Madagascar 3 : Europe’s Most Wanted

What’s it about?

Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Gloria the hippopotamus, Melman the giraffe, and a group of lemurs headed by King Julien XIII are still stranded in the plains of Africa.  They find out that Skipper and the penguins have already left Africa which makes them feel even more alone. They decide to try and find their way to Europe and snorkel across the ocean to Monaco. They’re delighted to find their penguin friends are there too enjoying the high life. Unluckily for them though, they are spotted by French animal control officer, Captain Chantel DuBois, who is determined to return them to Central Park Zoo.

In order to avoid being caught, the animal friends join a travelling circus where they make friends with Gia the jaguar, Vitaly the Russian tiger, Stefano, the Italian sea lion and Sonya the bear. This friendship is tested however, when the circus animals discover who the new guys really are.

What to look out for

There’s quite a lot of fighting and violence in this movie such as:

• Captain Dubois threatens to cut Alex’s head off with a hand saw.
• Captain Dubois shoots tranquilizer darts at the animals which knocks them all out.
• Sonya the bear swallows King Julien’s head, but soon spits it out intact.
• Vitaly the tiger throws several knives and meat cleavers at Alex the Lion and Stefano the sea lion.

There’s also some scary scenes which might frighten younger kids such as:

• Captain Dubois is seen as a mad, angry and evil creature.
• Alex the lion, falls from the trapeze when he’s learning and it looks as if he might die.
• Vitaly the tiger remembers a time when he nearly died in a terrible fire. This makes him very afraid of doing the ‘ring of fire’ act in the circus.

Moral of the Story

We can achieve our goals more easily when we work together as a team.