List of Madagascar characters

This is a list of characters that have appeared in the Madagascar films and the television series The Penguins of Madagascar.

Concept and creation
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". 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 sqft "right off Fifth Avenue".

McGrath also described, during the research of Madagascar, they "found these crazy, weird animals that were already cartoons in their own right."

Alakay "Alex" Taylor
Voiced by:
 * Ben Stiller - in Madagascar franchise and specials
 * Wally Wingert - in first two video games and various spinoffs
 * Declan Swift/Quinn Dempsey-Stiller - as a cub
 * Crispin Freeman - third video game

"Alex", born Alakay, is a lion and the main protagonist of the films. Alex is headstrong, the de facto leader of his friends and is best friends with Marty (Zebra). He is used to the life of comfort in the zoo, but learns to adapt to the wild. He's smart, quick thinking and fast on his feet. 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 is surprised when hearing Marty's wish to leave and live in the wild. As a cub, Alex was born on an African wildlife reserve and named Alakay. He was the son of the alpha lion, Zuba, 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 and taken 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, and Melman 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 (by biting him on the butt when he thought it was a piece of steak), in a moment of lucidity, he goes into self-imposed exile, barricading himself in the fossa territory of the island. 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, who are overjoyed to see their son and in the end, 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, Zuba's rival, persuades Alex to challenge Teetsi during the Alex's rite of passage. Teetsi 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 Penguins of Madagascar 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 friend celebrating Christmas and singing a version of "Jingle Bells".

The fact that Alex loses the challenge to Teetsi 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, but equilibrated fight against Nana. Alex is shown to have a superhuman level of interior 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 video games. In the show, he appeared as a hallucination "spirit guide" to help Skipper, whose memories had been stolen by the evil 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.

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 the DuBois' snare they fly back to New York until they crash in a trainyard. Alex is determined to get back home and tries to fix the plane but fails. Then he persuades Gia to let them on the train, with whom he is smitten with upon first sight. After being let on the train Alex and the gang realized that this was a ticket home.

After a failing 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 was grouchy. 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 gives another pep talk to his friends and Julien that they were wrong and they decide to go back until DuBois comes. Awaken 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 by saving Stefano and defeating DuBois.

Marty S. Molm
Voiced by:
 * Chris Rock - in the films and specials
 * Phil LaMarr - in the video games
 * Thomas Stanley - as a colt

Marty S. Molm is a zebra who used to live at the Central Park Zoo, and 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.

In the beginning, Marty lived a life of comfort in the zoo, but comfort led to boredom. Marty soon saw that his tenth birthday had come and gone, meaning that his life was already half over. Marty decided, then, that he must travel to the wild, for at least a short time, never having seen the wild.

At one point 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 the Lion, Melman the Giraffe, and Gloria the Hippopotamus, 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. However, the penguins take over the ship and the four friends are washed up on the shores of Madagascar.

Once on the island, the animals begin to panic, except for Marty, who has had his dream fulfilled. Marty sets up a "bar" on the island, known as Casa del Wild (in English Home of the Wild). Alex is 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 is later able to rejoin his friends as they head back to the zoo.

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.

Marty returns in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.In Madagascar 3 Europe's most Wanted Marty joins the circus along with the others. His circus act is cannon along with Stefano. In the middl of te film you can tel he loves the afro. At the end of the film i is shown that Marty is dancing in his afro (along wth the others) to the tune afro circus/i like to move it move it

Melman Mankiewicz
Voiced by:
 * David Schwimmer - in Madagascar films and specials
 * Stephen Stanton - in Madagascar video games
 * Zachary Gordon - as a calf

Melman Mankiewicz is a male giraffe. He is somewhat of a hypochondriac, having doses of medicine for meals and doctor's appointments frequently. He even complains about having brown spots on his neck (the spots, in real life, are natural).

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 injured animals who might otherwise dig a hole and 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, however, 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 seems uncomfortable when she comments that Alex is cute). When the animals nearly die trying to fly back to New York in a salvaged air plane, he screams he is in love with Gloria; however, she is asleep and does not hear this. 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 very good at this job, 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 and simply tells her date what a wonderful girl 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 the gang arrive at Monte Carlo to find the penguins, once inside the hotel, Melman, Alex and Marty argue over who should be the leader of the group, however, 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, however, 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 planes engine fails and 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 new found 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
Voiced by:
 * Jada Pinkett Smith - in the films and specials
 * Bettina Bush - in the video games
 * Willow Smith - as a calf

Gloria is a hippopotamus who resided in the Central Park Zoo as an attraction, all the while being good friends with Alex and Marty, and Melman's girlfriend (as of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa). She acts as the older sister to the gang, often putting her foot down when the boys start to lose control.

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, however, Marty acted out his wish and headed straight for the Terminal Station so as to take a 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 finding a boyfriend. 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 large, "plumpy" body, whereas Melman loves her for who she is. Realizing that she loves Melman back, she convinces him not to sacrifice himself into the volcano and Gloria grabs him by the horn and says, "It's crazy to think that I had to go half way 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 find their way as they contribute to the circus' success with a spectacular tightrope act.

King Julien XIII
Voiced by:
 * Sacha Baron Cohen - films
 * Keith Ferguson - first video game
 * Danny Jacobs - television, specials, and video games

King Julien XIII is a conceited, fun-loving ring-tailed lemur.

As a self-proclaimed lord of the lemurs, Julian ruled over a great colony of lemurs in Madagascar using mostly his charisma and delegating; i.e. telling other people 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.

Julian had parties for his people on Madagascar with much frequency, the likes of which were interrupted constantly by the foossa, which trespassed onto the lemur territory, devouring all that they could catch.

The day Alex and his friends came to Madagascar, King Julian and his subjects were enjoying one of their parties when it was invaded by the fossa. When the foossa were scared off by Alex, Julian and his people were hiding in the trees and saw this scene, thinking Alex and his friends were giants from some faraway land, with Julian 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, Julian pointed to a skeleton of a man caught in a parachute hanging from a tree. Later that night, Julian had a meeting of the lemurs and other creatures of the jungle in the plane. Julian insisted that if they could make friends with Alex and his friends, the foossa would be scared away for good. Maurice was skeptical about this plan, but Julian insisted that, being king, his ideas were the best. Julian's plan failed when Alex started to get out of control and try to kill the lemurs and his friends. Although, Alex then turned back to normal and the foossa were scared away with only the actions of the four main characters and the penguins, Julian took the credits for its success. Interestingly though, 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, Julian gifted them his crown; however he had already made himself a bigger, better one with a lizard.

