionally as long as I could out of curiosity this was the late 2000s I was growing up and had a stronger respect for Pixar and their output so had to pledge my allegiance to them on the playground but that was then and this is now so now let's go back then for a story exploring Alex's lineage and his relationship with his family I can see a purpose to it starting with a baby backstory Adventure that I otherwise swear was pushing early to grab the attention of mothers it's a devilishly clever animated movie tactic it's learned from this that Alex was being trained by his Alpha Lion father zuba to be a great fighter but he played too far away from home and got poached zuba at least saved him from them but his crate ended up in a river and floated all the way to New York City where they decided let's make this Cub who's been at sea for days the mascot of our Zoo classic New Yorker Behavior my only serious complaint about this backstory is the lack of time frame the first movie was most likely set in the then present day of 2005 and Marty has just turned 10 so why is the newspaper dated 1972 someone want to argue 33 in human years is 10 and zebra years sorry to dwell on this dumb detail like I said it's the only major negative to this opening the actual story is the penguins have built a plane to fly the zoo animals to New York but it crashed plans partway through the Journey stranding them and some familiar flight attendant in Africa to be more specific since Madagascar is part of Africa the larger land mass in a sprawling savan inhabited by more of their own kind that includes Alex's parents who had long missed him a her of zebras that behave uncannily exactly like Marty some hippos including one Gloria takes a liking to and giraffes that tell Melman he's going to die the whole quartet is busy in this story they all splinter off then regroup then keep going with their trials but they wouldn't have much to do split out without these new characters and they're a memorable Bunch zuba is dreamworks's second father of the pride and proud he is proud of his son but also at odds with his less assertive Life Choices it's not a big barrier to Alex or the audience so long as they can get along by the end the mother leaves a smaller but more sensitive impact so small and sensitive that they never say her name on screen the novelization calls her flurry though got to check all available sources sometimes MinGa is the main villain of the movie someone in the story Department stayed up too many nights and said dude what a scar from The Lion King was played by Alec Baldwin and they put it in the movie makinga is a beta living in an alpha world that'll drive anyone to villainy or at least Petty plans for kingship with dire consequences for the local animal kingdom he's a total jerk so it's good to see him get his comeuppance by the end of the tale the herd of zebras that Marty tries to join is a near identical pack of Marty clones their visual differences are minor from a distance and they have a strong enough sense of community before Marty meets them there could be another racial allegory in here with how Alex is put in a position where he has to prove that Marty isn't just one of hundreds of zebras that they have a friendship that exceeds background I might be reading a bit deep into this so no bit time to to switch to a more fanciful plotline about mixed race couples Gloria makes herself at home in a pack of hippos but none are as important as moso Moto the hunkiest hippo they could have possibly designed he seems like a nice enough and committed potential partner but the relationships he forms can't be truly meaningful his role is to show that Melman has bit a boyfriend material for Gloria which is supported by the narrative in many ways but melman's bigger crisis is that the her of giraffes in Africa convinced him he's got 2 Days to Live they aren't the most supportive Bunch have I made that clear at least unlike the first movie the hive mind gives Melman something to confront about himself and a bar to rise above joining the mains on the trip are Mason and Phil who are marginally more useful to events here they help repair the plane after it crashes With a Little Help from their relatives they solve one problem but cause another later on so it's not like they're just a pack of problem solvers another new animal is a shark who terrorizes Mort who just barely made the trip this old gag is only seen a few times but there is a whole Adventure here we only see glimpses of I wouldn't have minded a bonus short on the DVD containing more slapstic Shenanigans between these two a returning foe is the old lady at Grand Central Station now conveniently on a safari with some other people that gets derailed by the Penguins the old lady is still the star of this little troop but I won't pass up a mention of the tour guide played by Phil Lamar who almost sounds like Hermes from a previous life it's a sequel of course the cast is going to be a bit bigger but I'm happy the focus was still on giving the main quartet something to learn about themselves the plane won't be fixed until the suits meet our demands now about maternity leave maternity leave you're our male the way the narratives are structured is markedly different from before instead of one continuous narrative about Alex and Marty's relationship with a few tours to what the other groups are up to we've now got multiple narratives sprouting up to accommodate the larger setting it's like when the mystery gang splits up to search for Clues but what they're searching for was in them all along while the POV is shared more evenly