The first Medagascar film was a bland affair that I didn't particularly enjoy. So much so, that I successfully avoided seeing Madagascar 2. The 9 year old girl of the house decided if we went to the movies today she wanted to see Madagascar 3. She's smart enough that she realized that it's been playing at the theater for a while now and probably won't be there in a week or two. The joys of having a smart child...

The good news though is that it ended up exceeded my expectations a great deal. I'm not sure what the first one was aiming for, but I'm confident that in this third installment they were aiming for full on Looney Tunes cartoon. There's still some sentimentality shoehorned in, but it's not overbearing like the first film. This movie is first and foremost a madcap affair and not a bad way to spend 90 minutes with a kid.

Captain Chantel DuBois (Frances McDormand) is best described as The Terminator of Animal Control. The chase scene in Monte Carlo looks like something out of Terminator 2, just with more gags. The other best new recruit to the cast is Bryan Cranston as a Russian Tiger that has an unusual circus talent.

They'll never rival PIXAR with films like this, although PIXAR's track record has been taking a few bumps recently, but this is probably as good as a film like this can get. Kids will love it, and there's plenty of one-liners and sight gags that will go over their heads for the adults to enjoy.