In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Julian, along with Maurice and Mort, accompany Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman to New York on the plane built by the penguins. He is in the first class, ordering constant refreshments, and amusing himself with plane crash videos. As the plane crashes down to Africa after running out of fuel and momentum, Julian 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, Julian 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, Julian 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 Julian enacts his casual conversation with the Water Gods. Later, Julian 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 Julian disappointed at his plan's failure. However, Mort arrives soon after, followed by a persistent shark that had been attempting to eat him. This shark then falls into the volcano, and as Julian 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 Julian concludes that the Water Gods like sea food more.

Julian 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." Julian is proven to be a worthy ally in most episodes, since it is he who sometimes saves the day for the penguins (like in "Dr. Blowhole's Revenge"). Julian 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, Julian 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", Julian 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 hates and ignores Mort, his most loyal follower, who treats him like a god. Mort responds to everything Julian tells him to do as "I like..." followed by whatever Julian said. In the episode "Haunted Habitat" 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 Julian 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. Julian exclaims "these stitions are super," and tries to get the penguins to believe in the supernatural. King Julian 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 tricks Julien into believing that the "sky spirits" are angry with the Julien self-centrism, thing that change Julian's personality. But when Skipper notices that kind Julian is more annoying than the narcissist Julian, Skipper makes him come back to his original self.

It is also shown that Julian gains a super-lemur level of strength if he gets mad. Visible when in "Miracle on Ice", Julian spanked and humiliated the Rat King, after one of his henchmen touched Julian's feet; In Happy King Julian Day, Maurice claims that Julian 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 of falling in love with Sonya the Bear. Also he saved the day by managing to get back to the circus.

Skipper
Voiced by:
 * Tom McGrath

Skipper is the leader of a band of penguins bent on a secret agenda of escaping the confines of the zoo and being free in Antarctica. He has dark, sapphire-blue eyes. It is revealed that he, as well as the others, have no idea what is expected of the penguin species by humans aside from "smile and wave." It comes to the point where Private needs a bird biology book to tell the others how to act, even though it's not addressed how he, nor Kowalski, has been able to read the English language and yet still need Phil and Mason to translate in most instances.

As leader, Skipper was the mastermind behind a plot to escape the confines of the zoo and leave for Antarctica with Kowalski, Rico, and Private as his accomplices. Skipper and his troupe dug under their enclosure until they reached the enclosure of Marty the zebra, thinking it to be the South Pole. Skipper explained to Marty that they would escape the zoo on the grounds that penguins do not belong in captivity and with that, ordered his accomplices to continue tunneling. Late that night, Skipper and the other penguins were caught by a SWAT team, as were six other animals found outside the zoo. The penguins were tranquilized and put into a crate to be transferred.

When they awoke, Skipper was confused at the lettering on the crate where they were held and ordered a nearby chimpanzee named Mason to read it, with Mason's companion Phil reading it: they were all bound for a wildlife preserve in Africa. Skipper ordered Rico to pick the lock on the crate where they were held, whereupon the four penguins knocked out the crew and took command of the ship, commandeering it to reach Antarctica. Skipper and his mates finally reached Antarctica and were sorely disappointed by the barren, desolate terrain (as evidenced by Private's exclamation, "Well, this sucks...") Skipper had the ship return quickly from the South Pole, where it crashed into the beaches of Madagascar and a much warmer climate. Upon arriving, he and the other three encountered Gloria and Melman, and saw that Alex and Marty (known as their "monochromatic friend") were gone. Skipper decided to help rescue Marty from the grim fate of being eaten by the native fossa (possibly as gratitude for his silence regarding the escape). It was Skipper who helped to distract the fossa while Marty was recovered and then helped fight off a number of them.

Skipper noticed later on that Alex was still hungry, not being able to eat steak, and had Rico prepare sushi for Alex. Skipper then relinquished control of the ship to Alex, as he no longer needed it, and proceeded to sunbathe on the tropical beaches in comfort. Skipper was asked by Private if they should tell Alex and his friends that the ship was out of gas. Skipper declined, telling his troupe to "Just smile and wave, boys, smile and wave".

In the sequel, Skipper leads the penguins in first salvaging a crashed airplane to fly back to New York, then fixing the plane when it crashes at Africa with the help of "more thumbs" (Mason and Phil, who also escaped). At the end of the movie, he marries a bobble head. In The Penguins of Madagascar, the bobble head is nowhere to be seen.

In the third movie, it is revealed that Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private along with some chimpanzee were at Monte Carlo. With one of the chimpanzees dressed as the "King of Versailles", they were able to amass a fortune of jewels, diamonds and gold and were planning to buy an aircraft to pick up the "hippies" (Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman) in Africa and return to New York. However, things change when Alex and the others rush to Monte Casino, believing that the penguins abandoned them. Skipper would later use the fortune to help the gang, be part of the traveling circus.

In "Tangled in the Web" and "Crown Fools" it is shown that Skipper knows karate and is an exceptionally capable fighter, he's also very strong as seen in "Launchtime" and in "Crown Fools" he said that he had taken down an angry walrus with "a wing and a prayer and another wing", but was revealed that he is terrified of needles, in the episode, "Needle Point." In "Eclipsed" he mentioned that he has a dolphin enemy named "Dr. Blowhole", he apparently had a plan to extinguish the Sun, as when Private told him that the sun went dark. Skipper believed that Dr. Blowhole had succeeded in his plan. Skipper's plans and theories serve a lot as jokes (however sometimes his most out there theories are proven true, since the Blowhole existence is the most extreme example of this.), such as to him there are not 7 but "8" continents as he counts Atlantis, (and appears to believe it is off the coast of Brazil), once telling Maurice that if he had Skipper's security clearance he would to, as well as thinking the new arrivals to the zoo could be flying piranha. He takes his missions very seriously and is highly skilled in hand to hand combat. In the episode "Launchtime" when he asked Kowalski to search for a place where nearly no lemurs can be found, he stated that he cannot set foot in Denmark and instead chose the moon; when Private questioned him on this, he replied by saying "well that's private, Private, between me and the Danes" (Although it has since been revealed that the incident was caused by Hans the Puffin).

