History Trivia / Madagascar

* DescendedCreator: The penguins are all voiced by Dreamworks employees: Skipper is voiced by animator Tom [=McGrath=], Private by editor Christopher Knights, Kowalski by animator Chris Miller and Rico by company founder Jeffrey Katzenberg.

* ThrowItIn: Originally only an instrumental version of "I Like to Move It" was to be used at the lemurs' party; Cohen then made up his own lyrics to the Reel 2 Reel song. The rest is history.

** Director (and voice of Skipper) Tom [=McGrath=] ad-libbed the line "We killed them and ate their livers." Only afterward did he decide he wanted the line to actually go in the film; the producers told him he could only do it if it was clear Skipper was joking.

** The musical score was going to be done by Harry Gregson-Williams but was replaced by Hans Zimmer

* DoingItForTheArt: One joke required a ''million'' leaves to be created for it. ''One'' joke.
* DuelingMovies: One of the most notorious examples. The Disney-released ''WesternAnimation/TheWild'' had been in production for a few years already, but as was usually the case with their early films, Creator/DreamWorks caught wind of it and set out to (successfully) beat them to the punch. ''Madagascar'' became a hit and ''WesternAnimation/TheWild'', finally released a year later, was immediately written off as a ripoff by those not in the know and just as quickly fell into obscurity.

** Melman was originally supposed to be an [[SeldomSeenSpecies okapi]], but this was dropped in favor of a more familiar animal, the giraffe.

* TheWikiRule: [[https://madagascar.fandom.com/wiki/Madagascar_Wiki Madagascar Wiki]].

** In video games, commercials, and theme park attractions, the CelebrityVoiceActors usually have substitutes - Creator/WallyWingert and Creator/CrispinFreeman for Ben Stiller as Alex, Creator/PhilLamarr for Chris Rock as Marty, Creator/StephenStanton for David Schwimmer as Melman, and Bettina Bush for Jada Pickett-Smith as Gloria.

* The voice actors for Alex, Melman, and Julien (Creator/BenStiller, Creator/DavidSchwimmer and Creator/SachaBaronCohen) are all Jewish, and secondary character Kowalski (Chris Miller) gives off a few Jewish vibes even in the first movie. In 1940, Adolf Eichemann (an SS official) unveiled a plan to deport all Jews to Madagascar.

*** Also, at one point, Gloria was to be pregnant due to being part of a breeding program (hence why her model has such a huge stomach). She was to give birth at the end of the first film, resulting in a gag where the penguins were swept away by her water breaking, and Melman would become the baby hippo's adopted father. This was dropped for being too mature.

* TheOtherDarrin: Danny Jacobs, who voices King Julien in the cartoons, is Sacha Baron Cohen's official understudy, replacing him in side materials that otherwise feature the main voice cast, such as all the holiday specials and the Madagascar 3 Soundtrack

* CulturalTranslation: In the Korean dub, the Zoosters don't think they're in San Diego, but Hollywood. Likely because a Korean audience probably wouldn't know what San Diego was.

* ActorAllusion:
** In the beginning of the movie, Alex's face while posing for a camera is the Blue Steel, the signature pose of Derek Film/{{Zoolander}}.
** His "surprise" face to Marty has been interpreted as a nod to a scene from the same movie when Derek, covered in coal soot, jumps out of a dark corner to scare his father.
** Marty's "black with white stripes or white with black stripes" conflict is an allusion to Creator/ChrisRock's own racially-themed comedy.

* TheRedStapler: This film helped bring the [[SeldomSeenSpecies]] of Madagascar to public attention. A few years after the first film came out [[BigApplesauce The Bronx Zoo in New York City]] opened the free ''Madagascar!'' exhibit where Lemurs and Fossa can be seen.

** The Melman/Gloria pairing was originally going to be in the first film. Eventually, it was decided to leave it until the sequel, after the audience had gotten to know their characters.
*** Also, at one point, Gloria was to be pregnant due to being part of a breeding program. She was to give birth at the end of the first film, resulting in a gag where the penguins were swept away by her water breaking, and Melman would become the baby hippo's adopted father. This was dropped for being too mature.

