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This is a list of characters from the DreamWorks Animation franchise of Madagascar films and TV shows.
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Tom McGrath explained in an interview that the intention of Madagascar was not to take a political stance on whether "zoos are bad and the wild is better, or that the wild is bad," but to show "the most extreme 'fish out of water' story that (they) could do". [1] McGrath stated "the basic irony to the story is that, you think animals do belong in the wild, but if they're so accustomed to civility, they wouldn't know where food even came from," and the animals were meant to "love the zoo and to love where they are because they've got" 5,000 square feet (460 m2) "right off Fifth Avenue". [1]
McGrath also described, during the research of Madagascar, they "found these crazy, weird animals that were already cartoons in their own right." [1]
| Alex | |
|---|---|
| Madagascar character | |
| First appearance | Madagascar (2005) |
| Created by | Mark Burton Billy Frolick Eric Darnell Tom McGrath |
| Voiced by | Ben Stiller (films and TV specials) Wally Wingert (first video game, spin-offs, Ride Attractions) Quinn Dempsey Stiller (cub) Declan Swift (cub) Crispin Freeman (second and third video games, All Hail King Julien, DreamWorksTV Animations, Ride Attractions, Commercials) Tucker Chandler (cub; A Little Wild) |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | African lion |
Alex (born Alakay) is a male African lion. He's happy, go-lucky and is best friends with Marty (voiced by Chris Rock). He's the star attraction at zoo but learns to adapt to the wild. He is a dancer by nature, often impressing others with his aerobatic feats. He does tend to be a little self-absorbed, often not seeing the problems of others above his own.
Alex enjoys his life at the zoo and has plenty of friends and is surprised when hearing Marty's wish to leave and live in the wild (or run free in Connecticut as stated in the movie). [2] As a cub, Alex was born on an African wildlife reserve, and was named Alakay. He was the only son of the alpha lion, Zuba (voiced by Bernie Mac), and was constantly given lessons on hunting, though he displayed no interest in the activity. During one of the sessions, Alex was captured by poachers, but the crate he was contained in fell into a river and eventually floated to New York. He is found by humans who renamed him Alex and took him to the Central Park Zoo. In Madagascar, after Marty, Alex's best friend, leaves in an effort to take a train to the wild, Alex, Gloria the Hippopotamus (voiced by Jada Pinkett Smith), and Melman the Giraffe (voiced by David Schwimmer) pursue him and are shot with tranquilizer darts by humans. The animal-rights activists pressure the zoo into releasing them back into the wild, but on the ship to the preserve, Alex and his friends fall into the ocean. They wash ashore on Madagascar, and, while Marty is excited to be free, Alex wishes to go home. He grows very hungry after days of being unable to eat, not realizing that steak is animal flesh. Hunger drives Alex into a crazed state, and after almost killing Marty in hunger, in a moment of lucidity, he goes into self-imposed exile, barricading himself in fossa territory. Marty pursues him, unwilling to leave his friend, but is attacked by the fossa, the native predators of Madagascar. Alex works to defend Marty and is later given sushi by the penguins to satiate his hunger.
In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa , Alex encounters his parents, Zuba and Florrie (Sherri Shepherd), who are overjoyed to see their son and he becomes co-alpha lion alongside his father.
Zuba assumes Alex is strong after hearing he is the "King" of New York and arranges a rite of passage into the pride. Makunga (Alec Baldwin), Zuba's rival, persuades Alex to challenge Teentsi during the Alex's rite of passage. Teentsi was revealed to be a bulky, strong lion and Alex is quickly defeated by him. To keep from banishing Alex, Zuba transfers his control to Makunga, and in turn, he, Florrie, and Alex are banished. Zuba soon grows unaccepting of Alex after realizing he is not a fierce warrior. The next day, the watering hole is shown to be dried up and Alex leaves with Marty to find out the cause. They leave the safety of the reserve, prompting Zuba to follow Alex and bring him back. Alex discovers that the stranded New Yorkers had created a dam, and through the use of dancing, he is recognized by the attacking New Yorkers. With the help of others, the dam is destroyed and they return to the preserve. His father learns to respect his habits, and they remain in Africa instead of flying home with the penguins. In The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper, a stuffed animal Alex is seen briefly and its head is quickly dismembered by Nana's toy poodle, Mr. Chew. Alex has small cameos with his friends celebrating Christmas and singing an alternate version of "Jingle Bells".
The fact that Alex loses the challenge to Teentsi and is spanked by Nana in Madagascar gives him the impression he is a horrible fighter, but this is not true, because (in the Nana case), she only gets Alex by surprise, but was more visible when in Madagascar 2, he has a short fight against Nana. Alex is shown to have a superhuman level of physical strength, seeing that he broke the zoo's public telephone, and lifts Melman, Marty and Gloria with relative ease.
Alex made another appearance in "The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole." Wally Wingert reprises his role from the first video game. In the show, he appeared as a hallucination "spirit guide" to help Skipper, whose memories had been stolen by the evil dolphin known as Dr. Blowhole. At first, Skipper thought he was very talkative and annoying, but soon he accepted his guidance, especially when he had to face Blowhole when he got back to New York City. A running gag in the episode is that Skipper's friends are confused and convinced he's crazy when they see him talk to Alex, since only Skipper can see him. After Dr. Blowhole was defeated, Alex's spirit guide form disappeared.
In Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted , it opens on Alex's birthday and after a present from his friends of a mud New York he is determined to get the penguins from Monte Carlo. Alex creates four phases and after a fight with his friends they are exposed and are pursued by Captain Chantel DuBois.
After cutting DuBois' snare, they fly back to New York until they crash in a train yard. Alex is determined to get back home and tries to fix the plane but fails. Then he persuades Gia (Jessica Chastain), a jaguar to let them on the train, with whom he falls in love in first sight. After being let on the train Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria realized that this was a ticket home.
After a performance in Rome, he gives a pep talk and has the circus spiced up to get the circus promoter for a tour in America. Stefano told Alex why Vitaly (Bryan Cranston) the Siberian tiger was grouchy. Alex teaches Gia trapeze, and they begin to fall deeply in love. The London performance was better and they go to America. DuBois came to "take home" Alex but gets shot out of a cannon. Alex tells them why they had to join the circus.
Alex convinces his friends and Julien that they were wrong and they decide to go back until DuBois comes. Awakening, Alex realizes they are back in the zoo with iron cage links between them. Luckily the circus came and rescued him. But DuBois is still determined to get Alex's head and is taking Stefano. But Alex saves the day (with Gia's help) by saving Stefano (Martin Short), a sea lion, and defeating DuBois.
| Marty | |
|---|---|
| Madagascar character | |
| First appearance | Madagascar (2005) |
| Created by | Mark Burton Billy Frolick Eric Darnell Tom McGrath |
| Voiced by | Chris Rock (films and TV specials) Phil LaMarr (video games) Thomas Stanley (foal) Amir O'Neil (foal; A Little Wild) |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Plains zebra |
Marty is a male plains zebra who used to live at the Central Park Zoo, and is a good friend of Alex. He once had an iPod before Alex accidentally broke it. Marty likes seaweed on a stick.
Marty is a hopeless optimist; he usually sees the brighter side of many things, taking every situation in stride. He strives to be unique, which proves difficult when he meets his own kind in Africa, who look and act almost exactly the same. Marty is best friends with Alex and the two are rarely at odds. His carefree lifestyle tends to get on the nerves of his friends, but mostly serves to impress them; he is the one who helps hold the group together when things seem to get down.
Marty lived a life of comfort in the zoo. After his tenth birthday had come and gone, meaning that his life was already half over, Marty decided that never having seen the wild, he must travel to the wild, for at least a short time.
In the movie, Alex says he's black with white stripes, as he has 30 black, and only 29 white, but this was partly because Alex had to give an explanation as to why he was licking Marty, as he thought he was the steak in his dream.
The film begins on Marty's 10th birthday (middle-aged for a zebra). His friends try to give him a great birthday, but somehow, Marty wants more. He escapes the Central Park Zoo, where he had lived for the past ten years, and makes a dash for the wild. His friends, Alex, Melman, and Gloria, flag him down, but as they are about to take him back to the zoo, police officers and animal control officers appear in all directions, tranquilize the animals, and send them on a ship to a wildlife preserve in Kenya. The penguins take over the ship and the four friends are washed up on the shores of Madagascar.