Skipper has mentioned that there used to be two more penguins in addition to himself and the other three; this has been unconfirmed, as these claims have been and never fully explained. In "The Hidden", he mentioned that they supposedly died during a mission when they were attacked by "flying piranhas", as he said "we had to bury what was left of them with a tea spoon". In "A kipper for skipper", Skipper says no penguin is left behind, the others note that Manfred, Johnson and possibly another penguin were, and Skipper replies that relatively few penguins get left behind. Later, in "Roger Dodger", he told Rico that he would take him out if he had to and told him "just ask Manfredi and Johnson". He told of them in "An Elephant Never Forgets" while he was training Private that they "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, while in "Maurice at Peace" it was implied that they were accidentally smothered by the others due to a misinterpretation of a message which actually said to smother them with affection, and "Smotherly Love" noted that they died a very relaxing death in a day spa (Manfredi and Johnson are two ill-fated characters in the World War II prisoner-of-war saga Stalag 17).

Although Skipper tends to try to show no emotion most of the time, whenever Private or any other member of his team is in danger or thought to be dead he becomes very upset (although he once told Private he was always bait because "is naïve and expendable" but then became upset when he was eaten).

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"). Sometimes, his Italian pronunciation is not perfect. In "The Falcon and the Snow Job", Skipper fell for a female falcon named Kitka and she felt the same way about him, so they dated for a while. However, Skipper broke up with her after it was revealed that she had swallowed Fred the squirrel.

In "Huffin and Puffin," it is revealed Skipper cannot go to Denmark because a little incident with his enemy Hans (who had appeared in that episode), a puffin, made him public enemy number one.

Skipper also shares a very strong friendship with Marlene, a female Asian Otter living across from him and the penguins, who is also a main character in the series. Despite their conflicting differences and clash of personalities, the two still remain very close and are able to keep their bond of friendship strong. Marlene is also considered as "privileged" to Skipper, due to the fact that Skipper thinks of her as a smart, which is rather ironic, considering of his scornful opinion towards mammals. He also sometimes allows her to tag along on missions.

Skipper appears in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted with a big role. He is one of the main characters in it.

Kowalski
Voiced by:
 * Chris Miller - in most media
 * Jeff Bennett - in The Penguins of Madagascar

The tallest of the penguins, Kowalski is second-in-command, forms plans for the group and usually takes notes for Skipper. When Skipper is absent, he takes charge and his rank is First Lieutenant. He has blue eyes and tends to over-analyze situations.

Kowalski is part of a rookery of devious penguins who had made it their goal to escape captivity in the Central Park Zoo and leave for Antarctica. 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 (he said the words on the side of the box were an "older code", in slight reference to Return of the Jedi) 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. While being able to formulate plans and invent things (such as a rocket ship out of a trashcan and fireworks, a rotary saw blade made of energy and multiple random objects, or an intelligence sucking machine from just a cardboard box, a magnet, and a vacuum) he is shown to have a bit of difficulty deducing simpler machines. At the end of "Needle Point", it is revealed that he has an irrational fear of dentists, which is peculiar in that, as Private soon states after Kowalski runs off, penguins do not have teeth. 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 (as he did when body checked by a giant rat during a hockey game) or when shocked severely (as by Officer X's stun gun). 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 (e.g. in Madagascar he does not know how to read and in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa he states that the paper plane would help them fly back to NY and he does not understand that the fuel indicator was indicating that fuel is finished). 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. (She was first mentioned in "Gone in a Flash".)

It has been noted that his inventions have a habit of horribly backfiring regardless of his best intentions. Some of his most significant blunders include a time machine (or 'Chronotron') that triggered a temporal rift that nearly destroyed reality and resulted in three of Kowalski appearing in one place; a ray designed to return spoiled food to its fresher state 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 device that stops time 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 a rare 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.

Kowalski can play a banjo and sing as seen in Concrete Jungle Survival.

Kowalski is in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.

Rico
Voiced by:
 * John DiMaggio

Rico does not really talk much. 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. Skipper describes him as a "world-class psychopath". Rico appears to be not merely particularly psychotic, but also mentally deficient. In "Friend in a Box" Kowalski points a mind-reading device at him which, while functioning for everybody else, picks up only the word "Fish" being thought by Rico. According to Skipper, it was a mystery how Rico passed the psych test.

He mostly communicates with various grunts, squeals, and gibberish, (though his language seems to have improved by the second season, as he is able to speak short fragments such as "Allow me" and "You're the King") and has displayed a fondness for a plastic doll toy. He's the team's weapons expert and his main function is to regurgitate any necessary tools that Skipper may need for a mission (as the fact that his stomach operates as a hammer space, several items being as big as himself or weighing a large amount, with no effect on himself or anything/any character he might be on). He's very fond of explosives, and his answer to problems would always be "Kaboom!", if Skipper did not stop him. In one notable episode, "All Choked Up", the penguins attempt to destroy a robotic zoo guide that has recently been installed, assuming that they will be replaced by robotic animals. Rico eventually regurgitates a time bomb that Skipper then activates. Meanwhile, Alice, upon noticing that Rico is constantly regurgitating, forces him to drink a liquid medicine as a remedy. The penguins then must try to get him to regurgitate the bomb before it explodes inside Rico. The penguins try many methods of making Rico regurgitate but none help until the end, when the penguins think it is too late and start sobbing over him, which sickening "mushy stuff" causes Rico to finally regurgitate the bomb. It lands in the robotic zookeeper's hands, and explodes, destroying the robot.

Rico has little tolerance for "mushy" stuff, and often becomes sick 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 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's psychosis needs to be controlled at all times, by Skipper limiting his use of destructive solutions, often involving explosions. Giving him free rein to destroy to his heart's desire, Rico builds up enough psychotic pressure that he literally becomes a vortex of destruction, spinning out of control and destroying everything in his path. Kowalski once estimated Rico was capable of destroying the entire zoo in this state.

Rico appears to have outstanding opera voice when excited (as seen in episodes "Go Fish", "Herring Impaired", "High Moltage", "Hair Apparent", etc.).

In episode "Herring Impaired", he is actually most responsible of penguins and because other penguins have "Pisces Dementia", Rico must watch, if no penguin have another fish. That means, he can be serious and responsible when have his friends big problem

Rico is in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.

Private
Voiced by:
 * Christopher Knights - in most media
 * James Patrick Stuart - in The Penguins of Madagascar

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). Private has been known to be a rather curious penguin. 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 to use a machine to increase its intelligence with a painful shock, and Rico was flying it with a hang glider), this was (somewhat) rational. Private is very good at deciphering code. Private is also the shyest and least experienced in the group. Private also has a sugar addiction, as seen on the episode "Skorka," where he ate the whole box of Peanut Butter Winkies.

Private loves and admires the Lunacorns. He watches their t.v. show in many episodes, and gives lessons from them to others. He wishes to learn from it and chooses to watch it in his spare time.

