Vitaly/Trivia

• Vitaly's favorite food is borscht, a type of Ukrainian soup that is popular in Russia. Or rather, after his fire-hoop incident, Vitaly drowned his sorrows and self-pity in borscht.
• Vitaly has an ex-wife, Natalia (her name was written on her photo), who left him shortly after his fire-hoop incident for a musician.
• When recording for Vitaly, Bryan Cranston was told to come up with "what a big Russian tiger would sound like," Bryan thought for a moment, began speaking in an accent he thought matched, and Vitaly's voice was born.
• Jim Broadbent was originally going to voice the character, but he left for to do "Cloud Atlas", so the part went to Bryan Cranston instead.
• Like the lions and Gia, Vitaly has five fingers on each paw.
• Back during Circus Zaragoza's hey-day, Vitaly was the most popular animal in the entire show.
• Oddly, Vitaly has a large collection of knives and other blades and is a skilled knife thrower, despite the fact that this has nothing to do with his act at all.
• On another odd note, much of Vitaly's act, including his dialogue ("Light ze hoop on fire!") appears to be on the assumption that the humans actually understand what he says, whereas the first movie established that humans can't understand a word of animal speech. He doesn't seem to need a human ringmaster or trainer to begin with either.
• Vitaly is the first tiger character in the Madagascar franchise.
• Unlike the other main characters, Vitaly is the first to normally wear clothes (his belt and his briefs/tights).