amongst the gang Alex's plot is still the most important it arguably has the most personal weight to it a family story where he and zuba aren't as similar as either would have hoped whereas the first movie was about Alex proving to be a danger in the wild escape to Africa is about the wild proving to be a danger to Alex in a sense he grew up only knowing how to perform not how to fight and defend his land and that proves a problem in combat but not so much in the resolution mckena as a villain knew exactly how to drive a wedge between Father and Son since Alex was a cub but what he didn't count on was that he's far less competent at being a leader than an opposition to leadership there are consequences to his selfish behavior for the kingdom and himself he's not a top tier animated villain but there is something to say about him milman and Gloria's Love Story may not be Flawless but it was important that they have something to do out here Gloria mentions on the plane that she wants to be added to the zoo's breeding program so it's not like her interest in moto moto dropped out of thin ear the plane did but not the motivation as for how Melman reacts to this relationship being into Gloria himself he does everything he can including some very extreme stuff motivated by the belief of the other giraffes that he hasn't got long for this world the end result can feel like the writers compensating for giving him so little in the first movie but at least there are some things to take away from this like don't get your medical advice from giraffes it was no surprise they'd bring back the old lady it didn't seem like they'd ever be finished getting their jollies from her after inching further into Family Guy chicken fights with Alex they separate them for most of the movie so we can see see her survival skills where did she get them don't ask questions you aren't prepared to handle the answers to What mattered most was that the breakout stars of the last movie The Penguins were given things to do and that the monkeys were miles more useful but only after some careful negotiations you've got penguins in Africa you have to use them it's good to check in on them every now and again to lighten things up because all the main plots are quite heavy in some way or another that's not to say the penguins have nothing to worry about about Skipper's sadness after the hoola girl gets decapitated is very moving the presentation's taking a step up the sound trck is even better for escape to Africa with less licensed music to fall back on and in a better attempt to mes the score with a pop sound Hans Zimmer collaborates with Will I Am for some pieces I don't listen to a lot of Will I Am music but I find how fitting he was for the assignment surprising and since escape to Africa had double the budget of the first movie proof is in the picture the animation is a lot cleaner across the board but a little less bouncy and exaggerated the African planes don't look as fanciful as Madagascar for the most part so I can see why they had to make the movement slightly more realistic this time it's still a gorgeous movie and the credit sequence allowed the 2D artists to leave some impression it actually makes up for them playing I Like to Move it a fourth time in two movies besides the opening there's a lot of great scenes throughout the this movie some of my favorites include the plane ride in fact it would be my very favorite scene there's just this chaotic tension to it that always draws me back to it even before the crash landing but that crash landing is funny dark and hectic allinone not just been too long on this scene but it's fantastic how they've got everyone they need and most of their motivations sorted out in such a silly way I'm not going to judge king Julian's taste in cinema all the shenanigans the Penguins get into are at least funny but a standout scene for me would be the infiltration of the Safari card you're starting to get a bitter read of their individual Dynamics just how dead set Skipper is on his out there goals just how submissive private is to any role they plan out for him if they're the breakout stars and going to be given more FaceTime there needs to be more to them than cute and cuddly my favorite scene from Gloria and melman's plots intersecting is Gloria's date with mosho mosho not really for what's happening but for how beautiful the environment is the only drawback to the savan setting is how humid it has to be for most of the time there so I don't mind them taking some Liberty and getting at least one stylistically Divergent location Alex confronting the zebra herd and picking out Marty is a good test of friendship visually Dynamic symbolic of many things and so on Alex proves himself a bit a friend to Marty than previously here and the dance off climax where Alex and zuba save themselves by putting on a a show is weird but makes sense how did Alex save the day last time performing now he gets to do it with his pops the rest of the third act gives me a couple conflicted feelings like MinGa stint as the Alpha Lion is in this murky Middle Ground where he's not a good leader at all but not tyrannical enough to be more cathartic for him later it felt like they were being too tentative with him here like if he was hoarding water when the watering hole drived up then that' be truly evil instead of merely jerkish inuring is tenure less impactful than it could have been melman's attempted volcano sacrifice has the opposite problem being too extreme of a plot Point not in that it's too dark for Melman to choose to do he thought he was going to die anyway but in how