Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most
Wanted (PG) 93
mins ***
Two
decent digimations in the same week? Sorry, parents: you may just have to give
the kids an advance on their pocket money. After 2008’s sluggish Escape 2 Africa, the Madagascar series here receives a
revitalising dart of action and spectacle. Still trying to return to Manhattan,
the pixelated menagerie is now pursued across Western Europe by relentless,
Piaf-trilling animal control official Chantel DuBois (Frances McDormand). A
travelling circus provides shelter, while giving the animators the chance to
pull off trapeze-swinging and Cirque du Soleil-style colour – all in unusually
considered, dynamic 3D.
If they
can’t sustain the first act’s exceptional explosion of creative energy, the
script and visuals keep generating smart, funny business, from a Dali-inspired
dream sequence to Alex’s appreciation of his leonine forefathers’ record at the
Coliseum (“they killed”). Those monkeys and penguins are waiting in the wings
whenever the big-top schtick flags, as indeed is Sacha Baron Cohen’s lemur
Julian, pausing his revival of justly forgotten 1990s pop hits to begin an
oddly cute liaison with a mute bear. Functional, where Frankenweenie is fantastic, but detailed enough to make youngsters
want the DVD nevertheless. Again: sorry, parents.
Madagascar 3 is in cinemas nationwide.
No comments:
Post a Comment