Private has been known to give life lessons like in "Mort Unbound" when he told Mort, "There is a natural order of things"; but when he was thrown all the way to the penguins HQ he became giant and to stop Mort. And in "Two Feet High and Rising" when he told Mort that Julien's feet "are just feet; not love". Private is emotionally sensitive. Private has been known to say "Um, Skipper?", "Is it safe?", "Goodbye, telly old chum," and "Oh, dear!" Despite his sensitive nature, he 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) as well as having fighting skills on a par with or only slightly below those of Rico and Skipper, as he was 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 Penguin's 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", it is revealed that Private has 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. Despite his vow, the hyper-cute made appearances in other episodes. This ability was attempted in one episode when Private was moulting, 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 however, as Cupid must return and work with Santa. Private reminded her that they would "Always have Madagascar!" as she flew off.

Private appears in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.

Maurice
Voiced by:
 * Cedric the Entertainer -
 * John Cothran, Jr. -
 * Fred Tatasciore -
 * Kevin Michael Richardson -

Maurice is a "big boned" (overweight) Aye-Aye (even though he is missing the Aye-Aye's famous long skinny middle finger and has a completely different color scheme).

Maurice is King Julien's advisor - not that Julien ever listens to him - and is highly skeptical 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, 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.

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 paints well, and in "The Hidden", it is shown that he can speak chameleon. In "The Lost Treasure of the Golden Squirrel" his desire to control an army of Julien manservants is revealed. Despite being overweight, however, 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."

Maurice returns in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.

Mort
Voiced by:
 * Andy Richter -
 * Dee Bradley Baker -
 * Matt Nolan -

Mort is a small cute and cuddly mouse lemur.

Though quite timid, Mort can also be shrill and vocal in confrontations. 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. Mort has an obsession with Julien's feet for reasons never stated, although in the episode "Sting Operation" when the penguins turn into idiots, they had the same obsession for feet just like him which could be the reason why he loves feet so much, which Julien despises. In his anger, Julien once banished Mort from their habitat at the zoo, forcing Mort to seek a "cure". Mort makes his first appearance in Madagascar, wherein he lives among the other native lemurs under 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 smaller 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 had "scissors and hand cream" (he did in fact, have a pair of scissors). Mort, however, succeeds in attaching himself to the outside of the plane, and promptly falls 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 believe that his plan to give a sacrifice to bring back the water was successful.

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. 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. Mort is also shown to be unhappy with his past self after growing in size and muscle mass due to an invention from Kowalski. However, after being turned back into his regular self, Mort expresses that he is happy with who he is. 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 to (if with limited success) save Mort when he may be in danger to be King Julien's biggest concern, 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.

Mason and Phil
Voiced by:
 * Conrad Vernon -

Mason and Phil are the sophisticated chimpanzees at the Central Park Zoo, who prefer to drink cups of coffee and "read" the newspaper in the morning. Mason speaks with a stereo-typical British accent, while Phil communicates through American Sign Language. 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." Along with other characters, Phil and Mason are captured and sent to a wildlife reserve. 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.

In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, the chimps call upon chimpanzees living in Africa to help rebuild the wrecked plane that was supposed to fly them back to New York. They later go on strike, asking for maternity leaves and breaks (Skipper argues that they are all males); eventually, they blackmail Skipper into agreeing.

In The Penguins of Madagascar, Mason and Phil have sporadic appearances throughout 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. 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 however, in fact, 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". 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.... 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?" 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 as the King of Versailles.

Zuba
Zuba is Alex's father. The alpha lion of the pride, he is voiced by the late Bernie Mac. Because of this, his press and promotion was done by Sherri Shepherd, as well as Florrie, whom she voiced.

Regardless of Bernie Mac's death, Zuba does not appear in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, and neither was he mentioned.

Florrie
Florrie is Alex's mother and Zuba's mate. The alpha lioness of the pride, she is voiced by Sherri Shepherd, who did press and promotion for both her and Zuba due to Bernie Mac's death (before which he never got to finish his lines). Florrie, unlike Zuba, accepts Alex for what he is. She is not disturbed at all by the fact that Alex prefers to dance instead of fight. Due to this, she acts as the voice of reason and tries to encourage Zuba that it is better that Alex came back to them, dancer or not, as a king. Florrie is never addressed by her name in the film and in the movie's end credits, she is credited as "Mom". It is presumably in the novelization that her name is exposed.

Moto Moto
Moto Moto is a big-bellied, handsome, muscular hippopotamus with a deep voice, whose main hobby is flirting with anything of the female species. Moto Moto is kind, big, chunky and charming. He is voiced by will.i.am and is described by him as being "aggressive but friendly", and is the way the standard male hippo should look. In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, he falls for Gloria as a major plot boost. However, when they're dancing in a lake, Gloria realizes that Moto Moto only loves her because of her large body. Gloria breaks up with him as a result, though they remain friends. Moto Moto means "Hot Hot" in Swahili.

Vitaly
Vitaly is a Russian Siberian tiger that leads a traveling circus in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. He is voiced by Bryan Cranston.

The tough Vitaly once jumped through flaming rings of fire to excite crowds, constantly pushing himself to the limit by jumping through smaller and smaller rings that seemed impossible for his size. 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, he also lost his passion and his act. 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.

However, this comes to a head in London when 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 use 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
Gia is an Italian jaguar who is part of the travelling circus in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. She wears a blue necklace and is voiced by Jessica Chastain.

The beautiful Jaguar Gia is always on the lookout to discover something new, and she gets her chance when she convinces a reluctant Alex to teach her the trapeze – “Circus Americano” style. She is the main love interest of Alex.

Stefano
Stefano is an Italian sea lion who is part of the travelling circus in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. He has curly whiskers and is voiced by Martin Short.

Stefano is a happy, fun-loving Italian sea lion who always looks on the brighter side of things. A true entertainer at heart, he’s up for any challenge to save the circus, even convincing Alex that the show must go on.

Sonya
Sonya is the traveling circus’s most ferocious bear, Sonya’s 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 is instantly smitten with her. She does not talk, but Julien can understand what she is saying when she growls (the way she communicates instead). She appears in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. Her growling effects are done by Frank Welker.

The Andalusian Triplets
The Andalusian Triplets (Esperanza, Esmeralda, Ernestina) are three of the new characters in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. They are apparently white mares who are part of the circus. All their names start with "E" and end with "A". They are voiced by Paz Vega.

The Dancing Dogs
The Dancing Dogs are a group of six performing dogs 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. Only three of them are named (Frankie, Freddie, and Jonesy) and voiced by Nick Fletcher, Vinnie Jones, and Steve Jones.

Nana
Nana, voiced by Elisa Gabrielli, is the archenemy of Alex the lion.

