Why So Blu?

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted – The New York Giants Are Back!!!

This animated action adventure Madagascar 3, the third movie in the series, is by far my favorite.  It manages to effectively deliver laughs and enough exciting adventures to keep all the little ones entertained and giggling throughout its 95-minute run time.  What a fun 3D summer movie for the whole family to see!  I would totally go see it a second time!!  Once again directed by Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath with the addition of Conrad Vernon, the series seems to be getting better with each movie.  Looking for a way back to the New York Zoo, Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer) and Gloria the Hippopotamus (Jada Pinkett-Smith) set out after escaping Africa.  They have been left behind by the penguins and chimps as they need to obtain funds for their journey home.  However, the penguins and chimps have a scam to win the money at a casino.  Alex gets tired of waiting for them to return and decides that they need to go after them.

Animals though, are not allowed on the casino floor and so the chimps have concocted a disguise.  When Alex and the gang show up, they have to be very careful as to how to grab the chimps and penguins.  Needless to say, things do not go as planned and they are now being chased by Captain Chantel DuBois (Frances McDormand), animal control leader, who has walls full of the animal heads she has killed.  There is one spot she needs to fill, and of course, it is the lion.  Alex and his friends become her main focus.  She’ll stop at nothing to catch them.  Capt. DuBois has some extraordinary talents when it comes to hunting animals – sniffing the ground like a dog and catching the scent of her prey.

In order to escape from her clutches, they meet up with a traveling circus.  Gia the jaguar (Jessica Chastain) has a heart and allows them to hide among their troupe.  Stefano the seal (Martin Short) is awed by their new companions and cannot wait to make them part of the show, especially when Alex (or Alis, as Stefano calls him).  Of course, they believe that these four are true circus animals.  Vitally (Bryan Cranston), a very suspicious Russian tiger, does not trust the group.  Alex believes that joining the circus is their best bet to get home – an American scout is supposed to see the show and could offer a gig touring America.  Since their ultimate goal is get back to home to New York, Alex figures they can’t lose.

As it turns out, this traveling circus is not the greatest show on earth.  Their tricks lack any originality or flair and Alex is afraid they will never get home.  So while trying to reinvent the show, and restore passion into the troupe players, they will perhaps find talents of their own, while also evading the keen and clever Capt DuBois.

I don’t want to give anything away, but the journey is filled with entertainment, laughs and most importantly…excitement.  I mean who wouldn’t want to see a movie that has car chases, plane crashes, a cirque de soilel-like circus with neon lights and fantastical acts?  What’s funnier than a zebra getting painted with polka dots, tossing on an Afro-wig and singing “Afro-circus, Afro-circus, Polka dot, Polka dot, Afro-circus?”  I could watch that over and over again.  If anything, you have to see the reinvented circus show… it’s phenomenal!  I wish there was a circus like that in real life!  I’d be there in a second!  But you gotta ask, after all this excitement of traveling through Africa and Europe and seeing the world…is going home to their zoo in New York going to be enough for these guys?  You’ll just have to watch to find out…