Jun 17, 2012 09:50 PM
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Director: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath, Conrad Vernon
Genre: Animated, Comedy
Year: 2012
Runtime: 93 minutes
Verdict: 9/10
When you make a pure animated film, there can be several reasons to it. You may want to make it for children, you may want to introduce vivid colours, you may want to exploit the features of 3D to the max but almost always the reason is to push the boundaries of the real world to such a point that it defies the laws of physics, defies the laws of reality. You want to hand over the stage to the creative and imaginative being inside you. Most of the times the audience welcomes it, identifies with it. Something which makes them forget the daily humdrums of life, entertains them beyond routine. This is one of the reasons the cinema has come to be, to elevate the experience to a higher level, give it a new meaning, and new angle to look around.
The Madagascar series is not new to anyone now. I went on to see the 3rd recently, and as the trend continues with the animated movies, we get to experience this in 3D. We are back with the same group of animals, Alex the lion, Gloria the hippo, Melman the giraffe, and Marty as the zebra. Apart from these primary characters, we have the Penguins, the chimps and the Lemurs, and a whole lot of new friends to improve the party. This time Alex and friends left in the deserts, by penguins. Alex gets a model of New York City as a birthday gift and that brings back the memories of his old zoo and his celebrity status at the zoo. They all decide to make a road trip back to the zoo. Obviously when a bunch of animals go about a trip when there are humans all around, this would not be easy would it? The movie unfolds with magnificent spectacle of how they make this journey and what they think at the end of it.
As every other animated movie, these guys also bend, twist and overthrow the rule of physics which controls the reality. There are incidents which you know are highly impossible but those do not create any hindrance in pure pleasure. As usual they take shots at human perception of the world and human feelings towards it. They makes friends on the way, they make one persistent enemy who never stops hunting them down. There are scenes which make you laugh like a child, scenes that make you forget your worries and worldly stresses, those two hours are of sheer joy. The capsule of emotions fed in the comical sugar syrup delights you. Makes you think and applaud the feelings of the animals.
There is this one reason why I’m big fan of animated movies. They use 3D very well. There are no hassles of using the expensive 3D cameras to shoot real footage in 3D. Everything is digital. That makes it pure and more impressive. The 3D in Madagascar does not make use of the depth much, but occasionally it makes you duck and blink, there are objects thrown your way, characters flying around. It’s truly gratifying if you have a child along. If I have enjoyed it like a child then I can just imagine how a young kid would bask in the dessert of humour.
Let’s hope they keep making such beautiful movies, movies that are not black, noir, and just drama, movies that gives you a little respite from the worries around, movies that are pure pleasure and comedy.
P.S.: The Music by Hans Zimmer makes creative use of signature ‘I like to move it’ and a tune long lost, Carnival Night from So9nic the hedgehog.
P.P.S: The hobbit trailer came along, Man that’s going to be gorgeous.