Nana's personality changes over her appearances. In the first movie, she appears as an eccentric and aggressive old lady. In The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper, she is shown to be aggressive with anyone, independent of the person's courtesy. But in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, she appears to be kinder than before, even at one point leading the New Yorkers when she notices that they are in panic, only being aggressive with wild animals; which she sees as no different than domestic animals.

Nana seems to be incredibly resistant to injury, as she was able to have a short fight with Alex right after being tugged out of the back of a speeding tour jeep as well as being thrown out of it a second time by the penguins, who reversed over her in the jeep after noticing that she did not die. However, despite this evident resilience, she is still portrayed as a "little old lady"; she has a waddling gait and is knocked onto her back when firing a rifle.

In the first movie, Nana is an elderly human female who encounters Alex the Lion in Grand Central Station, where she assaults him and calls him a "bad kitty". She also hits Melman with her hand bag, causing his head to get stuck in the Grand Central Station Clock. When the animals are surrounded by police, she somehow gets past and kicks Alex in "the batteries" (or his groin). She was quickly taken away by police. As shown in the sequel, she was not arrested, as she was interviewed as a witness.

Nana is featured as an antagonist in The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper.

Nana returns in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. She is the secondary antagonist of this film. She also becomes the leader of an army of tourists left stranded by the penguins' schemes. She gets into another fight with Alex, and wins again, although Alex puts up much more of a fight this time (although Alex confesses to his friends that he actually only did it to distract her to get her bag, making Nana's victory unofficial). She often hits Alex and loves her handbag. At the end of the film, Alex the Lion gives Makunga Nana's handbag. When she sees Makunga holding it she starts kicking, stepping, slapping, wet willying, arm burning and spanking him before taking him away. According to the DVD commentary, she took Makunga back to New York with her in a kitty cage.

Nana's assault on Alex at Grand Central Station is mentioned in The Penguins of Madagascar episode "Zoo Tube".

Nana does not appear in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.

The Fossa
The fossa are the main antagonists of the first film, voiced by Tom McGrath and Eric Darnell. They appear as medium-sized weasel-like creatures, closely related to mongoose, and rarely speak, instead usually growling and yelping. Throughout Madagascar, they are shown to terrorize the lemurs and attempt to eat them. According to Julien, "they're always annoying us [the lemurs] by trespassing, interrupting our parties, and ripping our limbs off." However, the fossa are fearful of Alex, and run away when they suspect an attack from him, as well as allow him to take their prey. The fossa are defeated by Alex, Marty, Gloria, Melman, and the penguins and driven into their territory.

A baby fossa appeared in "The Penguins of Madagascar" in the episode "The Terror of Madagascar". He was shipped to the Central Park Zoo as part of a zoo-to-zoo tour. Throughout the episode, the baby fossa kept biting King Julien. Because of this, he thought that the fossa was trying to eat him. Kowalski told him that this was the fossa's way of showing love towards Julien, since he though of him as his father. But, Julien realized this too late, because in order to get rid of the fossa, he shipped in a boa constrictor named Savio to devour him. In order to keep the fossa safe, Julien wanted Savio to eat him instead, but the fossa attacked Savio to protect Julien, much to the penguins' disappointment.

Mister Chew
Mister Chew is a small, white poodle, fond of chewing and tearing various items apart (as demonstrated on an Alex plush toy). Chew is owned by Nana, and lives in her apartment on the 13th floor in an apartment complex. Mister Chew is the main antagonist in "The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper". Nana purchased Private, mistaking him for a squeaky toy, while he was attempting to find a gift for Ted, and reveals him to be a Christmas present for Mister Chew. Chew nearly mauled Private, while Nana was watching a football game on the TV, but was defeated by Skipper, Kowalski and Rico, who had set out to rescue Private. However, Nana did not hear the fight, but after she sees the damage (following hearing Rico's dynamite stick going off), she blames Mr. Chew for destroying her apartment and puts him on a big "time out".

Makunga
Makunga is a male lion with a large, black mane styled in a pomadour (similar to Elvis Presley's hair), and green eyes. He is Zuba's rival and wants to take his place as alpha lion. He is the main antagonist of the second film and is portrayed by Alec Baldwin. He also calls Alex, Zuba's son, "pathetic". When asked why he wants to become alpha lion, he replies, "I'm better looking, I have better hair, I'm deceivingly smart; and I want everyone else to do what I say." (He is very similar to Scar from The Lion King.)

Makunga often challenged Zuba to fights over the alpha lion position, but was easily beaten; one of those fights led to Zuba being distracted while Alex was captured by poachers. Years later, Makunga used Alex in a bid to finally reach the rank of alpha lion. However, he is not a very good leader, saying the only solution to the fact that the local water hole was nearly dry was that they all would "Have to fight for it." This causes doubt about his role as alpha lion, and almost every animal on the reserve wants Zuba back. After the water was restored, he still refused to allow Zuba and Alex to return from banishment.

Makunga eventually meets his downfall when being tricked into angering "Nana", who attacks Makunga and drags him off the reserve by his ear. The DVD commentary reveals that "Nana brought Makunga to New York in a kitty cage".

The name "Makunga" is Swahili for "Midwives", despite the fact that Makunga is a male lion.

Teetsi
Teetsi is Makunga's henchman and the strongest lion in his group.

Voiced by Fred Tatasciore.

Captain Chantel Shannon DuBois
Captain Chantel S. DuBois is a Monegasque animal control officer. She serves as the main antagonist of the third film and is portrayed by Frances McDormand. She sounds just like Gloria. She is the best animal control officer in Monte Carlo with a perfect success record. She has extraordinary tracking skills, as well as superhuman strength and a habit of mounting the heads of every animal she has caught on her wall. Throughout the third film, she pursues the Four in hopes of having their heads as trophies, especially Alex's.

She finally captured Alex and the other animals at New York City, and the zoo staff thank her, incorrectly believing that she tried to return Alex. Alex is caged and DuBois hides a poison filled dart in a foam finger and shoots it at him, but the circus animals, being alerted by King Julien, arrive and rescue him. After a long fight between the animals and DuBois and her henchmen, DuBois is tranquilized by Mort and her men are knocked out. She is last seen shipped to Madagascar with her henchmen, similar to the first movie.

Skip, Steven, Xavier and Pain
DuBois's Men are four men of Captain DuBois animal control officers and the secondary antagonists of the third film. They are prone to getting hurt, unlike their boss. However, DuBois can heal them instantly simply by singing "Non, je ne regrette rien" and appealing to their patriotism. One is short (Pain), one is tall and skinny with a mustache (Skip), one is overweight with a goatee and sideburns(Steven), and one is also overweight and has a moustache (Xavier).