it's more dramatic and scope and tone than the more major stories at a certain point but I can still guess reasons why they chose to do this my best one being it was their way to get that more lucrative PG rating the first movie said damn in hell this one need a volcano they would have had their reasons for this third act being the way it was dozens of rewrites focus group suggestions those could always impact things and I'm not saying this movie loses much here it's still a satisfying package and in my opinion a better movie than the first more coherent just as funny and with a bitter understanding of who the characters are and what to do with them but even though this is a well-rounded package everyone knew it wasn't going to cap things off there was no way the animals were staying in Africa for very long and a third movie had already been announced in August it wasn't the happiest month though as the voice of zuba Bernie Mack passed away on the 9th at the age of 50 this meant it would be hard to use zubba in the next movie or not at all I can imagine it must have been hard for the writers to figure out what to do next the third installment would have three directors Darnell and McGrath now being joined by Dreamworks veteran Conrad Vernon because all the directors doubled as voice actors for these movies I like to imagine it was cobbled together by Skipper Mason and subway car announcer Eric Darnell and Noah borach wrote the script for this thing so some of the pressure was off Tom's shoulders this time and that will come out in the movie in many ways it felt less pressured to do certain things you caught me getting ahead of myself it was released in 2012 to become the most successful movie yet critically and financially but something tells me the general public couldn't have another bite and were on the verge of Madagascar fatigue when telling me that's something only needed to utter nine words the ninth one being circus circus afro circus afro circus afro polka dot polka dot polka dot afro really but before I talk about the movie in detail here's my history with it you can skip it if it gets too boring I didn't see it in theaters but I remember where when and how I saw it for the first time in the holiday season of 2013 down in y he Al's there didn't all have TVs so we had to use a portable DVD player for much of our entertainment and where did we get the DVD for this movie from a liquor store there's a liquor store down there that in those days doubled as a video rental store this is the only Madagascar 3 review on the internet to have this information it's absolutely Superfluous for whatever points I'll make but it's a story I thought was worth sharing how could I ever forget my first exposure to this strange strange send off my second exposure to it was also a trip 2 years later for a religious studies class in middle school we watched Joseph king of Dreams And The Prince of Egypt but for the latter the teacher lost their best quality rip between showings so they had to use a YouTube reupload to show us the last 15 minutes which to avoid copyright was Pitch up so all the characters including God sounded squeaky with his stff you shall do my wonders but after that movie ended it cut into the first 5 minutes of Madagascar 3 for some reason with the same copyright skirting chipmunk voices and the teacher just let us watch that until the class ended so that was the second time I saw this movie as 5 minutes of Madagascar Nightcore while me and the boys were otherwise thinking about the book of Exodus and finally a few weeks ago I rewatched it on Apple TV no funny stories I just buckled down and paid attention to the story and themes the Penguins and monkeys have taken the fixed up plane to Monte Carlo to party but when Alex worries they're never returning after about 2 years of them being gone he his gang and the Lemur swam there they swam all the way from Africa to Monaco I can already tell this is going to be the wackiest movie yet the point is the broader journey of the Madagascar franchise has taken them to Europe where they must now escape the wrath of the French Animal Control Captain Shantel deis and travel in the fur power circus lying about not being stowaways in the hopes of making it back to New York every movie seems to take them to a bigger world to explore but while the second movie use its location to flesh its leads out a bit more now it's more about being an absurdest comedy whose new stars are the ones who have the most to learn even the villain and that is not to M with Alex Shantel deis is like the Sleek updated model of the old lady while her establishing moments are Sinister she is not understated she has such a searing hatred for animals that she can perform superhuman Feats if it means getting their heads she's no Pixar villain but still a formidable presence in her own way she's not the only Animal Control worker going after our heroes Shantel has her cronies who do a good job in being her wingmen showing how much more lethal she is than anyone in her position has any need to be the lead animal of the animal circus is Vitali a Siberian tiger played by Brian Cranston of all possible choices who's long since lost his passion for performing he's not any sort of antagonist per se but is at odds with Alex on many things when his backstory is revealed it puts his current attitude into context while giving you a basic chemistry lesson Gia is a much friendlier Jaguar and becomes Alex's love interest the whole love interest angle has some buildup to it and Gia lives up to a stated use as a more receptive member of fur power circus but