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I laughed, a lot, watching "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" (not the catchiest of titles but it'll do). While it got off to a slow start the flick picked up once they got out of Africa and into hijinks in Monte Carlo, catching up with the Skipper and the rest of the penguin bunch, in order to get back to New York (home, sweet home). With the introduction of this episodes nemesis, Captain Chantel DuBois, a French animal control officer who is completely bonkers and more than a bit of bloodhound, the movie chases our gang of misfits (Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe, and his gal pal Gloria the hippo) across a mostly non-descript Europe as they try to find their way back to the zoo. Along the way they get involved with a traveling circus and help to transform the pathetic three-ring into a splashy, boffo big-top. Of course, finding their way home means that they find that "you can't go back" and "home is where the heart is." None of this gets too serious or heavy-handed. Quite a bit of it is utter nonsense (I mean of the Looney Tunes variety, such as when our four intrepid leads are trying to figure out who will go down which oddly shaped ventilation duct) and there are the requisite pop culture references (Chris Rock's zebra painting himself white with polka dots and wearing a rainbow afro, as seen in the trailer), movie references (the jailbreak sequence involving Captain DuBois and the guards as the guards go around and talk about how she could get out in various ways such as through the hole in the wall behind a picture, a la "Shawshank Redemption"), and a few political and social jabs (surprisingly at Canadian brethren and the French). All of this mostly plays to the adults in the audience while the kids will love the crazy escapades and slapstick of the animals.
Speaking of the animals, as King Julian and the Penguins overshadowed the main cast in the first "Madagascar" and the Penguins killed in "Madagascar 2", Alex the lion remained the focal point of this iteration with a nice balance being given to KJ and the penguins and some very likable new animals being introduced by way of the traveling circus. I especially liked the sympathetic seal Stefano (voiced by Martin Short doing a great impersonation of Roberto Benigni, and those teeth!), and the Russian tiger and the Cheetah were both made to orbit Alex the lion in a yin-yang way (the tiger was the doubter, the aggressor and the cheetah was the believer, the lover).
The only thing that rubbed me the wrong way and that I think was in poor taste, clever as it may have been, was Alex the lion remarking that his relatives used to headline the Roman coliseum circus events back in the day (our travelers were performing their first show in Rome, in the coliseum). I'm sure this went over all of the children's heads and most of the adult's but the reference to dissidents and Christians being "fed to the lions" (while maybe in character for Alex the lion to say) isn't something to laugh at, especially not in a kid's movie. But other than this and one instance where you thought a character was going to yell "that's bulls***" (the Russian tiger Nataly yells, "That's Bolshevik!" instead) the movie kept it's kid-friendly tone with its thoughtful and easily digestible messages.
Lastly, I saw this in 2D and thought that it looked fine. I'm sure that the colors popped in 3D but I wouldn't think that this is a "must see in 3D" movie. Some retailers are selling copies of the first two movies with money off your theater ticket as part of the bonus. That's a good way to go. Get through the first fifteen minutes of this film and you've got yourself a winner.
As good as "Madagascar 2", if not better.
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