Marlene
Marlene, voiced by Nicole Sullivan, is the Central Park Zoo's only resident otter with primarily brown fur, with a white chest, face, and right foot. Marlene is shown to be both playful and kind towards others, which often conflicts with Skipper's serious and safety-cautious attitude. Though this is true, the two still share a very strong friendship with one another and still have the ability to keep that certain bond exceedingly strong, making it rather difficult to break. She attempts to find and bring out the best in others through kindness, though is not immune to feeling anger towards Rhonda, a rude walrus apathetic to others, and works to have her transferred (however, she does regret the decision after learning Rhonda would be sent to a polar bear reserve, and works doggedly to send her elsewhere). Despite having doubts on the penguins' ways of dealing with issues, Marlene still believes that they can accomplish very difficult tasks. Marlene is known to snore very loudly while asleep, which invokes fear in an alligator named Roger residing in the sewer system beneath her enclosure. Like other residents at the zoo, Marlene is shown to love both popcorn and candy. In order to get candy, she is bribed by Maurice to celebrate King Julien Day and participate in several tasks to keep Julien content. Marlene has also revealed that she won the Internet popularity contest at her past zoo three years in a row (though was unable to compete at the Central Park Zoo due to a scandal) and that she considers Christmas in July "the biggest holiday of the year".

In "Otter Gone Wild", it is revealed that she was born in captivity. When she sets foot in the outside world, she becomes wild, literally. During this state, she is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker. In her primal state, she briefly becomes infatuated with King Julien, and is capable of posing a significant threat even to the equally-psychotic Rico in a fight, later successfully defeating two enraged badgers who had just given the entire penguin team significant trouble. In "Otter Things Have Happened", the penguins invented a machine that is able to locate anyone's ideal match at a moment's notice; the birds misread the signal her saliva sample gave and present her with Fred the squirrel, upsetting Julien who kidnaps the little guy (who Marlene has actually started to like). When she realizes Fred is not good for her, she dumps Fred and goes back to her single lifestyle. Kowalski, upset that his invention is faulty, throws it out. In the trash the machine begins to show the results of Marlene's test again; we see Fred in the area it was picking up, but then are treated to the introduction of a brand new character, Antonio or the "Otter Bachelor of Central Park", a buff, Latino male otter who has a fancy to frequently playing his Spanish guitar. It is not finalized, but it seems that Antonio was the individual who Marlene's test picked up, not Fred. It is not known as of now if the penguins know of Antonio's existence or if Marlene will get to meet him in future episodes but in "The Lost Treasure of the Golden Squirrel" it is shown that Marlene dreams of being in a spacious room surrounded by many otters very similar (if not exactly like) Antonio all playing Spanish Guitars.

In "Dr. Blowhole's Revenge", it is shown that she believes Dr. Blowhole is not real; in "The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole," she saw that he was real, though made no comment concerning any prior disbelief.

During "The Otter Woman", an over-chlorinated pool resulted in Marlene's fur being bleached white, causing her to be mistaken for an arctic mink called "Arlene," resulting in Skipper and Julien becoming infatuated with her before Skipper became convinced that "Arlene" had done something horrible to the seemingly missing Marlene. Later, Marlene's fur was dyed back to its original color.

In "Littlefoot", Marlene was separated from her feral self thanks to Kowalski's latest invention, but the separation resulted in her monstrous alter-ego going on the rampage while 'regular' Marlene was now excessively paranoid and afraid of everything around her. Despite Officer X capturing Marlene's feral self and taking her to animal control after feral Marlene went on a rampage that destroyed most of New York- earning the name 'Littlefoot' in the process-, the penguins managed to recombine Marlene's two selves, making Officer X lose his job again, and the experience of confronting her other self allowing Marlene to gain greater control over her feral side.

Alice
Alice, voiced by Mary Scheer, is a zookeeper exclusive to The Penguins of Madagascar. She seems to dislike aspects of her job, and is happy to have a voice-automated robot guide give directions so she can avoid "annoying tour group questions". She also does not understand what people enjoy about watching animals on their computer, saying that they do not do anything interesting. Alice is involved in several aspects of the animal's well-being. It's hinted that deep down Alice cares for the zoo animals and only wants what's best for them as she hates it when people feed the animals popcorn, and posts several signs throughout the zoo after catching a child feeding Marlene a kernel. Though this could just be herself keeping her job safe. Alice is also in charge of gathering the penguins for visits to the veterinarian, and later remarks that they have a dentist appointment (Private then confusedly states that they do not have teeth). Alice and the penguins have a mutual dislike for each other, and she believes that they are scheming (though she is actually correct in this assumption). Though another zookeeper can be heard over her walkie-talkie, voiced by John DiMaggio, Alice is usually the only one ever seen on-screen but occasionally an unnamed zoo worker appears sporadically, though his face is always hidden. Unintentionally, Alice won the zoo's internet popularity contest when a camera documenting the animals was accidentally pushed toward her dancing and slapping her butt in the kitchen. In "Miss Understanding", she remarked to a know-it-all kid that the zoo had three male penguins and one female, which turned out to be false (not that she knew or cared).

Rat King
The Rat King, voiced by Diedrich Bader, is a genetically enhanced, muscular lab rat who resides in the sewer. He is a common antagonist of the penguins. He constantly torments the penguins and never learns his lesson when he's defeated each time. He even tries to take over their home, but he is defeated by King Julien.

Sewer rats
Several small sewer rats, led by their large mutated king rat, make appearances, on the occasion. They are voiced by Jeff Bennett and Kevin Michael Richardson.

Officer X
Officer X, voiced by Cedric Yarbrough, is a New York animal control officer who has a single-minded focus on removing stray animals from the streets. He first tangles with the penguins when they interfere with his pursuit of a stray cat, the penguins' friend, Max, in the episode "Cat's Cradle". X returns in the episode "What Goes Around" when he tries to capture the penguins when they are found out of the zoo on the streets of New York, but the subsequent chase results in X losing his job due to the scale of the damage he had caused and the public's lack of belief that penguins were responsible for his actions. When asked by Alice what his real name was in "Cat's Cradle", X responds that his mother never told him his real name, instead telling him that it was "classified." He was arrested on vandalism charges at the end of "What Goes Around" for creating the mess resulting from his and the penguins' encounter. He returns as an exterminator in Stop Bugging Me, having been forced to work as an exterminator after his previous rampage.