Once on the island, Marty had his dream fulfilled. Marty sets up a "bar" on the island, known as "Casa del Wild" (English: Home of the Wild). Alex gets mad at Marty for getting them shipped to the wild, but he later apologizes to Marty and actually begins to enjoy himself on the island. Unfortunately, his enjoyment brings on his killer instincts, causing him to attack the resident lemurs and his friends, including Marty. Alex does not "go savage" for long, and after regaining his senses, he runs away from his friends out of regret. Soon after that, Marty learns the hard way that the wild is not what it seems to be, and how hard it really is for many animals to live there with so many predators and other dangers. Realizing the consequences brought upon by his impulsive actions, such as sacrificing his and the other's lives at the Zoo (the one safe place they called home) and the misfortune he caused his best friend, Marty comes to truly regret his birthday wish. However, after learning of the penguins having hijacked a boat and are offering the zoo animals a trip back home, Marty immediately runs after Alex in hopes to save his friend. Alex is later able to rejoin his friends as they attempt to head back to the zoo, but the boat the penguins used was 'out of gas'.
Marty, along with his friends, has only a few small cameos in The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper . He, Alex, and Gloria are seen at the beginning decorating Melman's neck with Christmas lights. At the end, he, his friends, and almost all the other zoo animals are seen singing their own version of "Jingle Bells".
In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa , Marty (along with Alex, Melman, Gloria, the lemurs, and the penguins) finds himself stranded in Africa after a failed attempt at flying to New York. There, he joins a herd of zebra that all look and sound exactly like him. While he enjoys this new lifestyle at first, he quickly becomes depressed when it becomes evident he has no individuality in a herd. Marty also becomes upset when Alex is unable to tell him apart from the other zebras. Ultimately, Alex is able to make amends by picking Marty out of the herd (later revealed to be due to the bite mark left on his backside from the previous film, and the fact that he is black with white stripes, while the other zebras are all white with black stripes.) Marty accompanies his friend to unblock a dam set by stranded New Yorkers in the jungle (which causes the watering hole to dry up). When Alex is caught, Marty gets the other animals to help rescue him.
In Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted , Marty joins the circus along with the others. His circus act is cannon along with Stefano the Sea Lion. In the middle of the film, Marty loves his afro. At the end of the film, it is shown that Marty is dancing in his afro (along with the others) to the tune "Afro Circus / I like to Move it".
| Melman | |
|---|---|
| Madagascar character | |
| First appearance | Madagascar (2005) |
| Created by | Mark Burton Billy Frolick Eric Darnell Tom McGrath |
| Voiced by | David Schwimmer (films and TV specials) Stephen Stanton (video games) Zachary Gordon (calf) Luke Lowe (calf; A Little Wild) |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Reticulated giraffe |
Melman Mankiewicz is a male reticulated giraffe. He sometimes pretends to be hypochondriac, having doses of medicine for meals and doctor's appointments frequently. He dreams of being a doctor.
He is skittish most of the time, but often has moments of profound clarity. His experience being medicated has given him insight regarding how to treat sick or injured animals who might otherwise give up hope and dig a hole, waiting to die in it. His love for Gloria is deep, and is always a gentleman to her; to Marty and Alex, he's just another one of the "awkward" guys.
Melman had a residence at the Central Park Zoo, where he received constant medical treatment for problems that were all psychosomatic. He would undergo MRIs, CAT scans, injections, flu shots, and be put into braces and crutches for no particular purpose at all. In the Central Park Zoo, Melman was used to his cushy life taking pills and undergoing treatments. One night, Marty the Zebra escaped and Melman immediately informed Alex of this.
In a flashback in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa , there is a hint that he had a crush on Gloria as a child (as he felt jealous when she comments that Alex is cute). When the animals nearly die trying to fly back to New York in a salvaged airplane, he screams he is in love with Gloria; but she is asleep and does not hear him. In Africa, Melman is horrified to learn that once a giraffe becomes sick, it has no way to survive and therefore must simply wait in a hole to die. He takes the position of Witch Doctor to cure sick animals, introducing them to Western medicine and giving them longer and better lives.
While he proves to be a very good witch doctor, he is informed by another giraffe that Melman has a brown spot on his shoulder, one which the previous Witch Doctor seemed to have gotten and "was gone" two days later. Thinking he only has two days to live, Melman initially waits in a hole, but then takes King Julien's advice and goes to declare his love to Gloria. He finds her on a date with Moto Moto and simply tells him that he had romantic feelings for Gloria is and to treat her right. When the watering hole dries up and King Julien decides to sacrifice an animal for the water gods, Melman offers himself. He is saved at the last moment, when Gloria tells him that she loves him back, and the two become a couple; it becomes apparent the "brown spot" was not fatal (the previous Witch Doctor is found alive and well, the brown spot in fact being a natural giraffe spot); however, there is not a scene where Melman is told of this. It is assumed that he figured it out when his "time" came and went and he was fine. He was last seen dancing off into the sunset with Gloria, Alex and Marty.
In Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted , Melman and Gloria are still together. They and the other animals go to Monte Carlo to find the penguins. Once inside the hotel, Melman, Alex and Marty argue over who should be the leader of the group. They are crushed by Gloria's weight and they fall into the casino. Whilst escaping the hotel with the other animals, they are pursued by DuBois. On the way they lose DuBois and manage to reach the Hotel Ambassador. While boarding the plane, Melman is grabbed by the neck when DuBois appears. Alex with a little help from Mort, cuts the rope and saves Melman.
Above the skies of France, the plane's engine fails and it crash lands into a suburban rail yard. Whilst running from the authorities who are closing in on them, Melman gives Alex the idea of boarding the train containing the circus. Upon arrival in Rome, Melman and the group realize how terrible the circus was. En route to London, Melman and the others are discussing how terrible the circus was before Alex tells them about his newfound inspiration.
Melman and Gloria create a dancing tightrope act that is performed in London. When Melman and his friends are pursued by DuBois, the circus discover their true identities.
| Gloria | |
|---|---|
| Madagascar character | |
| First appearance | Madagascar (2005) |
| Created by | Mark Burton Billy Frolick Eric Darnell Tom McGrath |
| Voiced by | Jada Pinkett Smith (films and TV specials) Bettina Bush (video games) Willow Smith (calf) Shaylin Becton (calf; A Little Wild) |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Common hippopotamus |
Gloria is a female hippopotamus who resided in the Central Park Zoo as an attraction, all the while being good friends with Alex, Marty, Melman, and becoming the latter's girlfriend as of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Gloria comically serves as the height and weight of the gang, both intentionally and in situations she accidentally falls into. She is often serious with what she is talking about and the guys are careful not to get on her nerves.
As a hippopotamus, Gloria is another animal in the Central Park Zoo and was one of the many attractions, drawing crowds that enjoyed seeing her swim about in her water tank. She would also receive the star treatment as one of the zoo's main attractions and attend Marty's birthday party. At this party, Marty announced his wish upon blowing out the candles on his cake: to go to the wild. Gloria, Alex and Melman tried to have Marty come to his senses by telling him life out in the wilds was savage and difficult, whereas life in the zoos was adequate. Marty was unhappy at hearing this, and Gloria told Alex to go to console Marty. Later that night, Marty acted out his wish and headed straight for the Grand Central Terminal station to take a Metro North train and go to Connecticut, where Marty heard wide open spaces were found. Gloria urged both Alex and Melman to come with her to find Marty and bring him back before any people would notice. They were found, regardless, along with Mason and Phil, the two chimps, and a troupe of secretive penguins, all ending up tranquilized with darts.
When they all came to, they found themselves in crates bound for Africa. When the penguins hijack the ship, the crates fall into the ocean and wash up on the island of Madagascar. After some confusion, they start to set up their own society and attract the attention of a lemur colony.
In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa , Gloria expresses a desire to join in the zoo breeding program, in the hopes of getting a mate. When the animals crash land in Africa, she attracts the attention of a hippo named Moto Moto. Though she thinks he is the ideal boyfriend at first, she realizes that he only loves her for her enormous stomach, whereas Melman loves her for who she is. Realizing that she loves Melman back, she stops him from sacrificing himself into the volcano, even saying "It's crazy to think that I had to go halfway around the world to find the perfect guy was right next door..." and then joins the other animals in rescuing Alex from Nana.
Gloria returns in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted with Melman, the couple finds their way as they contribute to the circus' success with a spectacular tightrope act.
The Penguins are a group of NYC adélie penguin spies. Skipper is a major character in the first film, but Kowalski, Rico, and Private are supporting characters and don't talk much until The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper . All four penguins have major roles in the first sequel and supporting roles in the second sequel.
| Skipper | |
|---|---|
| Madagascar character | |
| First appearance | Madagascar (2005) |
| Created by | Mark Burton Billy Frolick Eric Darnell Tom McGrath |
| Voiced by | Tom McGrath |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Adélie penguin |
Skipper is the leader of the adélie penguins (despite their color-schemes not matching the real species) and is the main character in the TV show. His head is flatter than those of the other three penguins. Like the rest of the penguins, he has no idea what is expected of the penguin species, other than to "smile and wave." At one point, Private used a bird biology book to tell the other penguins how to act, but since the penguins usually need the chimpanzees Phil and Mason to translate for them, it was unclear how either he or Private were able to read the biology book, which is presumably written in English. His sidekicks, Kowalski, Rico, and Private don't talk much until The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper .
In the first Madagascar movie, Skipper is the handsome mastermind with an attractive voice, and the brains behind the plot to escape the confines of the zoo and leave for Antarctica. Kowalski, Rico, and Private are his accomplices in this plot. They dig under their enclosure until they reach Marty the zebra, thinking it to be the South Pole. Skipper explains to Marty that they are attempting to escape the zoo because penguins do not belong there in captivity. He then orders his accomplices to continue tunneling. Late that night, Skipper and the other penguins are caught by a SWAT team, as are six other animals found outside the zoo. The penguins are tranquilized and put into a crate to be transferred.
When they awake, Skipper is confused at the lettering on the crate where they are being held and orders Mason to read it; Mason's companion Phil reads it. According to the box, they are all bound for a wildlife preserve in Africa, despite the cold climate penguins need. Skipper orders Rico to pick the lock on the crate where they are held, whereupon the four penguins knock out the crew and take command of the ship, commandeering it to reach Antarctica. Skipper and his mates finally reach Antarctica and are sorely disappointed by the barren, desolate terrain. Skipper has the ship return quickly from the South Pole, where it crashes into the beaches of Madagascar and a much warmer climate. Upon arriving, he and the other three encounter Gloria and Melman, and see that Alex and Marty are gone. Skipper decides to help rescue Marty from the grim fate of being eaten by the native fossa (possibly as gratitude for Marty's silence regarding the escape). It is Skipper who helps to distract the fossa while Marty is recovered, and also helps fight off a number of them.
Skipper notices later on that Alex is still hungry, not having been able to eat steak, and has Rico prepare sushi for Alex. Skipper then relinquishes control of the ship to Alex, as he no longer needs it, and proceeds to sunbathe on the tropical beaches in comfort. Skipper is asked by Private if they should tell Alex and his friends that the ship is out of gas. Skipper declines, telling his troupe to "Just smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave."
In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Skipper and the penguins salvage a crashed airplane to fly back to New York. They fix the plane when it crashes in Africa with the help of "more thumbs" (Mason and Phil). At the end of the movie, he marries a bobblehead doll. In The Penguins of Madagascar, the bobblehead is nowhere to be seen.
In Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, it is revealed that Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private, along with Mason and Phil, have been in Monte Carlo. With Phil dressed as the "King of Versailles," they are able to amass a fortune of jewels, diamonds and gold and plan to buy an aircraft to pick up the "hippies" (Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman) in Africa and return to New York. Things change when Alex and the others rush to Monte Casino, believing that the penguins have abandoned them. Skipper later uses the fortune to help the gang become part of a traveling circus.
Skipper is one of the four main characters of The Penguins of Madagascar. In the show, many things are revealed about him and it expands on his character from the movies. In multiple episodes it is shown that Skipper knows karate and is an exceptionally capable fighter. He's also very strong, as seen in "Launchtime." In "Crown Fools," he states that he had taken down an angry walrus with "a wing and a prayer and another wing". However, in "Needle Point", it is revealed that he has a fear of needles, so in later episodes if he's injured he's treated with medical cream or the like. Generally, he is a straight man, displaying a very stereotypical general personality when not in battle: he's been shown waking his men up early in the morning for training, has given them trials on being able to work without him a number of times, and has been shown to being very hard-boiled. He is, though, soft on his men at times, properly rewarding them and even showing fear and worry when he knows they're in danger. He becomes especially upset when he believes one of them to be dead. He often tries to hide this part, as he once told Private that he (Private) is always bait because he "is gullible and expendable," but later becomes upset when Private is eaten.
Although Skipper's plans and theories often serve as jokes, his most unorthodox theories are sometimes proven true; the Blowhole existence is the most extreme example of this. Doctor Blowhole is first mentioned in "Eclipsed", when Skipper brings up his plan to extinguish the sun; this is because the sun was covered by a solar eclipse and, before Mason, Phil, and Kowalski mentioned it, Skipper believed he finally succeeded. Skipper being paranoid often comes up due to his theories, and whether or not he's right depends on the episode. Often, those around him refuse to follow along, mostly Marlene because she believes Skipper overreacts. He often comes up with theories without basis on new arrivals, usually flying piranha or being a spy for Doctor Blowhole. According to him, there are actually 8 continents, since he counts Atlantis (and appears to believe it is off the coast of Brazil). He once tells Maurice that if he had Skipper's security clearance, he would believe it too. Skipper indicates that he believes that some new arrivals to the zoo could be flying piranha. In the episode "Launchtime," when he asks Kowalski to search for a place where nearly no lemurs can be found, he states that he cannot set foot in Denmark; when Private questions him on this, he replies by saying "Well, that's private, Private, between me and the Danes." It is later revealed that the incident in question was caused by Hans the Puffin, revolving around a fish fight and top secret documents that made them both public enemy number one.
Skipper has mentioned that there used to be two more penguins (Manfredi and Johnson, named for two ill-fated characters in the World War II prisoner-of-war saga Stalag 17) in addition to himself and the other three; and these claims have never been adequately explained. When they're brought up, it's usually as a warning or an aside remark, as they died in the past during a mission. In "The Hidden", he mentions that they died during a mission when they were attacked by "flying piranhas" and that they had to "bury what was left of them with a teaspoon". In "A Kipper for Skipper," when Skipper states that "relatively few penguins get left behind", as the others point out that Manfredi, Johnson, and another penguin were. In "Roger Dodger," he tells Rico that he would take him out if he had to and tells him "just ask Manfredi and Johnson." In "An Elephant Never Forgets," he tells them that while he was training Private that Manfredi and Johnson "fell for the exploding elephant foot." They are also mentioned by Private, who claims that they mistook the hind end of a beluga whale for an escape tunnel. In "Maurice at Peace," it is implied that they were accidentally smothered by the others due to a misinterpretation of a message which actually said to smother them with affection. In "Smotherly Love," it is mentioned that they died a very relaxing death in a day spa. It is found out in "The Penguin Who Loved Me" that they are actually alive and living in Seaville. They see Skipper and the crew, and try to call out to them, but the four agree to never come back to Seaville and swim away, not noticing.
In The Penguins of Madagascar, he uses some Italian words such as "Sempre all'erta" (in "Haunted Habitat"), "Bravissimo" (in "The Hidden"), "Attenzione" (in "Crown Fools"), "Eccellente" (in "Kingdom Come"), "Finito!" (in "Popcorn Panic") and "Perfetto" (in "An Elephant Never Forgets"). His Italian pronunciation is not perfect. In "The Falcon and the Snow Job," Skipper falls for a female Peregrine falcon named Kitka and they date for a while. Skipper breaks up with her after it is revealed that she had swallowed Fred the squirrel, and in subsequent episodes, she wasn't heard from or mentioned.
Skipper shares a very strong friendship with Marlene, a female Asian Otter who lives across from the penguins and is a main character in the series. Despite their conflicting differences and clashes of personality, the two still remain very close and are able to keep their bond of friendship strong. Marlene is also considered "privileged" by Skipper, due to the fact that he thinks of her as smart, which is rather unusual, considering his otherwise generally scornful opinion of mammals. He sometimes allows her to tag along on missions.
As the series The Penguins of Madagascar continues, Skipper starts to realize that Private is following in his footsteps in "Private and the Winky-Factory". Skipper also becomes less sensitive to his enemies Dr. Blowhole and Hans the Puffin. Over the course of the series, he likes and trusts them less and less. In the Dr. Blowhole Special "Blowhole Strikes Back", Hans and Skipper are referred to as "frenemies". At the beginning of the episode, Hans surprises Skipper by meeting him in China and refers to him as such.
| Kowalski | |
|---|---|
| Madagascar character | |
| First appearance | Madagascar (2005) |
| Created by | Mark Burton Billy Frolick Eric Darnell Tom McGrath |
| Voiced by | Chris Miller (films and other media) Jeff Bennett (The Penguins of Madagascar) |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Adélie penguin |
Kowalski is second-in-command and the tallest of the penguins, forming plans for the group and usually taking notes for Skipper. When Skipper is absent, he takes charge and his rank is First lieutenant. He tends to overanalyze situations.
