DreamWorks Animation previews 'Madagascar 3,' 'Rise of the Guardians'

DreamWorks Animation recruited a trio of movie stars to help promote its 2012 releases at a press preview held at midtown Manhattan’s AXA Equitable Center on March 15. Ben Stiller and Chris Rock talked up Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, the third film in the escaped zoo animal series that kicked off in 2005, and Alec Baldwin showered praise on the makers of Rise of the Guardians, the artful new fantasy film based on the book by William Joyce, who just won the Oscar for the animated short The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

The surprisingly large and plush Equitable Center theatre is one of New York City’s least-known auditoriums (I’d certainly never attended a screening there) and its hidden underground location prompted Rock to wonder if Howard Hughes used to watch porn there. But that’s as un-family-friendly as this press event got.

DreamWorks Animation chief creative officer Bill Damaschke took pride in the fact that the studio's two 2011 releases, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots, both earned Oscar nominations and landed among the top ten international box-office performers of the past year. And judging by this preview, the studio has two more hits in the pipeline.

Like last year’s Cars 2, Madagascar 3 roams across Europe, as the series’ quartet of lost Central Park Zoo animals surface off the coast of Monte Carlo and plot their return to America—but not before running afoul of a maniacal French animal-control officer (voiced by Frances McDormand) and hiding out with a traveling circus led by a hotheaded Russian tiger (Bryan Cranston).

The movie’s personable trio of directors—Eric Darnell, Conrad Vernon and Tom McGrath—showed the opening 20 minutes, which includes an extremely frenzied high-speed chase through the streets of Monte Carlo, and a starkly unfinished later sequence depicting the gang’s wild, Cirque du Soleil-style circus production number. Even in very rough form, one got the sense that the completed sequence will be quite the surreal spectacle in 3D. Another sign of promise for the film is that the screenplay is by Oscar-nominated indie auteur Noah Baumbach, whose last animation credit was Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Baldwin later took a mischievous swipe at the Madagascar franchise, complaining about animated films with “an excess of talking animals.” The “30 Rock” star seemed genuinely proud of his participation in Rise of the Guardians, singling out the artistry of the production designers and the work ethic of producer Christina Steinberg and director Peter Ramsey.

The premise of Guardians has familiar childhood fantasy figures Santa Claus (Baldwin, with a thick Eastern European accent), the Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman, keeping his Aussie accent), the Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher) and the silent Sandman banding together to fight the nefarious Boogeyman (Jude Law).

The first sequence previewed shows the full-grown “birth” of the Guardians’ new recruit, Jack Frost (voiced by Chris Pine), who simultaneously discovers his ability to generate ice and snow and that he’s a disembodied spirit. The striking, evocative design of this set-piece is as artful as Baldwin promised.

The second sequence takes place in the cavernous workshop of the burly St. Nick (here called “North”), where the evil designs of Pitch (aka the Boogeyman) are first revealed on a giant globe charting children’s beliefs and fears. With a screenplay by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire and its distinctive visual palette, Rise of the Guardians looks to be much more than just another children’s film. Chances are there will be more Oscar nominations in DreamWorks Animation’s future.