Officer X is shown to have a superhuman level of strength, crushing a small metal cage with his bare hands and defeating Joey, who even the penguins could not easily beat, head on, leading Skipper to say Officer X cannot be human. Despite the previous, Officer X was soundly beaten by a wild cat. In "The Officer X Factor" he replaces Alice for the weekend. As a zookeeper, he knew about every inch of the zoo to prevent the penguins' escape into cooler water. He was also expecting that the penguins were going to fly to the East River, but he was defeated there. He attempted to regain his position in "Littlefoot" by capturing the monster currently attacking New York- the feral version of Marlene that had been separated from her normal self-, but the penguins sabotaged this effort by recombining the two Marlenes, leaving Rico behind to give the impression that X's penguin-related 'insanity' had prompted him to steal a penguin from the zoo. X loses his job again, leaving him upset. He reappeared in "A Kipper for Skipper" working in a fishmongers' where he attempted to capture Kowalski, Rico and Private when they came looking for a kipper as part of a deal with Skipper to get out of a week's intensive training, and he almost got them, but they took over his car and tried to escape but he almost got Kowalski but they managed to escape and send X crashing into a police car, leaving him in further trouble with the law and still angry at the penguins.

Joey
Joey, voiced by James Patrick Stuart, is a bad tempered kangaroo with an Australian accent that always refers to himself in the third person who loves beating up anyone who steps foot in his habitat, especially Skipper and Julien. He first appeared in the season one episode, "Assault and Batteries" and later on in "Cat's Cradle" when he tried to beat up Officer X but was badly hurt instead. He also appeared to have a big role in "Skorca!" He made several cameos where he isn't an antagonist. Though usually only a minor character in the series, Joey has had several episodes where he was the main antagonists. In the season two episode, "Kanga-Management", the Penguins accidentally destroy the Koala habitat, forcing Leonard to temporarily live with Joey until the pen is re-built, to both's dismay. Eventually, the two settle their differences and become friends, agreeing on their hatred for the penguins.

Hans
Hans, voiced by John DiMaggio, is a puffin with a past history with Skipper that involves a mission in Denmark that somehow resulted in Skipper being declared Public Enemy Number One in the country in question. During "Huffin & Puffin", he appeared in New York, initially apparently wanting to make peace with Skipper, before his true agenda was revealed to be his attempt to take control of the Penguins' lair for revenge. With Skipper having infiltrated the lair and defeated Hans, he was then shipped to the Hoboken Zoo.

He appeared in "The Return of the Revenge of Doctor Blowhole", working with Doctor Blowhole as part of a plan to take Skipper's memories away.

Dr. Blowhole
Dr. Blowhole, voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, is a mad scientist dolphin who plans to take revenge on the human race, who forced him to perform tricks at Coney Island for their amusement, when he was known as 'Flippy'. He only has one eye. He is described by Skipper and Private as being "pure evil, with skin that's surprisingly pleasant to the touch", which Blowhole claims is because he always moisturizes. He appears to love rubbing it in that he has far superior technology than the penguins do, which usually gets on Kowalski's nerves. Since he is a dolphin, he gets around by the use of a Segway-type vehicle while on land, which also projects a glass dome around it and Blowhole to turn into an escape vehicle. He also has a habit of referring to the penguins as "pen-gyoo-wins" just to annoy the penguins. He appears to have a robotic eye, which slightly hides a scar, and has a habit of having his deep-voiced computer announce the names of his creations in a dramatic voice (provided by Jim Cummings) instead of saying them himself (i.e. Chrome Claw). Unlike most cartoon villains, instead of simply leaving his enemies to die in a deathtrap, he typically stays to oversee their destruction personally, well aware they will likely escape somehow (telling Julien as much when asked), unless he'd be killed as well if he stays (such as locking them in his base as it self-destructs). In the special, he also proved able to hold his own with the combat-trained Skipper in a short physical fight.

In "Eclipsed", he is mentioned as Skipper's dolphin archenemy. Blowhole apparently had a plan to extinguish the Sun, as when Private told him that the sun went dark, Skipper believed that Dr. Blowhole had succeeded in his plan, but actually the sun went dark because of a solar eclipse.

In "Roomies", Blowhole sends a walrus spy, named Rhonda a.k.a. Agent 12, to steal Kowalski's "plasma cutter" invention, which acts as a chain saw.

Doctor Blowhole is the main antagonist of The Penguins of Madagascar special Doctor Blowhole's Revenge which also acts as his debut. Dr. Blowhole kidnaps King Julien, believing him to be Skipper's best friend, in an effort to lure the flightless force into a trap so that he can annihilate them once and for all. However, Julien and Blowhole join forces and captures the "pen-gu-wins". After Blowhole reveals his plan to activate a "Ring of Fire" that he built in the North Pole to flood the world (saying it was inspired by a ring of fire he was forced to jump through when he was in captivity), Mort appears from the lair's skylight and frees the penguins after crashing into a control panel. Blowhole then activates the Ring of Fire after throwing Mort from the control panel. He then sends a giant mutated lobster he devised earlier in the episode called Chrome Claw after Skipper and the penguins (which he'd mentioned he was planning to create during their previous encounter) but they manage to defeat it. After a short battle with Skipper, Blowhole is betrayed by Julien, who claims to have been a double agent the entire time, and the "Ring of Fire" (which the media has dubbed the "Hoop of Heat", much to Blowhole's anger) is deactivated. Blowhole escapes, promising revenge.

Doctor Blowhole was referenced in "Invention Intervention," where Skipper assumed that Kowalski's out-of-control invisible invisibility ray was actually created by Blowhole, commenting that his arch-nemesis had become far more intelligent – if harder to follow given the lack of motive behind such an attack – since their last confrontation.

In "The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole", Dr. Blowhole helps Skipper's enemy named Hans the Puffin escape the Hoboken Zoo so he can lure Skipper into a trap. Once he ambushed him, he uses his clown-shaped "Mind Jacker" to steal Skipper's memories so he can use them to infiltrate the penguins' lair so he can turn them into his monster slaves using his "Diaboligizer". When he is about to blast the penguins with the Diaboligizer, he misfires, causing it to hit King Julien's MP3 player infused with Kowalski's experimental power cell (which Julien foolishly thought was a battery). The mix of the three resulted in a giant MP3 monster, which made everyone near it sing uncontrollably. Blowhole soon decides to use the creature to his advantage by winning it over with his beautiful singing voice. Once he was in control, he started using it to destroy New York City. Fortunately, Skipper returned to New York with the help of a spirit guide in the form of Alex the lion as seen earlier in the movie. Skipper distracted Blowhole while the penguins took out the source of the monster's power. With Blowhole foiled again and the monster back to normal, he tried to escape, but Skipper activated the Mind Jacker on Blowhole, wiping out his memories. He was soon returned to Coney Island under his old name of Flippy the Dolphin, where he was forced to jump through the Ring of Fire once again.

