The franchise that began as a tame kiddie pleaser about four pampered zoo animals lost in the wild has matured and sharpened its teeth, perhaps thanks to Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale) collaborating on the script. Here the Punch and Judy penguins, the flamboyant lemur king, and the lion, giraffe, zebra, and hippo quartet find themselves in Europe where the latter four join a traveling circus in the hope of getting back home to the Central Park Zoo. The animation kicks it up a notch, making good use of the 3D, and the narrative in general moves at a good clip. Directed by the triumvirate of Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath, and Conrad Vernon, the animated adventure also features a kid stuck in an elephant's ass, a lemur having sex with a bear, and Frances McDormand as the dogged French animal control officer Chantal Dubois, making for a witty howl that stretches the age range of its audience appeal.