Often formulating plans for the group, Kowalski is a loyal supporter of his leader, Skipper. Kowalski had escaped the zoo with the other penguins but was promptly captured and put into a crate for transfer with his comrades. The crates were all placed on a ship bound for Africa, where all the creatures from the zoo would be kept in a wildlife preserve. While in the crate, Kowalski confessed that he could not read and asked another transferee, a chimpanzee named Phil, to read the words on the crate. As soon as this was done, the four penguins headed to the ship's bridge, knocked out the crew and captain, bound them up, and Kowalski plotted the ship's course to Antarctica.
He is the technician of the group and always has his notepad (and, every now and then, an abacus). While being able to formulate plans and invent things (such as a rocket ship out of a trashcan and fireworks, a futuristic rotary saw blade made of energy and multiple random objects, or an intelligence manipulator from just a cardboard box and a magnet and a vacuum; in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, an invention of his called a "nucular" reactor [ sic ] is used.), he is shown to have a bit of difficulty deducing simpler machines. At the end of "Needle Point", it is revealed that he has a fear of zoological oral checks. He seems to also spout nearly or completely nonsensical words, such as, "The moo cow may have a chocolate marshmallow", or "I'll be a bicycle cream cone", whenever either hit incredibly hard or shocked severely. He screamed "Galileo Galilei" when he got his injection during "Needle Point". He also loves candy.
In the series he is shown to be intelligent but it is not as apparent in the films, which reveal that he does not know how to read. He does most of his calculations on an abacus, although he was briefly in possession of a calculator that was destroyed. He is in love with a dolphin called Doris and recorded a poem for her on DVD which highlighted her apparent non-interest in him in the "Hot Ice" episode.
It has been noted that his inventions have a habit of horribly backfiring regardless of his best intentions or their successes. Some of his most significant blunders include: a time machine (or 'Chronotron') that triggered a temporal rift that nearly destroyed reality despite remaining functional enough for Kowalski to time travel, resulting in three of him at once (noticeably, his first arrival saw him wanting to stop the ray and his second one saw him wanting it to keep working); a youth ray that turned Skipper into a chick; a mind-switching machine (which backfired in its first use because he forgot to take the warm-blooded/cold-blooded conflict into account when switching Rico with Roger); a time-stopping device called the "Chronocurbulator" that left time seemingly permanently frozen when it broke down; a helmet that granted the user the power of telekinesis; an invisibility ray (or 'Transparent Matter-Maker', called 'Transmatterer' for short due to copyright issues) that turned itself invisible before being set to randomly fire; a mind-reading machine that quickly burnt out due to lack of processing power; a cloning machine that relied on the Higgs Boson particle for power; nanites that could reprogram other machines (these were programmed to not harm a penguin, but this backfired when they locked the penguins in their habitat to 'protect' them); and the artificially engineered life-form 'Jiggles', who consumed the zoo's fruit and nearly destroyed the zoo when it grew to monstrous size. As a result of his inventions, he comes off as unhinged, especially when he becomes overly defensive about what he does. Outright called a mad scientist by Skipper, Kowalski often creates things in order to "show them" and has, on few occasions, hidden his devices. In "I Know Why The Caged Bird Goes Insane", he becomes increasingly derailed as the episode goes on after being temporarily confined to a wheelchair, mostly because the nursery he was being held in was right next door to the Science Expo, and he makes a few attempts to break out.
Kowalski can play a banjo and sing as seen in the episode "Concrete Jungle Survival".
In the episode "The Penguin Who Loved Me", Kowalski falls in love with a female bottlenose dolphin named Doris, who is the sister of Dr. Blowhole. Whereas in the spinoff film Penguins of Madagascar , he falls in love with a snowy owl named Eva.
| Rico | |
|---|---|
| Madagascar character | |
| First appearance | Madagascar (2005) |
| Created by | Mark Burton Billy Frolick Eric Darnell Tom McGrath |
| Voiced by | Jeffrey Katzenberg (Madagascar) Fred Tatasciore (second video game) John DiMaggio (The Penguins of Madagasar series) Conrad Vernon (Penguins of Madagascar film) |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Adélie penguin |
Rico is third-in-command of the penguins. He's a mute penguin, usually communicating by making unintelligible vocals. He is similar in physical features to the other penguins in the movies, but he has a tuft of feathers shaped like a mohawk and a scar of unknown origin on his left cheek in the television series, which makes him easier to distinguish, particularly from Skipper. Rico is the greediest and fattest of the penguins - he will eat almost anything, and thinks constantly of food. Skipper describes him as "clearly a world-class psychopath". Rico appears to be not merely particularly psychotic, but to some degree mentally deficient. In "Friend in a Box" Kowalski points a mind-reading device at him which, despite seeming to function perfectly for the other three penguins, picks up only the word 'Fish' being thought by Rico. According to Skipper, it was a mystery how Rico passed the psych test. On the other hand, in "Cat's Cradle" Skipper tells Rico to demonstrate shutting off all unnecessary brain functions to conserve oxygen, and Rico seems to 'deactivate' by deflating his entire body.
In the first and second film, what little speech Rico used suggested that his native language is Japanese, and his sushi-preparation skills added to this idea. However, in the TV series, he communicated with excitable garbled grunts, but could still manage short sentences in English, and his language further improved by the second season.
He's the team's weapons expert and his main function is to regurgitate any necessary tools that Skipper may need for a mission. His stomach operates as a hammer space, containing items as large or larger than himself, or that weigh much more than common sense would allow, with no ill effect on himself. He can swallow and regurgitate almost anything from paperclips and explosives, all the way to a running chainsaw and ground-to-air missile. As the show went on, characters could actually reach inside him and pull things out. His stomach even contains a spiral staircase and elevator, and he can swallow other characters and regurgitate them safely, as he has swallowed both Mort and Kowalski. He's very fond of explosives, and his answer to problems would always be "Kaboom!", if Skipper did not keep him in line.
Rico has little tolerance for "mushy" stuff, and often becomes nauseous when Private gets overly emotional and "lovey-dovey" about something. On the other hand he seems to be the second most emotional penguin next to Private and is deeply in love with a plastic doll called Ms. Perky. Another characteristic of Rico is that he might be incredibly superstitious, as, after receiving a rather dismal sounding fortune in a fortune cookie, Rico was a victim of pranks by King Julien who was trying to prove it was right. Even after revealing that Julien was behind the accidents, Rico still needed to have him "take away the curse." He is also insanely skilled with knives and bladed objects, able to make sashimi or carve a Christmas tree from ice in a matter of seconds and destroy bowling pin dummies with a chainsaw while blindfolded.
Rico appears to have an outstanding opera voice when excited (as seen in episodes "Go Fish", "Herring Impaired", "High Moltage", "Hair Apparent", etc.).
In the episode "Herring Impaired", Rico shows that he can be responsible when his friends need help, and because the other penguins had "Pisces Dementia", Rico had to keep watch over his friends to make sure they don't have another fish for 24 hours. During the episode, Maurice asked that "Since when did we get four Ricos?" showing that Rico is actually known for his appetite for fish and insanity among the other animals.
| Private | |
|---|---|
| Madagascar character | |
| First appearance | Madagascar (2005) |
| Created by | Mark Burton Billy Frolick Eric Darnell Tom McGrath |
| Voiced by | Christopher Knights (films and video games) James Patrick Stuart (The Penguins of Madagascar) |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Adélie penguin |
Private is the youngest and shortest of the penguins. He has light blue eyes and speaks with a British accent (though the other penguins think his accent is fake). [3] Private has been known to be a rather curious penguin and is much nicer and down-to-earth than the others. In a way, he's much more childish, enjoying "Lunacorns" (pony dolls based on a show that teaches good morals and friendship) and often suggesting much nicer plans (such as asking for something instead of breaking into a habitat or simply telling the truth to others.) He is often called inexperienced by the others. He has an addiction to Peanut Butter Winkies, first displayed in "Skorka" and further elaborated on in later episodes.
He was overprotective of the egg in the episode "Paternal Egg-Stinct", though given how his team mates were treating it (Skipper put it through a dangerous obstacle course, Kowalski tried shock treatments to increase its intelligence, and Rico was flying it with a hang glider), this was rational. Private is very good at deciphering code, communications and peace treaties, and in some degrees, common sense.
