BEFORE: Voice actor Frank Welker carries over from "Mulan" - he's been the voice of Scooby-Doo for the past few years, plus Garfield, Curious George, Nibbler from "Futurama", and done various voices for many other Disney and WB productions. Being a voice actor just has to be a great gig, and I see many of the same names again and again - which helps out my linking quite a bit. There may never be another Mel Blanc, but some of today's voice actors have seriously long resumés.
THE PLOT: Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman are still fighting to get home to their beloved Big Apple. Their journey takes them through Europe where they find the perfect cover: a traveling circus.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Madagascar" (Movie #14), "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" (Movie #363)
AFTER: Well, if I had to pick a theme so far for this year, it would be something about identity. First we had a country cat who wants to be a city cat, then a Chinese maiden who finds her place as a male warrior, and tonight it's zoo animals who become jungle animals, then circus animals. Traveling (or going on a quest) is a common theme in movies, of course, but it's interesting that in all three cases, the main characters have all been trying to re-define themselves at the same time.
Of course, wherever you go, there you are. Or so they say, but that's beside the point. The four zoo animals in "Madagascar" went halfway around the world, only to find themselves longing for New York, and realizing that they had things pretty good there after all. I guess the Central Park grass is always greener, or something. So their new quest is to make it home - but once they get there, will they discover that they can't really go home again?
If that's the case, it's a bit of a strange message to send out to the kids - "Hey, kids, you know that place you really want to be, or that thing you're trying to accomplish? Well, you might find that once you get there, you've changed in the process and now you really want something else." Umm, wait, do I really want that thing that I want, because now you've got me all confused. Gee, I thought I wanted to be a doctor when I grow up, but when I get to medical school, will I have changed so much that I don't want that any more? Maybe I'll just sleep in today and contemplate my goals.
Tonight we're presented with a circus run by the animals themselves - so gone are the old acts like lion tamers and elephant trainers. Instead, the lion's on the trapeze, the hippo's on the high-wire, and the zebra's being shot out of a cannon. See, kids, there's no limit to what crazy stunts you can do if you just set your mind to it! The laws of physics don't even apply, and nobody ever gets hurt doing circus stunts, even if they have no training! (another strange message...)
I wonder if this movie is good for circuses, or bad - do today's kids show up at the circus or zoo and expect the animals to talk, throw knives and fly through the air wearing rocket-shoes? Perhaps when CGI makes everything possible, the real world looks a little less interesting, no? But maybe it will get kids thinking about which is a better place for animals to be - the zoo or the circus (or, maybe neither?). Would it really have been that bad for the animals to have ended up in the wild?
If you don't think too much about the implications of everything, as I apparently do, this movie's probably a lot of fun. There's a fair amount of slapstick, but that's typical for today's Hollywood animated films, since they think all kids have the A.D.D. and will tune out if some character doesn't fall down or something doesn't crash or explode every thirty seconds.
NITPICK POINT: What authority would an animal control officer who works in Monte Carlo have outside that region? Why would she even bother tracking animals once they've left Monaco? Does she work for the E.U. or the United Nations or something? This character just seemed like a mistake from the get-go, because there are plenty of people who work in animal control who love animals, the concept that a dogcatcher would hate dogs, for example, seems really outdated. I know every movie needs a villain but this one really sells out a whole profession.
NITPICK POINT #2: I dug the obvious reference to Cirque du So-Lame, but in re-inventing their circus, did the animals have to copy so many aspects of that style of entertainment? I guess the writers couldn't go too far with a re-invention while still having the show resemble a circus. The only unique act portrayed was the one the tiger did, and not only was it impossible, but we the audience never get to see it - so how do we know he really did it?
Also starring the voices of Ben Stiller (last seen in "The Watch"), Chris Rock (last seen doing stand-up in "Bowling for Columbine"), David Schwimmer (last seen in "John Carter" - wait, what?), Jada Pinkett Smith (last seen in "Reign Over Me"), Sacha Baron Cohen (last seen in "Les Miserables", so this is where he's been hiding), Frances McDormand (last seen in "Friends With Money"), Cedric the Entertainer (last seen in "Larry Crowne"), Jessica Chastain (last seen in "Zero Dark Thirty"), Bryan Cranston (last seen in "Argo"), Martin Short (last heard in Frankenweenie"), Andy Richter, Vinnie Jones, Paz Vega.
RATING: 6 out of 10 tranquilizer darts
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