Movie Monday: Madagascar 3 Europe’s Most Wanted

Why someone chooses to see the third installment of a film without seeing the first two is beyond me. But since we’ve got not one but two kids in the house until mid summer and there’s not much more goin’ down in the theater these days for the youngin’s you just go with it. Its animated, how difficult could it be to catch up right?

Well, enter the first scene where a zebra is walking on a treadmill in the middle of Africa and yeah, I was pretty lost.

I found my way back quickly though as this movie picked up and started going. There was quite a bit of backstory that I obvs missed out on not seeing the first two, but the kiddos schooled me on all of it after we were out.

Since I don’t have anything to compare this to having not seen the first two I was able to judge it all on it’s own merits. Rare for a third installment. So far it ranks as my favorite of the three.

The movie centers around a lion, hippo, giraffe and a zebra who are in Africa (apparently where the 2nd movie centered) and are trying to get home to their zoo in NYC. They somehow connect with some circus animals on their way to America and the shenanigans ensue. Oh and they are being pursued by a lady who hunts animals. She wants the lions head on her wall. Morbid.

Enter the most annoying song in all movies of all times. If you have seen the preview even once, you know what song I’m talking about. And no its not “I like to move it, move it….” The other one. Are you singing it in your head yet? Sorry, its been in mine since I started writing so I needed you to join in the misery with me.

My favorite character by a longshot was Stefano the sea lion. We joke around that Guinness has an Italian accent (thanks to my friend Roman who decided Guinness speaks in an Italian accent) and Stefano’s accent was the exact-a same-a as-a Guinnesses-a . He was-a super cute-a! I would see this movie like five more times just to see that cute little sea lion and his fun accent.

I really liked this movie. I’m kind of glad that I didn’t have the other two to compare it too because I am sure that the comparison monster would come out and it might not have been as enjoyable. I also don’t really have a great desire to see either of the first two because if I liked this one so much then why ruin a good thing? Unless someone convinces me otherwise. If not, I am content just watching this one over again and maybe Guinness can watch it with me next time so he and Stefano can share some awesome conversation about makin’ tha pizzaas.

My name is-a Guinn-aas and-a I lika to maka tha pizzaas!

All the voice overs were really good and I never realized that the voice of the lion was Ben Stiller. It was pretty much killing me the whole movie that I couldn’t place him. I picked up on David Schwimmer as the giraffe right away and I think I had seen something about Jada Pinkett Smith (I think they are spit up now so not sure if that is still her name???) being the voice of the hippo. And of course you can’t mistake Chris Rock as the zebra.

Other notables were Jessica Chastain (from The Help) as the voice of Gia (another awesome accent that I highly enjoyed) and Martin Short as Stefano.

If you have kids and like to laugh or if you want kids and like to laugh or if you hate kids and like to laugh, you will like this movie.

da da dada da da da da AFRO, da da dada da da da da CIRCUS, afro circus, afro circus, polka dot polka dot polka dot AFRO. 

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Overall Rating: Large popcorn, large drink
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Tagged as: italian accent, Madagascar 3, madagascar 3 voices, Movie review