Private has been known to give life lessons (in "Mort Unbound" he tells Mort, "There is a natural order of things" and in "Two Feet High and Rising" he tells Mort that Julien's feet "are just feet; not love"). Private is emotionally sensitive, and is often portrayed as more observant or down to earth than the others (noticing when Skipper's ankle tag had not been taken off, indicating that he did not get a shot or suggesting that Maurice had stumbled back because of being blinded by a camera flash, which Skipper quickly labeled as preposterous though he nevertheless told Kowalski to run a scenario) but also has fighting skills on a par with or only slightly below those of Rico and Skipper (in "The Hidden" he is able to block rapid strikes from Skipper and disarm him with his feet while spinning on his head, all while blindfolded). On the wall of the Penguins' HQ is a stuffed fish with a sign "Private's First Prize"; hiding behind it (as well as a bunch of electronic precautions) is his most prized possession: a butterscotch lollipop. Like Kowalski, he loves candy, but eating too much of it causes him to hallucinate. He has an abnormal fear of badgers and cockroaches, as shown in the "Badger Pride" and "Stop Bugging Me" episodes respectively. When Private is the last available penguin to fix a situation (such as when it's revealed that the penguins had spied on the rest of the zoo occupants or during 'Untouchable'), he is able to rise to the occasion and execute a solution that benefits everyone.
In the episode "Cute-Astrophe", Private ended up developing a "hyper-cute" ability, wherein he achieves a state of over 132% adorability, that will make everyone around him pass out as they cannot cope with how absolutely cute he is. At first, Skipper abused the hyper-cute, using it on everyone around them, so Private swore to never use it again after the misuse of the hyper-cute caused chaos around the zoo and nearly got them sent away. Despite his vow, the hyper-cute made appearances in other episodes. This ability was attempted in one episode when Private was molting, but instead of knocking an observer out with adorability, it frightened and panicked anybody seeing him use the ability.
In the "Concrete Jungle Survival" episode, Private received the rank of Private First Class after successfully passing a test in the city. He had been just a Private beforehand.
In the Christmas special "Merry Madagascar" Private finds himself falling in love with Cupid, one of Santa's reindeer. The relationship is short-lived, as Cupid must return and work with Santa. Private reminded her that they would "Always have Madagascar!" as she flew off.
Private is the only penguin with known relatives, he has an uncle named Nigel (though they may not be related), and in "Operation Penguin," he mentions his father is named Sam Fishy, though Sam Fishy has yet to be shown onscreen. However, in Penguins of Madagascar , he appeared to have been abandoned as an egg, leading to the possibility that he is an orphan.
| King Julien XIII | |
|---|---|
| Madagascar character | |
| First appearance | Madagascar (2005) |
| Created by | Mark Burton Billy Frolick Eric Darnell Tom McGrath |
| Voiced by | Sacha Baron Cohen (mainline films) Danny Jacobs (TV series and specials, video games, Madagascar 3 soundtrack singing voice, Penguins of Madagascar ; 2008–present) Keith Ferguson (first video game) |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Ring-tailed lemur |
As great king of the lemurs, Julien ruled over a great colony of lemurs in Madagascar using mostly his charisma and delegating, i.e. telling other animals what they should do since he certainly had very little ability to lead. Nevertheless, he shows more intelligence and calmness compared to the other lemurs (aside from Maurice), which is shown when the very word "Fossa" drives all of them, except himself and Maurice, into a state of panic.
He had parties for his subjects on Madagascar with much frequency, the likes of which were interrupted constantly by the fossa, which trespassed onto the lemur territory, devouring all that they could catch.
In Julien's early life as seen in All Hail King Julien, he was depicted as the nephew of King Julien XII, who banned all noisy things to keep the fossa from attacking. After Julien XII abdicated to evade a prophecy from being eaten by the Fossa, Julien XIII became the new King of the Lemurs and did things that were opposite his uncle's rules. He saves his subjects from the Fossa until he got bitten on the rear by a Fossa, but he survived. When he learns that his nephew is still alive and is still king, his devious uncle tries to get rid of him and reclaim the throne. When he returned, Julien XII tricks Julien XIII into going into the Fossa territory to find out what they're planning with Maurice joining him. In the end, Julien discovered his uncle's plot, glad that Clover chose him over his uncle, and gives his uncle a second chance, by putting him in the Fossa disguise, that is being cuddled by a Fossa girl, much to his uncle's dismay.
The day Alex and his friends came to Madagascar, King Julien and his subjects were enjoying one of their parties when it was invaded by the fossa. When the fossa were scared off by Alex, Julien and his people were hiding in the trees and saw this scene, thinking Alex and his friends were giants from some faraway land, with Julien coming forward and presenting himself as the king of the lemurs — once he had ascertained they were not dangerous by tempting them with Mort.
When asked where the people were, Julien pointed to a skeleton of a man caught in a parachute hanging from a tree. Later that night, Julien had a meeting of the lemurs and other creatures of the jungle in the plane. Julien insisted that if they could make friends with Alex and his friends, the fossa would be scared away for good. Maurice was skeptical about this plan, but Julien insisted that, being king, his ideas were the best. Julien's plan failed when Alex started attacking the lemurs and his friends. Although Alex then turned back to normal and the fossa were scared away with only the actions of the four main characters and the penguins, Julien took the credits for its success. However, when it went wrong, he did not foist the idea back onto Maurice.
When Alex and his friends were ready to go back to New York, Julien gave them his crown; he had already made himself a bigger, better one using a leaf-tailed gecko named Stevie.
In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa , Julien, along with Maurice and Mort, accompany Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman to New York on the plane built by the penguins while leaving Stevie in charge until the day he returns. He is in the first class, ordering constant refreshments, and amusing himself with old plane crash films. As the plane crashes down to Africa after running out of fuel and momentum, Julien takes utter pleasure in the feeling of weightlessness caused by the high-speed descent. By being in first class, he escapes the crash with a parachute but loses his crown.
Upon arriving in Africa, Julien at first believes they are in New York and makes himself a new crown. He manages to gain some power while in Africa, although very few characters actually pay attention to him, getting to ride a flock of flamingos with Maurice, then moving on to riding ostriches and finally an elephant. Later, when the reserve's watering hole dries up, Julien suggests to the animals that they make a sacrifice to "his good friends, the water gods" at the volcano to replenish the water. To convince the masses, King Julien enacts his casual conversation with the Water Gods. Later, Julien persuades Melman to volunteer for the sacrifice, who believed he was going to die soon anyway. But when Melman realized he was going to live, he gave up on being a sacrifice, leaving Julien disappointed at his plan's failure. Mort arrives soon after, followed by a persistent shark that had been attempting to eat him. This shark then falls into the volcano, thus completing the sacrifice, and as Julien comes out of the volcano, he sees the water coming back to the reserve (due, in fact, to a dam constructed by Nana being destroyed by Alex and Zuba), and is convinced of his plan's success. From this King Julien concludes that the Water Gods like seafood more.
Julien appears in The Penguins of Madagascar regularly, often noisily and unintentionally annoying Skipper and pretty much everyone. He is the self-proclaimed "King of the Zoo" no doubt due to his former king status on Madagascar. Only Mort and Maurice truly believe and respect him as their king, the rest just show up to his "proclamation of royal decrees." Julien is proven to be a worthy ally in most episodes, since it is him who sometimes saves the day for the penguins (like in "Dr. Blowhole's Revenge"). Julien hates having anyone touch his feet, such as passing a royal decree that anyone who touches his feet would be banished from his kingdom (the zoo). When the sewer rats went to the zoo and tricked the Penguins out of their home, Julien decided to play for the Penguins in a game of Hockey to try and win their home back. They were losing until one of the rats touched his feet, after that he lost it and beat all of them on his own.
In the episode "Crown Fools", Julien panics when he loses his crown and obsessively longs for it until it is revealed that he had a spare crown all along (prompting Marlene, who was trying to make him new crowns all day, to chase him with a crowbar). Despite his desire for everyone to listen and do what he wants, he dislikes and ignores Mort, his most loyal follower, who treats him like a god. Mort responds to everything Julien tells him to do as "I like..." followed by whatever Julien said. In the episode The walk talk he mentioned that he had a dream that he was "The last mammal on Earth". Mort was just happy to be in the dream despite that he was "road kill" in it.
A recurring gag in The Penguins of Madagascar series is that Julien believes in supernatural beings, which sometimes annoys the other animals. In the episode Misfortune Cookie, Rico gets a fortune cookie that reads "You will soon meet a fowl end." The penguins deny that fortune cookies have any power, despite receiving three accurate fortunes, and dismiss it as superstition. Julien exclaims "these stitions are super," and tries to get the penguins to believe in the supernatural. King Julien actively plots to make a "foul end" fortune come true - by his own doing. It is also known that his believing in spirits can be used against him, seeing that Mason and Phil trick Julien into believing that the "sky spirits" are angry with the Julien self-centrism, thing that change Julien's personality. But when Skipper notices that kind Julien is more annoying than the narcissist Julien, Skipper makes him come back to his original self.
It is also shown that Julien gains a super-lemur level of strength if he gets mad. Visible when in "Miracle on Ice", Julien spanked and humiliated the Rat King, after one of his henchmen touched Julien's feet; In Happy King Julien Day, Maurice claims that Julien violently used a cane to spank everyone who forgot his self-proclaimed holiday.
In Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted , he has a bigger role and falls in love with Sonya the Bear. Also, he saved the day by managing to get back to the circus.
Baron Cohen has stated he based the voice of King Julien from his Sri Lankan attorney. [4]
| Maurice | |
|---|---|
| Madagascar character | |
| First appearance | Madagascar (2005) |
| Created by | Mark Burton Billy Frolick Eric Darnell Tom McGrath |
| Voiced by | Cedric the Entertainer (films and TV specials) John Cothran, Jr. (first video game) Fred Tatasciore (second and third video games) Kevin Michael Richardson (television) |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Aye-aye |
Maurice, birth name Bricky, is an overweight aye-aye, despite being an aye-aye, he lacks the distinctive middle finger.
Maurice is King Julien's advisor and assistant - although Julien seldom listens to him - and often shows skepticism of his ruler's mad plans. He has a long squirrel-like bushy tail. He lived in a tribe of other lemurs and witnessed newcomers to their home: a quartet of zoo animals. Maurice was suspicious of Alex, a lion, thinking him to be potentially dangerous. Maurice expressed this concern during a meeting of the lemurs and jungle animals, but was ignored by Julien. The next day, Maurice took part in the festival honoring the newcomers. During the festival, his suspicions about Alex become confirmed as Alex starts to give into his natural predatory instincts, and shortly after explained the trouble with having a lion around. He knew that Alex would need to eat meat, and felt that Alex should leave and go to the carnivore side of the island. He later stopped Alex from eating Marty by dropping a coconut on his head, earning praise from his king.
Shortly after, Maurice witnessed Gloria, Melman, and Marty working with a group of penguins to fight off the fossa that were attacking the lemur tribe. Maurice had to admit that King Julien's plan had worked and that fossa would no longer be of any worry. Maurice saw the newcomers out when they decided to leave and was obligated to wave King Julien's arm for him, as the king was tired of waving it.
In the sequel Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Maurice does not have a prominent role, basically agreeing to whatever King Julien says. In the series, he often acts like a strict big brother to Mort and knows him so well that in "The Penguin Stays in the Picture" he is shocked to find that Mort only ate half of his popsicle, prompting Skipper to go find him because he suspected Mort went missing, which was correct.
He is shown to have many hidden talents in several episodes such as painting and speaking chameleon in "The Hidden" and using a yo-yo in "Friend-in-a-Box." In "The Lost Treasure of the Golden Squirrel," his desire to control an army of Julien man-servants is revealed. Despite being overweight, he was still able to hold his own when he got into a physical fight with Kowalski and Rico in "The Lost Treasure of the Golden Squirrel". He has shown attraction to Darla the Baboon.
Maurice returns with a much smaller role in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, where he and the other two lemurs join the zoosters in catching up with the penguins and chimps. After joining the circus, the trio of lemurs fall into a crate holding Sonya the bear. Julien falls in love with Sonya, weirding-out Maurice and Mort. The two don't show up again until the end of the movie where they gun Dubois with a tranquilizer dart.
| Mort | |
|---|---|
| Madagascar character | |
| First appearance | Madagascar (2005) |
| Created by | Mark Burton Billy Frolick Eric Darnell Tom McGrath |
| Voiced by | Andy Richter (most media) Dee Bradley Baker (first video game) Matt Nolan (second and third video games) |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Goodman's mouse lemur |
Mort (full name Mortdecai) is a Goodman's mouse lemur (who is also part bear, starfish, sand, pot belly pig, cactus, spool of copper wire, wood chips and possibly part spider and fish) who is a resident of King Julien's kingdom and later a traveling companion of the zoo animals. Julien finds Mort incredibly annoying, and does not hesitate in proclaiming so. Despite this, Mort does not show any lasting unhappiness, and his expression changes within the same scene.[ citation needed ] A running gag is that Mort commonly pukes. Mort has a fanatic obsession with King Julien's feet that began in the pilot episode of All Hail King Julian "King Me", where Julien saves Mort from a band of fossa trying to eat him by kicking them with his feet. Mort also has very good money skills as shown in the episode "Gimme Gimme Gimme: The Game" where he cleverly becomes the richest lemur in Madagascar (all the other lemurs became broke, including Julien, after having all their money and possessions taken by Mort, who gives it all back after Julien, defeated, says that he had won, showing that he believed that it was all a game). In the episode "Oh Captain, Muy Captain (Part 2)", it is revealed that Mort was a fearsome pirate named Dread Pirate Mort at some point. In every episode, Mort was able to develop different personalities such as Smart Mort and his Evil Grammy which resulted in his personality disorder. During the events of "Exiled", it is revealed that Mort is an immortal transdimensional being and all of his alternate personalities are dimensional counterparts who he defeated and absorbed their life essence. By the end of the season, he marries the mountain lemur Zora but they later break up in Season 5.
In The Penguins of Madagascar episode "Sting Operation", when the penguins turn into idiots, they had the same obsession for feet just like him, which Julien despises. In his anger, Julien once banished Mort from their habitat at the zoo, forcing Mort to seek a "cure" from the Penguins. [5]
Mort makes his first appearance in Madagascar , where he doesn't have that big of a role. He lives among the other native lemurs under King Julien. Julien uses him as a test to see if Alex and the others eat lemurs, and Mort quickly decides that he likes them, as he is later shown to have a tendency to like everything. Later, Julien notes that if Alex does not like fish and still hungers for steak, Mort is "Plan B". Mort is last seen in the film with the other lemurs wishing the zoo animals farewell, and Julien uses him as a makeshift foot-rest.
In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa , Mort plays a much larger role. He attempts to follow Julien and Maurice on the penguins' plane, but Julien goes to extremes to keep him out of the plane, declaring that Mort was "carrying scissors and hand cream" (he did in fact, have a pair of scissors, however, strangely enough, he lacked any hand cream on the journey.) causing the security guards to brutality assault him.[ citation needed ] Mort succeeds in attaching himself to the outside of the plane, where he is seen by Alex (parodying a scene of The Twilight Zone 's episode Nightmare at 20,000 feet), before falling into the ocean shortly before it crashed. After reaching a shore at Africa, Mort is pursued by a persistent shark, which follows him onto the African preserve. Mort (still followed by the shark) finds Julien at a volcano where Melman had just decided that he would not sacrifice himself to return the preserve's water. The shark accidentally falls into the volcano just as Alex and Zuba destroy the dam blocking the river, thus leading Julien to think that his plan for sacrifice was correct.
Mort makes appearances through The Penguins of Madagascar , along with Julien and Maurice. At one point, stuffed "Mort" dolls became very popular, and out of jealousy Julien throws them into the skunk habitat. [6] Mort is accidentally shipped back to the factory with the dolls, and must be rescued. In the episode, King Julien also reveals that the only reason he allows Mort to stay with them is so he can express his dislike for Mort in front of him, and keep himself entertained. [5] Mort is also shown to be unhappy with his past self after growing in size and muscle mass due to an invention from Kowalski. After being turned back into his regular self, Mort expresses that he is happy with who he is. [7] In the television series, whenever an animal or object is falling it almost always lands on Mort. Despite the fact that Mort is often treated poorly by King Julien, the other characters show concern for him as Maurice tries (if with limited success) to save Mort when he may be in danger, and Skipper, who refers to Mort as "sad-eyes", dived in the way of the mutant rat overlord to save Mort. In the episode "Otter Woman", all the boys are attracted to Marlene because her fur turned white. Mort tries the same thing in the end of the episode, without success.
Mort returned in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted . In this film Mort does a few things including vomiting on Alex's birthday cake, helping Alex defeat Dubois early on in the film, being part of the Afro Circus with the other lemurs, and tranquilizing Dubois with knockout darts. Mort is a valuable character in the Madagascar movies.
Throughout All Hail King Julien (2014-2017), jokes and dialogue indicate that he has an obsession with King Julien's feet, to the point where he clings onto Julien's feet, has erected a shrine to worship them, and collects foot-themed souvenirs including keychains and toenails.
