Madagascar - Trivia

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Alternate Versions[]

The UK version omits a partially uttered use of strong language to secure a U rating. International versions do not implement this cut, as filmmakers often put in single uses of strong language in otherwise-junior films to secure a higher rating in the US. When the film comes to be rated in the UK, the language has to be cut for a lower rating.

General[]

At one point, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez and Gwen Stefani were considered for the voice of Gloria the hippo before Jada Pinkett Smith signed on.
Harry Gregson-Williams was originally attached as the film's composer, but was replaced by Hans Zimmer. A few weeks earlier, the opposite had occurred for another film: Gregson-Williams replaced Zimmer for the scoring duties of Kingdom of Heaven (2005).
Early on, the plot was based on a group of activists who liberate the animals from their cages.
Released the same day as The Longest Yard, also featuring Chris Rock.
The penguins originated from a film director Eric Darnell was developing, called "Rockumentary", about a Beatles-like rock quartet. When that project was canceled and Darnell was moved to this movie, he incorporated the penguins into the script, changing them from musicians to military commandos, with a bit of spy influence into them.
The shot of Times Square after Marty asks the police horse for directions prominently features a HP logo. HP is the official computer provider for DreamWorks Animation.
None of the main character animals (lion, zebra, giraffe or hippo) are actually housed at the Central Park Zoo. There are penguins, though.
WILHELM SCREAM: as the large crowd of people come charging up the stairs at Grand Central Station, thinking that Alex is chasing them.
During the scene where Private is attempting to gain access to the oil tanker controls, "WHAT A piece OF work IsPenGuin" can been seen on the computer screen behind him. This is a reference to the Shakespeare quote, "What a piece of work is man!" from “Hamlet”.
According to Tom McGrath, the penguins scene wasn't included in the original script. It was originally going to be be a thunderstorm that caused the four animals to be stranded at the ocean. But, since the thunderstorm scene has been used many times before Madagascar, it was ultimately decided that the penguins were to hijack the cargo ship, and later take control of the ship in order to go to Antarctica.
According to the patch the captain is wearing, the name of the boat is the "S.S. Act II."
Sacha Baron Cohen improvised the line "It's got a gecko on it", and all of the following dialogue related to the gecko. The filmmakers found it so funny that they went to the extra work of creating a CG gecko for the shot.
The look of the jungles in Madagascar are based on the paintings of Henri Rousseau.
Melman the giraffe wears tissue boxes on his feet is a reference to Howard Hughes who was also a hypochondriac and suffered from OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). In his later years, Hughes wore tissue boxes on his feet believing this would keep away germs.
The lead quartet were originally going to be a lion, a zebra, a hippo, and an okapi. Melman was changed to a giraffe to make him a more familiar animal, however the okapi idea was later reused in Madly Madagascar, where Marty the Zebra has a crush on a Female Okapi.
Originally, the Antarctica Scene was going to be the end credits scene, where the penguins had nothing to do with the movie, and was only there during the first and second act. It wasn't until later during production, that the team figured it would work if the penguins had reunite with the other four characters, which resulted in pushing the end credits scene before the third act of the movie.
Jeffrey Katzenberg admitted that he was disappointed with the film's third act.
The airplane that the lemurs hold court in is a Lockheed L-10 Electra, the same airplane as Amelia Earhart disappeared in on July 2, 1937.
Director Tom McGrath based his voice of Skipper, one of the penguins on the voice of friend and composer Shawn Patterson; known for his Charlton Heston impressions and frequent failed use of the "Jedi mind trick".
When Alex and Marty find each other on the beach and Alex remembers that he is mad at Marty, Marty swears by saying "Oh '''S'''hit I had a Nice Day" however this was thought to be believed by him assigning words to the letters of an acronym. They are "Oh Sugar Honey Ice Tea. This is very old.
When the camera pans backward from Alex's crate in the ocean, the sea foam around him creates the head of a lion. Foam makes the face, and the absence of foam around that makes the mane. Alex is in the left eye of the face.
The German actor Gerald Schaale is the usual dubbing voice of David Schwimmer, but in the German version of Madagascar he didn't dub Schwimmer's character Melman, but the sweet little lemur Mort instead.
In the scene where Marty is inviting Alex to the "fun side," you can see behind them the sign H E L P, but after Marty left, the P in H E L P, was disarranged into a letter L. This could possibly refer that Alex's place isn't fun, but a lot of HELL.
When the lemurs panic in the plane, one of them holds up a book called "To Serve Lemur" in which he says, "It's a cookbook! It's a cookbook!" This is a reference to the Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man."
If you pay close attention to a shot of the zoo in the beginning, you can see Ted in the background.
This is the first time King Julien mentioned the "Panzees" name, but then later used in Eclipsed (from the Penguins of Madagascar Series). (ed: Julien is saying "pansies". A "pansy" is defined as "a sissy: a timid man/boy (in this case animal) considered childish or unassertive".)
In Connorvile, This Movie Came Out In 2006.
When Alex accidentally scares Mort and makes him cry, Gloria calls him a big bad old putty tat which is a reference to what Tweety calls Sylvester in Looney Tunes.
After Lady Liberty becomes ash by Melman of wood burning, Alex yells, "YOU MANIAC! YOU BURNED IT UP! DARN YOU! Darn you all to HECK!", this is a reference to Planet of the Apes (even though the dialogues in the two movies are different).
Because of the ending of the Final Episode of AHJK, the movie and AHKJ Season 5 took place around the same time after Clover and Sage's wedding which was during the time when the 4 Zoosters were arguing in their transport crates.
All About You, the song from McFly originally appeared in the script in place of the Alex scaring Mort scene.

