Trailer
Plot summary
Alex the lion is the star attraction at New York's Central Park Zoo, where his best friends are Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippo. Marty has grown tired of the daily routine and wants to know what the wild is like. On the evening of his tenth birthday, he slips away to follow four penguins, Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private, who are planning an escape. Alex, Melman and Gloria go after him and are caught at Grand Central Terminal. With animal rights activists pressing the zoo, the four are put on a ship bound for a nature reserve in Kenya. The penguins take over the vessel, and the crates holding Alex and his friends fall overboard. They come ashore on Madagascar, where lemurs led by King Julien XIII live in fear of predatory fossa.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Madagascar (2005)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- King Julien was originally written as a minor character with only two lines, but when Sacha Baron Cohen auditioned he improvised an Indian accent and eight straight minutes of dialogue. The filmmakers found it so funny that they rewrote the script to make Julien a much bigger character, the King of the Lemurs.
- Co-director Tom McGrath wanted actor Robert Stack to voice the penguin leader Skipper, but Stack died two weeks before animation production began. DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg then decided to permanently keep McGrath's own temporary scratch-track voice for the character instead.
- Comedian Dana Carvey was originally offered a role in the film but turned it down because he was busy raising his kids at the time.