* CrossDressingVoices: In the Korean dub, Mort is voiced by a woman, Yu Ji-won.

* The voice actors for Alex, Melman, and Julien (Ben Stiller, David Schwimmer and Sacha Baron Cohen) are all Jewish, and secondary character Kowalski (Chris Miller) gives off a few Jewish vibes even in the first movie. In 1940, Adolf Eichemann (an SS official) unveiled a plan to deport all Jews to Madagascar.

** King Julien was originally just a cameo, with just three lines, but then Sacha put on a thick Indian accent and started ad-libbing and Julien got a much larger role.

* The VAs for Alex, Melman, and Julien (Ben Stiller, David Schwimmer and Sacha Baron Cohen) are all Jewish, and secondary character Kowalski (Chris Miller) gives off a few Jewish vibes even in the first movie. In 1940, Adolf Eichemann (an SS official) unveiled a plan to deport all Jews to Madagascar.

* The Voice Actors for Alex, Melman, and Julien are all Jewish, and secondary character Kowalski gives off a few Jewish vibes even in the first movie. In 1940, Adolf Eichemann (an SS official) unveiled a plan to deport all Jews to Madagascar.

** King Julien was originally just a cameo, with just three lines, but then Sacha started ad-libbing and Julien got a much larger role.

* The Voice Actors for Alex, Melman, and Julien are all Jewish, and even secondary character Kowalski gives off some Jewish vibes of his own. In 1940, Adolf Eichemann (an SS official) unveiled a plan to deport all Jews to Madagascar.

** In the beginning of the first movie, Alex's face while posing for a camera is the Blue Steel, the signature pose of Derek Film/{{Zoolander}}.

* TheCastShowoff: In ''3'', Martin Short shows off his singing chops in two songs.
* DoingItForTheArt: One joke in the first movie required a ''million'' leaves to be created for it. ''One'' joke.
* DuelingMovies:
** One of the most notorious examples. The Disney-released ''WesternAnimation/TheWild'' had been in production for a few years already, but as was usually the case with their early films, Creator/DreamWorks caught wind of it and set out to (successfully) beat them to the punch. ''Madagascar'' became a hit and ''WesternAnimation/TheWild'', finally released a year later, was immediately written off as a ripoff by those not in the know and just as quickly fell into obscurity.
** In no other respects are the movies alike, but considering ''Europe's Most Wanted'' came out a short time before WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}, the scene where Julien, Maurice and Mort first meet Sonya and see her eyes glowing in the dark has a remarkable resemblance to Mor'du...

** At first, Gia was going to be a caged albino jaguar in the Monaco casino, and would have been freed by Alex.
** A fourth film was planned for a 2018 release date, but it was [[http://deadline.com/2015/01/dreamworks-animation-restructuring-to-cut-500-jobs-with-290m-charge-1201355918/ removed from the studio's schedule]] due to its restructuring.

** Melman's crush on Gloria suplot in the second film is remarkably similar to another subplot: TV's ''Series/{{Friends}}'' where Schwimmer's character Ross Gellar and his BelligerentSexualTension with Rachel Greene, which would eventually be resolved in the SeriesFinale.
* [[AuthorExistenceFailure Actor Existence Failure]]: Bernie Mac, who voiced Zuba in ''Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa'', passed away from complications of pneumonia on August 2008, a couple of months before the movie was released into theaters.

* TheOtherDarrin:
** In the Korean dub, local celebrity Song Kang-ho was replaced for the second film by Seong Wang-yeong as Alex.
** Danny Jacobs, who voices King Julien in the cartoons, is Sacha Baron Cohen's official understudy, replacing him in side materials that otherwise feature the main voice cast, such as all the holiday specials and the Madagascar 3 Soundtrack

* ShownTheirWork: The flashback to Alex as a cub arriving in New York City has the Twin Towers in the background, making it one of the few post-9/11 movies to feature them.

** In ''Escape 2 Africa'', Alec Baldwin was originally going to play a satirical version of himself who was tricking young actors into building a home/resort for him in Africa (claiming he was running an actor's studio). When this was dropped, they wrote the character of Makunga for him so he could still be in the movie.