In All Hail King Julien: Exiled , he remains loyal to Julien even after the kingdom is enslaved and Julien disappears. While enslaved in Exiled, Mort takes comfort in what appears to be a pastel drawing of King Julien's foot, which he keeps above his bed before it is confiscated by guards. As in the 2014 series, the show heavily implies that Mort has a dissociative identity disorder by showing his intense arguments between multiple versions of himself. These include a logical Mort, a wild-eyed, murderous Mort, and a feminine Mort with a southern accent. A spotlight shines on the personality speaking, and once the dissociative episode is over, Mort appears confused and disoriented. Other lemurs appear shocked and fearful when Mort publicly plunges into one of his dissociative episodes, often staring silently at him after he regains his identity.
| Mason and Phil | |
|---|---|
| Madagascar character | |
| First appearance | Madagascar (2005) |
| Created by | Mark Burton Billy Frolick Eric Darnell Tom McGrath |
| Voiced by | Conrad Vernon (Mason) Phil is an unvoiced character |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Common chimpanzees |
Mason and Phil are two sophisticated common chimpanzees at the Central Park Zoo, who prefer to drink cups of coffee and "read" the newspaper in the morning. Mason speaks with a stereotypical British accent; Phil, by contrast, doesn't speak at all and communicates entirely through American Sign Language, though whether he is actually mute is unknown. While Mason is unable to read, Phil can and is used to decipher writing while Mason translates the ASL. Both escape the zoo after Gloria breaks through its outer wall; Mason mentions Tom Wolfe giving a lecture, and they plan to attend to "throw poo at him." [8] Along with the zoosters, Phil and Mason are captured and sent to a wildlife reserve.[ citation needed ] However, their crates are not thrown off the boat, and they are not seen until a final scene, in which they are still in crates waving farewell to the Madagascar natives.[ citation needed ]
In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, the chimps call upon others of their kind living in Africa to help rebuild the wrecked plane that was supposed to fly them back to New York.[ citation needed ] They later go on strike, asking for maternity leaves and breaks (Skipper argues that they are all males); eventually, they blackmail Skipper into agreeing.[ citation needed ]
In The Penguins of Madagascar, Mason and Phil are supporting characters in the series, and are shown to be annoyed by Julien's partying. They attempt to rid him of his ways by tricking Julien into thinking a solar eclipse was a sign that the "sky spirits" disapproved of his behavior. [9] They also frequently mention throwing poo and are used to read the English language. Phil may be the most temperamental or "potty mouthed" of the two, as after being told there is no checkmate in checkers, he makes several signs which Mason responds with "You groom your mother with those hands?!" Phil and Mason may also sometimes lose things in the translation of what they are made to read. An instance of this is when the zoo occupants were ordered to make a cake for King Julien, and Mason mistakes "booger" for "sugar". This does not mean that Phil is unable to communicate well, even though he is unable to truly speak, he was still able to win over the heart of Lulu, a female chimp visiting from the Hoboken Zoo in New Jersey for a weekend, While Lulu did appear in a later episode where the penguins ended up accidentally finding themselves in the Hoboken Zoo, it is unknown if she keeps in touch with Phil.
McGrath explained that originally their "first scene was just deciphering the code on the shipping label". [1] The crew "got this girl who knew American Sign Language" to give them hand gestures. They wanted gestures to be "really frenetic", and "she signed out, 'Tell the tiny pea-brained birds that the sign reads: Ship to...'". [1] Afterward, the crew returned to the scene where Mason notes Tom Wolfe's lecture, and she signed "Can we throw our poo at his stupid white suit?" [1] Mason is named after legendary British actor James Mason, whose urbane, sophisticated vocal styling is mimicked by Vernon.
In Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted Mason and Phil have smaller roles and are mostly seen posing as the King of Versailles.
They make a cameo appearance on a newspaper in Turbo .
The animals of Circus Zaragoza are trained circus performers that Alex's group had met while on the run from Chantel DuBois. Among the animals of Circus Zaragoza are:
| Vitaly | |
|---|---|
| Madagascar character | |
| First appearance | Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012) |
| Voiced by | Bryan Cranston |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Siberian tiger |
Vitaly is a muscular Siberian tiger with a Russian accent and retired circus-performer in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted .
The tough Vitaly once jumped through flaming rings of fire to excite crowds (similar to how Alex shows the audience with his dance moves), constantly pushing himself to the limit by jumping through smaller and smaller rings that seemed impossible for his size while lubricating himself with olive oil. But after losing his confidence and more than a few of his hairs on one fateful attempt which involved a flaming ring that would only fit on the smallest finger (due to the olive oil being flammable), he also lost his passion and his act partially. When Alex and his friends plead with the circus to let them escape on their train, Vitaly is the most resistant, only to be overruled by Gia. When the zoo animals purchase the circus, Vitaly remains the most hostile to their changes to the business, even as the rest of the crew becomes inspired. He's especially antagonistic to Alex and actually seems to be envious of him at first due to his full, shiny fur and his ability to leader and inspire the other circus animals (something he was known for in the past).
In London, Vitaly decides to give up and prepares to leave just before the circus' critical performance. Alex confronts Vitaly and reminds the tiger of his love of performing and while suggesting he uses hair conditioner as a safer lubricant before regaining his courage to jump through the tiny flaming hoop. As a result, Vitaly's stunt is performed perfectly to open the successful show. With that, a profoundly heartened Vitaly becomes a fast friend of Alex. Even after the zoo animals are exposed and estranged from the circus, Vitaly is the first to support Gia's proposal to rescue their new friends from the zoo and plays a key role in that operation.
| Gia | |
|---|---|
| Madagascar character | |
| First appearance | Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012) |
| Voiced by | Jessica Chastain |
| In-universe information | |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Species | Jaguar |
Gia is a jaguar with an Italian accent who is part of the traveling circus in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted . She is Alex's love interest who is always on the lookout to discover something new and gets her chance when she convinces a reluctant Alex to teach her the trapeze – "Circus Americano" style- and the two soon becomes romantically involved. Her only role in the circus before Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria came around was doing normal cat tricks (sitting, standing, rolling over) but when Alex teaches her the trapeze, she performs with him and they move closer. Later on, she and the other circus animals save Alex and the gang from Dubois. They soon become a item.
| Stefano | |
|---|---|
| Madagascar character | |
| First appearance | Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012) |
| Voiced by | Martin Short |
| In-universe information | |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Species | Sea lion |
Stefano is a sea lion with an Italian accent. He is part of the traveling circus in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and is a happy go-lucky, fun-loving Italian sea lion who always looks on the brighter side of things. A true entertainer at heart, he is up for any challenge to save the circus, even convincing Alex that the show must go on.
| Sonya | |
|---|---|
| Madagascar character | |
| First appearance | Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012) |
| Voiced by | Frank Welker |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Eurasian brown bear |
Sonya is the traveling circus' most ferocious, yet playful Eurasian brown bear who appears in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted . Her tricycle riding act is only topped by her ridiculous tutu. But her biggest trick of all will be casting a spell on King Julien, who develops romantic feelings for her. Unlike most of the animals in the film series, she's mute, but Julien understands her vocals.
While they are in Rome, she and Julien travel to Vatican City where they steal the Pope's ring after Julien pretends to kiss it and uses it to buy her a Ducati motorbike (after they fall down a set of stairs and destroy her tricycle), which she uses in her performance in London.
| The Andalusian Triplets Esperanza, Esmeralda and Ernestina | |
|---|---|
| Madagascar character | |
| First appearance | Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012) |
| Voiced by | Paz Vega |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Andalusian horses |
Esperanza, Esmeralda, and Ernestina (voiced by Paz Vega) are three of the new characters in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted . They are white Andalusian Mares with Spanish accents who like Marty and are part of the circus. All of their names start with "E" and end with "A". When Alex's group improved the Circus Zaragoza, the Andalusian Triplets bounced on the trampolines during their act while wearing butterfly wings on their outfits.
They were listed as "Horses" in the credits.
| The Dancing Dogs Frankie, Freddie, Jonesy and Shakey | |
|---|---|
| Madagascar character | |
| First appearance | Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012) |
| Voiced by | Nick Fletcher (Frankie) Vinnie Jones (Freddie) Steve Jones (Jonesy) Adam Buxton (Shakey) |
The Dancing Dogs are a group of six performing dogs with British Cockney accents as members of the circus in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted . They tend to fight and argue with each other and they hate being called cute and cuddly. The Dancing Dogs consist of Frankie (voiced by Nick Fletcher), Freddie (voiced by Vinnie Jones), Jonesy (voiced by Steve Jones), Shakey (voiced by Adam Buxton), Bobby, and Sammy. Only the first three are credited.
Manu and Maya are two performing Indian elephants as members of Circus Zaragoza in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted .
Their names are revealed in the DVD commentary as well as the fact that they are German. According to Tom McGrath, they are very nice and great to work with. They remain silent in the film due to the fact that their possible dialogue was cut from the film.
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| | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2010) |
Sean Axmaker of Seattle Post-Intelligencer praised the characters, noting the "marvelous character animation" and "the palpable camaraderie between animal buddies" kept Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa "rolling". [23] Axmaker also commended the voice of Zuba, played by Bernie Mac, saying "his vocal makeover is so complete that you may not recognize his voice, but you will appreciate the warmth and vivid personality of his creation." [23]
The fossa is a slender, long-tailed, cat-like mammal that is endemic to Madagascar. It is a member of the carnivoran family Eupleridae.