you're probably going to leave with the love interest notion more than anything she says or does Stefano is more memorable an Italian sea lion and the Heart of the troop he's the one who opens up the most to the sto with I mean newcomers and is Overjoyed when his troop starts practicing their act again some may say he's of average intelligence but I think is an above average member of the new cast their most unique member is Sonia a non-verbal bear whose full potential has been locked away for some time she's another love interest with King Julian falling in love with her and taking her on a romantic adventure she makes for a strong comedic companion to the king a big lump of softness he can play with and admit anything too there's other animals and fur power circus little groups that perform as their own units some cute puppies who are actually grizzled in a seric raise your hand if you've seen this whole cute characters actually old and grouchy joke before and some horses who are all dressed up with nowhere to go they just stay in the background mostly the last characters of any plot importance are the former circus owners who Mason Phil and the Penguins buy the circus from they must be very smart and business conscious because how can you mistrust a rich guy who looks like this why should we lift the poor they are our friends they're not even circus that's buik first things first the animal circus setup makes it clear that the more urbanized areas of this world are still no less cartoony this was a quite outdated idea by 2012 hardly any circuses use animals these days due to debates over animal abuse but there's no human ring leader once they're B out it's all just animals doing their thing so no matter which way you slice it they're still making it clear this is an absurd world even though the circus angle is an acronis it is one of the most appealing aspects of the movie getting to see these circus tricks in a heightened reality so the choreography is guaranteed to be grand where escaped to Africa zigged Europe's Most Wanted zag this is almost like its own sequel to Madagascar with its own creative intentions and its own areas it wants to expand upon escape to Africa was the serious sequel well this is the silly one I explain where Alex's parents are or explain how the game gets to Monaco if that can get in the way of jokes and the energetic mood well I think these would have been nice to have even if they wouldn't matter the most to the rest of the movie just having a little more continuity to escape to Africa wouldn't hurt the focus is on the silly and that has its disadvantages as a direct follow up to that one but this one has its moments there's Alex's giving up moment when the plane crash lands again but tell's backstory being quite dramatic despite its absurdity and the moment Where the Fur power circus learns who Alex ander's gang really are these all make for emotional beats but are wrapped up in a little more kookiness than previously I'm sure there are people who don't mind or love this tone and I can mostly see they wanted to please everyone but I think this Revelation scene in particular suffers from existing as an emotional plot beat first and a way to get the gang to move on second it's trash and predictable not the worst thing for a kids movie in my opinion but still not great the dynamic between the Gang has changed since the start of the series Alex is now the leader in all regards it's no longer Mari who instigates events and it's no longer Gloria keeping everyone in check she and Melman have some moments to mingle but whatever Alex and Mari have to learn about each other and theirselves is thinner than in previous movies maybe they really did spend a long time in Africa and they've been on thousands of life-changing experiences we'll never see just like did trip to Monaco in terms of carrying over the encompassing themes of the Madagascar movies animal instincts and learning where you came from they're only present in this text on the surface for the bulk of it the only major subplot for the old characters after the Penguins and monkeys are reunited with the gang is Julian's love affair with Sonia it's there of your look for it this more cognitive animal trying to get a big lug to see the Thrills in life this stuff's funny but is there to give Julian something to do while the grown-ups talk it out and practice their act in fact he's so isolated from the group now that Mort and Maurice have less to do than ever there's more of them in other materials so their stories are still to be told I guess it sounds like I'm mixed or neutral on this movie right well that's because I've only been talking about the first five sixths of it the last 12 minutes are amazing and make up for any previous misgivings When The Circus gets to New York and after the predictable breakup it briefly climbs from a 6 out of 10 to a 9 out of the blue most out of the blue because being the end of a Trilogy and all some part of you would still be expecting the emotion to ramp up towards the end and it does when Alex Marty Melman and Gloria get back to the Central Park Zoo that's where it becomes a culmination of everything they've been through they get tranquilized by Shantel and her cronies but it's not as goofy as last time it feels more captive and when they wake up back in the zoo it's no better than being in jail for them they're wild animals now and don't Bel in captivity and I still aren't making any ethical statements about zoos this just applies to the gang and then everything about their escape is marvelous shantel's hidden attempt to do alexen for good and