Easter Eggs[]

When the penguins are trying to hack the computer on the ship, at a certain point Private jumps on the keyboard trying to get the access code. Soon Skipper jumps on too and says ‘Don’t give me excuses, give me results!’. When they are going away from each other, look at Skipper’s eye level and you will find the sentence ‘What a piece of work is Penguin.”

After Alex says he's from New York King Julien interrupts him to say "All Hail the New York Giants" the New York Giants are actually a football team in NYC of NFL.

During the What a Wonderful World Segment, One of the Signs Alex stumbles across when entering the Foosa Side of Madagascar reads "Beware Foosa". With a Foosa Head being painted on the center of the sign. This is a reference to the "Beware Ogres" Sign from the Shrek Franchise.

Alex's Day Dream where he is making a Snow Angel on top of Steaks is a reference to the Snow Angel on too of Roses from American Beauty, which is also done by DreamWorks, Albeit, DreamWorks Pictures.

Revealing mistakes[]

The crates are stacked on the deck with Gloria's crate at the bottom. The crates all appear to be of the same depth, and when seen from outside they appear to be stacked neatly, but there's still light coming into Gloria's crate from the hole in the top even though the hole should be covered by one of the crates stacked on top of hers.
When the animals have fallen off the ship, the crates go underwater. You expect that the crates will be filled with water, but they are completely dry.
When Gloria says, "Aw, you poor little baby!", her mouth isn't moving.

Continuity[]

Orientation of the word 'GIRAFFE' on Melman's crate changes when he uses it for a tombstone. (From parallel to the arrow to perpendicular).
The interior size of Alex's crate varies from when they are stacked on the ship to when he is on the ocean sleeping.

Incorrectly regarded as goofs[]

King Julien wouldn't be a king, he would be Queen Julia. In lemur tribes, it's a matriarchal structure and not a patriarchal. The female lemurs are the ones who lead the tribes and do most of the fighting. However, his right hand man did say he was the self-proclaimed king of the lemurs.
Fossa's are spelled "foosa" in the film. This is actually the way the word is spelled by the natives of Madagascar. Also, the spelling was used in order to keep people from continuously mispronouncing it.
When Skipper asks Mason if he can read, he says that he can't read but Phil can. Earlier on in the film, the talking monkey takes what appears to be a newspaper from a trash can and starts reading it. However, if you look at the newspaper, it is actually a comic.

Other Errors[]

Errors Made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When towards the end Marty shows his butt to explain how he knows how much of a pain in the butt Alex is, it is the wrong side of his butt.
Errors in geography: The animals take a subway from Central Park to Grand Central Terminal. They are seen on a subway platform on 59th Street and Lexington, which is the correct subway station that you would take from Central Park. However, on the platform, the sign shows the trains 4, 5, and 6 stopping at that stop. At the 59th Street and Lexington station, the 4/5 trains are on a separate platform 5 floors below the platform that stops for the 6 train. There is no one platform with a sign for all three trains to stop.
The closest subway stop to Central Park is actually 5th/59th, but Lex-59th is the closest with direct access to GCT.

