After a four-year wait, the third installment in DreamWorks Animation's "Madagascar" series will screen this summer in Japan. Opening Aug. 1, "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" is directed by Eric Darnell, who also made the first two films.

"In the first and the second films we really didn't complete the story," Darnell tells The Japan Times during a promotional visit to Tokyo. "Fortunately, people loved 'Madagascar 2' and we were able to make the third film in what is really a trilogy and tell the whole story."

"Madagascar 3" begins in Africa, where Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller) and his friends are waiting for their penguin cohorts to return from a gambling holiday in Monte Carlo, Monaco, where they went at the end of part two. Eventually, Alex and the other animals decide to venture into the human world to find them. The previous films were mostly set in the animal kingdom.