how they make the circus fly overhead to give a sense of height relief salvation if they can get up there the gang are all using the tricks they've learned along the way to get there and while I'm not so sure Alex and Shantel can understand each other their dramatic banter is dynamite take listen you drived over 80 M hour that's illegal no worries I can do that no problem it's a colorful dramatic and explosive way to book in the trilogy what started out is some animals breaking out of a zoo ended with some animals breaking out of a zoo and choosing to stay in the circus now renamed circus afro this is the most open-ended conclusion they could have come to but I wouldn't call it a cheat they've had a long time in this movie to build up to this decision and it keeps the possibilities for a fourth movie or continuation varied and even if you don't think a fourth movie should happen even if it never happens even if the voice of Maria and the voice of Gloria still aren't comfortable performing together this is an inarguably positive outcome for the characters and what's next for them could be anything anywhere in the world and what helps this movie and every scene is the animation and cinematography I'm impressed with the spectacle of the movie even the scenes that I think are wring a bit flat have a cinematic flare to them in some way the obvious standouts are the big Technicolor circus showcases they would have made those expensive real D 3D glasses worth buying and upgrading to a Blu-ray player to get those extra million colors in your home once the movie hit the shelves sorry to put it in such a money Centric way but those are absolutely the reasons the staging is more dimensional and the colors are more saturated than before a technical division in India was responsible for some of the work here so they had experts in making it as appealing as possible the character animation what makes me care more about the characters than the amount of colors on screen is still impressive a little more cun and escape to Africa striking a balance between the first and second that best suits this adventure and its creative goals and I think that's nice sweet fantastic picture on the ocean at a big Titanic woman nice someone get the song out of my head it's play in the credits of every single movie I'll just name the best and worst scenes and get out before it completely takes me over fal's back story as explained by Martin Short as a sea lion hits the right notes for a dramedy vali's trick is unbelievable but so is the way his stardom comes crumbling down you start to feel bad for him while getting a chuckle out of the kooky way things shook out F power circus's First full performance is well worth the price of admission in every regard setting it to Katy Perry's Firework was a risk I'm willing to part with is it too new compared to all the other pop songs these movies use sure but it fits the atmosphere better than any other pop song I can think of practically everything during their return to New York is fantastic it wasn't just the spectacle of their escape that helped this climax out it was the sense of completion to everything and that extends to the very last scene before the credits Shantel and her gang being shipped off to Madagascar by the Penguins that clenched it because now at the last second the movie had something to do with Madagascar 40% of the title granted the choice of Music could have been less annoying but hey time for my least favorite scenes there isn't much to hate but a lot of the first portion of the movie could have made more sense cartoon logic is still logic and would be nice to have furthermore I think the Penguins and monkeys were underutilized in Monaco a lot of joke potential is Promised here but they're stapled back to Alex Ander gang quickly that appearance at the casino feels like a tease of mishaps we've missed out on but after that the chase scene with Shantel starts so I didn't stay disappointed for long one of my least favorite things about this movie was the song they chose to conclude it Afro Circus as a silly little it's fine as the theme of the movie go back to Katie Perry it was a bad idea to sell this at a liquor store Hard movie for me to place a verdict on overall most of it is a vibrant and fun animated movie that wasn't Hing the same beats for me as the first two but the climax is excellent and worth waiting for I prefer escape to Africa for its deeper emotional beats and I'd still rank the first one above it for being more involved with its premise but three is still worth it in the end I wouldn't say the trilogy went out on a sour note it always kept entertainment value in mind and was able to translate it to the screen in increasingly exciting ways but even though I'd say this is a more consistent film series than the last DreamWorks franchise I looked at Shrek I would still watch those first two Shrek movies again before escaped to Africa the Madagascar films cater more to a young audience but that doesn't mean they're Dumber or less worth your time just that they occupy a more specific place in the DreamWorks Cannon but it's one I'm willing to explore a little further if you're aware of how I've planned my channel out this year you'd know my next review will be of a 2000's cartoon from one of the three major TV Animation Studios H technicality is fun The Penguins of Madagascar are waddling your way up next on [Music] Nickelodeon not bad eh I like it

Channel: EmployeeAMillion

Views: 3,393

Keywords: Madagascar, DreamWorks, 2000s, 2010s

Id: Uk6DACrb1E0

Length: 44min 53sec (2693 seconds)

Published: Fri May 24 2024