Crazy Credits[]

Various characters dance during the first half of the closing credits.
You can see Gloria as the Statue of Liberty at the end of all credits, performing a Disney's Tinkerbell-esque magic wand tap to end the movie.

Taglines[]

Ton On The Run
Black, White and out Of Sight
On Vacation Without Medication
It's All Some Type Of Whacked Out Conspiracy.
Kitty Misses The City
Someone's got a zoo loose.
The lemurs: They're cute. They're cuddly. They're deranged.
They weren't born in the wild... They were shipped there.

Release Dates[]

Philippines—25 May 2005
Malaysia—27 May 2005
Singapore—27 May 2005
USA—27 May 2005
Russia—2 June 2005
Ukraine—2 June 2005
Estonia—3 June 2005
Lithuania—3 June 2005
Latvia—3 June 2005
Turkey—3 June 2005
Georgia—4 June 2005
Croatia—9 June 2005
Hungary—9 June 2005
Netherlands—15 June 2005
Australia—16 June 2005
Czech Republic—16 June 2005
Indonesia—16 June 2005
Slovakia—16 June 2005
Colombia—17 June 2005
Spain—17 June 2005
Mexico—17 June 2005
Uruguay—17 June 2005
Belgium—22 June 2005
France—22 June 2005
New Zealand—23 June 2005
Brazil—24 June 2005
Ecuador—24 June 2005
Israel—30 June 2005
Portugal—30 June 2005
Poland—1 July 2005
South Africa—1 July 2005
United Arab Emirates—6 July 2005
Switzerland—6 July 2005 (French speaking region)
Kuwait—6 July 2005
Argentina—7 July 2005
Chile—7 July 2005
Peru—7 July 2005
Panama—8 July 2005
Switzerland—13 July 2005 (German speaking region)
Germany—14 July 2005
Hong Kong—14 July 2005
South Korea—14 July 2005
Austria—15 July 2005
China—15 July 2005
UK—15 July 2005
Ireland—15 July 2005
Iceland—15 July 2005
Taiwan—15 July 2005
Lebanon—21 July 2005
Venezuela—22 July 2005
Egypt—27 July 2005
Kenya—29 July 2005
Romania—29 July 2005
India—12 August 2005
Japan—13 August 2005
Italy—24 August 2005 (limited)
Norway—25 August 2005 (Haugesund Norwegian Film Festival)
Cyprus—26 August 2005
Slovenia—1 September 2005
Denmark—2 September 2005
Switzerland—2 September 2005 (Italian speaking region)
Finland—2 September 2005
Italy—2 September 2005
Norway—2 September 2005
Sweden—2 September 2005
Serbia—8 September 2005
Bulgaria—9 September 2005
Thailand—29 September 2005
Greece—27 October 2005

Also Known As (AKA)[]

Madagaskar—Denmark / Croatia / Estonia / Norway / Poland / Sweden / Turkey (Turkish title)
Madagascar—Argentina / Brazil / Canada (French title) / Germany / Spain
Мадагаскар—Bulgaria, Serbia, Russia, Ukraine
Madagaskari—Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title)
Madagaszkár—Hungary

Box office[]

Budget -- $75,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend -- £5,431,639 (UK) (17 July 2005) (505 Screens), €522,275 (Netherlands) (19 June 2005) (219 Screens)

