Madagascar 3 roars onto the Croisette for its world premiere

A slot at the Cannes film festival, where hundreds of news outlets descend each year, can be an ideal launchpad, particularly because the notoriously fussy critics tend to blunt their pencils for animated entertainment.

"This festival, it celebrates all types of film. 

There are family films... We feel honoured to be celebrated as well. We're very grateful and we just feel like... Our film's about travelling to Europe and what better place could we launch a film like that than in Cannes? So thank you," said Tom McGrath, one of three directors working on the movie.

"What we always aspired to do was to take you to a fantastic world, like everyone was transported when they saw Pinocchio. And, you know, that's the great thing about CG (computer generated animation). First people aspired to do photo-realism, and now we're trying to create these fantasy worlds. We can do more magical, enchanted worlds and that's what we're hopping to do with this movie," he added.

In Madagascar 3, the central characters of Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman leave Africa in search of their penguin friends who have flown to Europe to spend their gold and gems in the casino in Monte Carlo.

"Operation Penguin Extraction" goes predictably awry, and in the ensuing havoc the heroes join a travelling circus in their bid to get back to their beloved New York.

On the way, via Rome and London, European stereotypes are sent up, including France's reputation as a country where people work short hours and its cultural icon Edith Piaf, whose famous song "Non, je ne regrette rien" is gloriously parodied.

When Vitaly, a grumpy Russian tiger, disagrees with Alex, he counters "That's Bolshevik!", prompting an American penguin to add: "Never thought I'd say this ... but the Russky's right."

Famous scenes from well-known action movies are also recreated, including the bus balancing on the edge of a cliff in "The Italian Job" and people dodging flying bullets, or in this case bananas, in "The Matrix".

The actors dubbing the characters had fun playing animals, and Ben Stiller made the journalists roar with laughter at the news conference.

"Well, I don't have to roar that often in the movie, thankfully. And when I do roar it's usually supplemented... Don't you guys supplement with a real roar sometimes? (No, it's all you) Really? oh wow! I don't think I ever went 'Rrrrrrr' though. Do I ever go 'Rrrrrr'? (You should have) Oh I should have. 'Rrrrrrr'" Stiller said.

The main villain in Madagascar 3 is deranged French animal control officer Capitaine Chantel DuBois, voiced by Frances McDormand.

Part Cruella De Vil and part rottweiler, she terrorises the fleeing animals, hell bent on claiming Alex's scalp to complete her stuffed animal wall hangings.

Ben Stiller returns as the voice of good-hearted lion Alex, Chris Rock reprises his role as the irrepressible zebra Marty and David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith are back as Melman and Gloria respectively.

New to the cast in the "threequel" are Bryan Cranston as Vitaly, Martin Short as the scene-stealing Italian sea lion Stefano and Jessica Chastain as as sultry jaguar.

Adult jokes and references to adults' movies make animated movies interesting also for adults, and sometimes even more, Chris Rock spotted.

"I like all the children's movies. I like that a lot of children movies have jokes for adults. I mean, I've been at movies with my kids and my kids would get fidgety, like 'hey we want to go' and I'm like 'We're not going until I find out what happens to this bear!' (LAUGHS) Like I'm really watching this movie," he said.

According to website Boxofficemojo.com, the first Madagascar film from 2005 earned $533 million in global ticket sales and the second (2008) around $604 million.