Having not been the biggest Madagascar movies fan, this third movie came as a bit as a surprise to me. It was much better and more fun than basically the two previous installments combined.

Thing I mostly disliked about the previous two movies, was that they felt rushed and had two much jumping around and bright colors in it. It didn't seemed all that worried about telling a fun story or having impressive looking animations in them. They thought that simple, childish actions and comedy would be enough to draw in a big crowd. And I guess they were right about it but it didn't exactly made them good movies to watch, at least not to me.

This third movie feels far more well thought out. Everything was written far better and all of the comedy was being much more clever and got executed better in the movie. I can even actually actually say that most of the comedy and gags really hits and the movie had me smiling and laughing, basically the whole time.

It also definitely makes all of the characters work out as much better ones. In the previous movies they all had something annoying to them as well but that's all truly gone in this film! They are all simply amusing and the movie introduces a whole bunch of new fun characters as well this time. This also has as a result that there is no time and room for any distracting side-plots, featuring either Marty (Chris Rock), Melman (David Schwimmer) or Gloria Jada Pinkett Smith. It makes the movie feel more balanced and focused, since there aren't really too many distractions from its main story this time around.

But even though that the story story is far better written, I really can't say that the movie is being anything too brilliant with its actual story. It's all being some incredibly formulaic stuff but at least they knew how to make things fun and the story really doesn't feel that important for the movie at all. The story leaves plenty of room and opportunities for fun and gags, involving all of the characters, new and old ones.

Also the animations seemed to be more smooth, as if they decided to spend some more money and/or to put some more time into the making of this movie this time. Some great choices, that helped me to finally truly love a Madagascar movie and made me interested in actually seeing more Madagascar movies now. I most definitely would rather want to see another Madagascar movie than a new Shrek, that's for sure!

A really fun movie to watch, I'm surprised to say.

8/10

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