Gross
$193,136,719 (USA) (9 October 2005)
$192,933,489 (USA) (2 October 2005)
$192,664,956 (USA) (25 September 2005)
$192,342,140 (USA) (18 September 2005)
$191,952,758 (USA) (11 September 2005)
$191,591,306 (USA) (4 September 2005)
$190,832,874 (USA) (28 August 2005)
$190,252,852 (USA) (21 August 2005)
$189,788,036 (USA) (14 August 2005)
$189,114,004 (USA) (7 August 2005)
$188,238,726 (USA) (31 July 2005)
$186,730,236 (USA) (24 July 2005)
$184,083,054 (USA) (17 July 2005)
$179,259,220 (USA) (10 July 2005)
$172,131,077 (USA) (4 July 2005)
$160,191,242 (USA) (26 June 2005)
$146,831,846 (USA) (19 June 2005)
$128,414,334 (USA) (12 June 2005)
$100,377,791 (USA) (5 June 2005)
£22,326,031 (UK) (4 September 2005)
£21,948,355 (UK) (28 August 2005)
£21,102,759 (UK) (21 August 2005)
£20,147,238 (UK) (14 August 2005)
£18,720,913 (UK) (7 August 2005)
£16,414,476 (UK) (31 July 2005)
£11,277,980 (UK) (24 July 2005)
£5,431,639 (UK) (17 July 2005)
$238,000,000 (Worldwide) (7 August 2005) (except USA)
CNY 10,857,000 (China) (14 August 2005)
CZK 29,926,734 (Czech Republic) (22 December 2005)
CZK 28,746,896 (Czech Republic) (3 November 2005)
CZK 28,278,377 (Czech Republic) (27 October 2005)
CZK 27,770,088 (Czech Republic) (20 October 2005)
CZK 27,409,564 (Czech Republic) (13 October 2005)
CZK 27,004,826 (Czech Republic) (6 October 2005)
CZK 26,690,186 (Czech Republic) (29 September 2005)
CZK 25,571,465 (Czech Republic) (22 September 2005)
CZK 24,916,065 (Czech Republic) (15 September 2005)
€206,521 (Finland) ( 2005)
€5,123,133 (Netherlands) (23 October 2005)
€3,926,783 (Netherlands) (24 July 2005)
€658,022 (Netherlands) (19 June 2005)

Weekend Gross
$136,683 (USA) (9 October 2005) (252 Screens)
$186,301 (USA) (2 October 2005) (292 Screens)
$241,883 (USA) (25 September 2005) (323 Screens)
$273,073 (USA) (18 September 2005) (324 Screens)
$295,723 (USA) (11 September 2005) (373 Screens)
$576,980 (USA) (4 September 2005) (453 Screens)
$446,640 (USA) (28 August 2005) (483 Screens)
$251,782 (USA) (21 August 2005) (363 Screens)
$330,015 (USA) (14 August 2005) (327 Screens)
$406,050 (USA) (7 August 2005) (489 Screens)
$565,142 (USA) (31 July 2005) (663 Screens)
$1,199,205 (USA) (24 July 2005) (1,101 Screens)
$2,308,169 (USA) (17 July 2005) (1,779 Screens)
$4,009,053 (USA) (10 July 2005) (2,162 Screens)
$6,701,584 (USA) (4 July 2005) (2,526 Screens)
$7,434,917 (USA) (26 June 2005) (2,948 Screens)
$10,737,325 (USA) (19 June 2005) (3,533 Screens)
$17,180,801 (USA) (12 June 2005) (3,929 Screens)
$28,110,235 (USA) (5 June 2005) (4,142 Screens)
£120,772 (UK) (4 September 2005) (303 Screens)
£239,988 (UK) (28 August 2005) (351 Screens)
£410,722 (UK) (21 August 2005) (415 Screens)
£648,653 (UK) (14 August 2005) (454 Screens)
£854,865 (UK) (7 August 2005) (466 Screens)
£1,702,122 (UK) (31 July 2005) (488 Screens)
£3,272,662 (UK) (24 July 2005) (504 Screens)
£5,431,639 (UK) (17 July 2005) (505 Screens)
€31,532 (Netherlands) (23 October 2005) (38 Screens)
€248,095 (Netherlands) (24 July 2005) (219 Screens)
€522,275 (Netherlands) (19 June 2005) (219 Screens)

Admissions
316,587 (Czech Republic) (22 December 2005)
295,479 (Czech Republic) (3 November 2005)
289,841 (Czech Republic) (27 October 2005)
284,288 (Czech Republic) (20 October 2005)
280,549 (Czech Republic) (13 October 2005)
275,872 (Czech Republic) (6 October 2005)
271,760 (Czech Republic) (29 September 2005)
258,529 (Czech Republic) (22 September 2005)
251,134 (Czech Republic) (15 September 2005)
6,489,377 (Germany) (18 September 2005)
5,754,708 (Germany) (14 August 2005)
1,226,475 (Germany) (17 July 2005)
502,126 (Norway) (9 October 2005)