He is also mentioned in "The Big S.T.A.N.K" where he was the reason that S.T.A.N.K was created, to lure him to the toilet-shaped stink bomb, but the project was abandoned with the realisation that since dolphins don't use toilets. He was mentioned again in "Operation: Big Blue Marble" when Skipper suggested Blowhole as a suspect for the recent environmental chaos and random weather conditions that they were experiencing, but Kowalski confirmed that Blowhole was still at Coney Island as Flippy.

He is returning in the future episode "The Penguin Who Loved Me"

Bada and Bing
Bada and Bing, voiced by John DiMaggio and Kevin Michael Richardson, are giant gorillas who speak with Brooklyn accents. First shown in the "Kingdom Come" episode when they served as thuggish bodyguards for Maurice, they have been seen displaying softer sides upon other occasions, such as when they looked after Mort in "The Penguin Stays in the Picture" while a photographer was there as an unrequested favor to Private, who wanted to be on the cover of the zoo brochure. The two are attacked by a super-enlarged Mort in the episode "Mort Unbound" in order for him to get King Julien's stolen mango back.

Burt
Burt, voiced by John DiMaggio in the series and by Fred Tatasciore in the games, is an elephant who was just an extra zoo animal during the beginning of the series, but then evolved into a character of greater focus as the series evolved. He was central to the episode "An Elephant Never Forgets", in which he leaves the zoo to locate a man who had irritated him as a boy by playing his kazoo at the zoo. In the 2005 videogame version of Madagascar, Burt was called Darnell. Burt is shown to be obsessed with peanuts, and when he does not eat them, he goes insane, as shown in "Jungle Law". He nearly eats Julien when he mistakes him for a peanut. He played a vital role in the penguins' defeat of the ruthless boa constrictor Savio due to his sheer size preventing Savio from attacking him, squeezing Savio so that the snake's previously-swallowed victims were released.

Roger
Roger, voiced by Richard Kind, is the penguins' alligator friend who lives in the sewer. They meet him in the episode "Haunted Habitat" when Skipper and Marlene go to investigate in the sewer under Marlene's habitat because of a strange sound. Roger tells the penguins that he is from Florida. He appears again in "Roger Dodger" when the sewer rats terrorize him. Following the "Gator Watch" episode, he now lives in the zoo after several failed attempts by the penguins to find him a new home outside the sewer.

Max
Max, voiced by Wayne Knight, is the penguins' stray cat friend. He first meets the four penguins in the episode "Launchtime" when the penguins end up on a rooftop across the street from the zoo instead of on the moon. At first, the penguins thought he was a "mooncat", but at the end they figure out he was just a stray cat. Max is skinny and hopes to catch a bird in his life. He at first wanted to eat the penguins, but was so touched when he was given a can of fish by them that he became their friend instead. He has a small cameo in "The Helmet" and tried to escape Officer X in "Cat's Cradle".

Fred
Fred, voiced by Fred Stoller, is a dimwitted squirrel that lives in Central Park and takes everything said literally and has a slow, unemphatic speech pattern. Kowalski met Fred briefly in the "Otter Gone Wild" episode, while the full penguin group met him in "Mask of the Raccoon". He dated Marlene in "Otter Things Have Happened", but she broke up with him because what she had thought was him being funny turned out to be just Fred’s ignorance. He has had minor appearances in several other series episodes- such as when Julien recruited him to be the 'smart one' of Julien's all-mammal penguin-team-equivalent in "Field Tripped"-, and was part of a treasure hunt in the episode "The Lost Treasure of the Golden Squirrel".

Roy
Roy, voiced by Danny Jacobs, is a short-tempered rhinoceros, appearing predominantly as an extra zoo animal for the majority of the series. When given more of a role, he often appears to have little patience for any animal that provokes him, usually responding with threats, such as when a truth-telling Private nearly revealed a secret about him in the "Truth Ache" episode involving a 'vacation' in Tijuana. He plays a pivotal role in the "April Fools" episode when he threatens Julien with retaliation for drawing on his backside with a permanent marker. In the end however, it's revealed that he was working with the penguins to teach Julien a lesson for his constant April Fools' Day pranks on everyone in August. In "Antics on Ice", it was revealed that he is a fan of the Lunacorns series due to their positive focus on a horned animal. Twice in the episode Action Reaction he sat on Julien.

Doris
Doris is a dolphin who appears to be wild as Kowalski tracks her who is spoken of in several episodes, but as of yet unseen. As shown in "Hot Ice," Kowalski sees her as a love interest, though it appears to be unrequited (since Doris wanted someone "hipper").

Doris will be shown in the upcoming Blowhole special, "The Penguin who Loved Me". She will be voiced by Calista Flockhart.

Savio
Savio, voiced by Nestor Carbonell, is an oversized boa constrictor that has attacked the animals on three occasions. When he was initially transferred to the zoo in "The Big Squeeze", the penguins suspected him of being the cause of the disappearance of the lemurs and Marlene, but his cage appeared inescapable; the only means of departure was a vent that Savio could have used when unfed but would have been unable to access when returning. However, Skipper realised that he was instead using the vent to access the keypad that controlled his cage locks with his tail, allowing him to open his cage. He was defeated on this occasion when the penguins lured him into Burt's habitat, with Burt throwing Savio around and squeezing him through the bars to expel his previously-eaten victims.

Savio returned as an enemy in "All Tied Up With a Boa", intending to eat the penguins, the lemurs, and Marlene in revenge for their previous defeat- subsequently intending to regurgitate them and eat them in reverse order to his previous consumption- after immobilising Burt by sending a mouse to the zoo to trick him into running into a wall in panic, but Julien managed to escape by hiding in the popcorn machine and becoming covered in butter, his slippery form resulting in Savio becoming tied up in knots, covered in butter, and sent back to Hoboken.

Savio briefly appeared as an ally in "The Hoboken Surprise" where he assisted the penguins in defeating the android animals of the Hoboken Zoo.

Savio returns again in "The Terror of Madagascar" when Julien has him transferred back to the zoo as he had hired him to eat a baby fossa that he believes is trying to eat him, but the fossa is revealed to see Julien as a father figure and defeats Savio (While annoying Skipper at the idea that the penguins have now not defeated Savio three times & yells in frustration seeing Savio defeated by the fossa instead of them).

Reception
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". 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."