Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

Well, I haven't seen the first two Madagascar films, but Europe's Most Wanted makes it clear that at some point the loveable animal stars spent time in a zoo in New York City.

And are hoping to return.

Their penguin and chimpanzee acquaintances ditch them at the beginning to fly to Monte Carlo and make a fortune gambling.

Frightened of having to spend the rest of their lives in Africa, they follow.

How they travel to Monte Carlo remains a mystery (it's possible that they swam).

After they discover their whereabouts, they accidentally fall through a glass ceiling, thereby simultaneously reuniting while interrupting a lavish spending spree of Europe's elite.

Which engenders a confrontation with the law.

As represented by a rather determined feminine figure.

From which they escape by posing as circus animals and finding refuge in a hostile yet hospitable train.

The penguins then buy the circus from owners who are eager to sell only to discover that it suffers from a serious lack of talent.

And that things need to be competently restructured in order to impress an American promoter who may finance a tour of the United States.

Starting in New York City.

Even though our heroes have no circus experience, they have lived in an American zoo where they acquired transferable do-it-yourself-know-how, easily applicable to any situation.

And the characters from Africa, who prefer life in a zoo to their homeland, teach the struggling Europeans how to dazzlingly manage their showcase, thereby enabling a tour of the U.S.A.

The revitalized Russian tiger is heard to utter 'bolshevik' instead of 'bullshit.'

Labour laws in France apparently only require two weeks of work a year, a subtle indirect (annoying) elevation of the 50 week work year.

A Platonic mode of political production is partially at work insofar as the wise penguins use the spirit of their inspirational lion, zebra, hippopotamus, and giraffe to reconstitute the European appetites, even after said appetites find out that they've been convincingly lied to.

In the interests of entertainment.

Can't say I'm disappointed that I missed its predecessors, nor that I find the title Europe's Most Wanted amusing.

Suppose a kid's film about the state of the American economy wouldn't be commercially feasible.

"God only knows it's not what we would choose to do (Roger Waters, Rick Wright)."