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is a 2008 American animated adventure comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation SKG and PDI/DreamWorks and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is the sequel to Madagascar (2005) and the second installment in the franchise. It was directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath and written by Etan Cohen, Darnell, and McGrath. The film features Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, Andy Richter, Elisa Gabrielli, McGrath, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights, and Conrad Vernon reprising their voice acting roles from the first film, joined by new cast members Bernie Mac, Alec Baldwin, Sherri Shepherd, and will.i.am, as well as voice acting veteran John DiMaggio. In the film, the main characters, a party of animals from the Central Park Zoo whose adventures have taken them to Madagascar find themselves in the African savannas, where they meet others of their species and where Alex the lion reunites with his parents.
The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper is a 2005 American animated short film produced by DreamWorks Animation and PDI/DreamWorks and distributed by DreamWorks Pictures. Directed by animation veteran Gary Trousdale, produced by Teresa Cheng, and written by Michael Lachance, it stars the voice cast of Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights, John DiMaggio, Elisa Gabrielli, and Bill Fagerbakke. Set before the events of the first Madagascar, the 12-minute Madagascar spin-off features the adventures of four penguins, sometimes known as the Madagascar Penguins, who live in the Central Park Zoo and are trained as spies. When Private is captured by Nana by wanting to find a present for Ted during his absence, the other three penguins, Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico, must rescue Private from Nana's apartment, while making last-minute preparations for Christmas at the Central Park Zoo. The music in the short film is scored by James Dooley.
Madagascar is a platform video game based on the animated film of the same name by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath, produced by DreamWorks. The game was released on May 24, 2005 in North America and on June 30, 2005 in Europe. The GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions were developed by Toys for Bob. The Microsoft Windows version was developed by Beenox and the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance versions were developed by Vicarious Visions. All versions of the game were published by Activision. Madagascar: Operation Penguin was the next Madagascar video game to be released on the Game Boy Advance.
The American Species Survival Plan or SSP program was developed in 1981 by the (American) Association of Zoos and Aquariums to help ensure the survival of selected species in zoos and aquariums, most of which are threatened or endangered in the wild.
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is a platform game based on the film of the same name. It was released on the Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. The video game's gameplay is similar to the movie's first scenes with the same characters and moves, although the environment is in Africa. The Nintendo Channel released a playable demo of this game on the week of November 7, which shows one of the side-scrolling, Lemmings-esque levels in which the penguins of the series are the main characters.
Madagascar is a 2005 American animated survival comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation SKG and PDI/DreamWorks, and distributed by DreamWorks Pictures. The film was directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath and written by Darnell, McGrath, Mark Burton, and Billy Frolick. The film stars the voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, and Andy Richter. It centers around a group of animals from the Central Park Zoo who find themselves stranded on the island of Madagascar and must adjust to living in the wild.
The Penguins of Madagascar is an American animated television series produced by DreamWorks Animation Television and co-produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio. It stars nine characters from DreamWorks' animated film Madagascar: the penguins Skipper, Rico, Kowalski, and Private ; the lemurs King Julien, Maurice, and Mort ; and Mason and Phil the chimpanzees. Characters new to the series include Marlene the otter and a zookeeper named Alice. It is the first Nicktoon co-produced with DreamWorks Animation. The series was executive-produced by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle, who were the creators of the animated series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and Disney Channel's Kim Possible.
Madagascar is an American media franchise owned and produced by DreamWorks Animation. The voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith are featured in the films. It began with the 2005 film Madagascar, the 2008 sequel Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and the third film Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted in 2012. A spin-off film featuring the penguins, titled Penguins of Madagascar, was released in 2014. A fourth main film, Madagascar 4, was announced for 2018, but has since been removed from its schedule due to the studio's restructuring.
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted is a 2012 American animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and PDI/DreamWorks and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The third installment in the Madagascar franchise, it is the sequel to Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008), and was the first film in the series to be released in 3D. It was directed by Eric Darnell, Conrad Vernon and Tom McGrath from a screenplay by Darnell and Noah Baumbach. The film stars Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, Andy Richter, McGrath, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights, and Vernon reprising their voice acting roles from the previous installments, alongside new cast members Jessica Chastain, Bryan Cranston, Martin Short and Frances McDormand. In the film, the main characters—a party of animals from the Central Park Zoo whose adventures have already taken them to Madagascar and Africa—attempt to return to New York City, and find themselves traveling across Europe with a circus while being chased by a relentless French Animal Control officer.
Merry Madagascar is a Christmas special first broadcast on the NBC network on November 17, 2009, which starred the characters from the film series Madagascar, and takes place sometime between the first and second film. It is the second DreamWorks Animation Christmas special, after Shrek the Halls.
Danny Jacobs is an American actor and voice actor. He made his voice acting debut in 1999 with an uncredited role in Full Blast. He began his role of King Julien in The Penguins of Madagascar (2008–2015) and had reprised his role in the Christmas special Merry Madagascar (2009), the Valentine's Day short Madly Madagascar (2013) and All Hail King Julien (2014–2017). He also impersonated Cohen's character Borat Sagdiyev in Epic Movie (2007).
Madagascar: A Crate Adventure was a water ride located in the Madagascar zone of Universal Studios Singapore at Resorts World Sentosa. The attraction is based on Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation's 2005 animated film Madagascar and its franchise.
Wild Kratts is a comedy educational children's television series that uses a hybrid of live action and Flash animation. The series was created by the Kratt brothers, Chris and Martin. The Kratt Brothers Company and 9 Story Media Group produce the show, which is presented by PBS Kids in the United States and by TVOKids in Canada. The show's aim is to educate children about species, biology, zoology, and ecology, and teach kids small ways to make big impacts. It has ties to the Kratts' previous shows, Kratts' Creatures and Zoboomafoo, and contains numerous characters from the latter. Spanning over twelve years, Wild Kratts is the longest running program made by the Kratt Brothers. It was also the last show to premiere on the PBS Kids Go! block before the block was discontinued in 2013 in favor of making PBS Kids aimed at all children young and old alike.
The Penguins of Madagascar: Dr. Blowhole Returns – Again! is an adventure video game developed by Griptonite Games and published by THQ available for the Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo DS. It was released in September 2011.
The Penguins of Madagascar is a video game developed by Griptonite Games and released on Nintendo DS on November 2, 2010, with additional minigames utilizing the camera on Nintendo DSi systems. The game is based on DreamWorks and Nickelodeon's The Penguins of Madagascar animated television series, and is unrelated to DreamWorks' Penguins of Madagascar film. The game received a successor, The Penguins of Madagascar: Dr. Blowhole Returns – Again!, in September 2011 for most gaming platforms.
Penguins of Madagascar is a 2014 American animated spy action comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and PDI/DreamWorks and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Directed by Eric Darnell and Simon J. Smith from a screenplay written by Brandon Sawyer and the writing team of Michael Colton and John Aboud, and a story conceived by Alan Schoolcraft, Brent Simons, Colton and Aboud, it is a spin-off of the Madagascar franchise, and the fourth film overall. Despite the title of the film, it is not directly related to The Penguins of Madagascar television series. Starring the voices of Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights, Conrad Vernon, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ken Jeong, Annet Mahendru, Peter Stormare and John Malkovich, it takes place directly after the events of Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012), following the adventures of four Adélie penguins - Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private - as they join forces with the North Wind intelligence agency to stop the Giant Pacific octopus Dave, who seeks revenge on all Adélie penguins across the Earth for being upstaged by capturing them.
This is a list of winners of the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer In An Animated Program. The award was presented between 1995 and 2021. It recognized a continuing or single voice-over performance in a series or a special. The performance generally originated from a Children's Animated, Special Class Animated Program.
All Hail King Julien is an American animated television series that stars King Julien, Maurice, and Mort from DreamWorks Animation's Madagascar franchise and takes place in Madagascar before the events of the first film. making it a prequel. It is the second DreamWorks Animation show to be based on the Madagascar franchise.
Madagascar: A Little Wild is an animated television series produced by DreamWorks Animation Television. The series, which is a prequel to the 2005 film, features Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Gloria the Hippo, and Melman the Giraffe residing in a rescue habitat at the Central Park Zoo as children. The series premiered on Hulu and Peacock on September 7, 2020.
Kowalski: He's putting on an adorably phony British accent. Skipper: Just like the private. Private: Phony? This is how I really talk.
I heard Tom Wolfe is speaking at Lincoln Center." / "Well of course we're going to throw poo at him!
They're always annoying us by trespassing, interrupting our parties, and ripping our limbs off.
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