Headscratchers / Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

• I don't get it why circus animals threw such a fit when they discovered that Alex&Co were, in fact, from a zoo. Okay, they did lie to get onto your train. And they did pull stunts that could've led to serious injury. But hey, you know, you've just made a performance that blew your audience's mind away like a typhoon, and these zoo animals, while untrained, helped to make this exact performance, and worked just as hard as everyone else. But once the cat is out of the bag, they're suddenly treated like dirty dirty traitors. Why. Is. That.
  • I had the same issue until I thought about Military families. In some places you bond over those shared experiences, sometimes even around the world there's at least something connecting you. If the Circus animals see it in a similar way then the Zoo Crew lying is a huge insult. At least at first.
  • Doesn't seem like that hard of a stretch as far as lying though, couldn't they have lived in a zoo before joining the circus?
  • There's always an overreaction like that in movies, there's always that everything's pink but you lied to us or something even if minor and we can't forgive you until near the end the movie.
  • Keep in mind the circus animals felt not only lied to, but used as well. They have to wonder if they were anything more than the Zoosters' ticket home.
  • To be fair to the circus animals, they didn't actually "throw a fit", they merely felt hurt, betrayed, and used. Which makes sense after having been lied to and put in danger for the sole reason, it seemed to them, of getting the Zoosters back home. Stefano's line about his tears being real but they are not, and not even knowing if Alex was his real name, simply underscores that after having been lied to as they were, they didn't know if they could believe or trust anything the Zoosters told them. Yes, they made an amazing show, but they also put them in great danger to do it. It worked out fine in the end, but it just as easily could have literally blown up in their faces, because the Zoosters (from their POV) didn't know what they were doing and were willing to take any risk as long as it got them back home. That was irresponsible as well as deceptive. Anyway, Third-Act Misunderstanding aside, it was cleared up very quickly since the minute they learned the Zoosters were in danger, they went to their aid—which suggests that once the hurt of being lied to passed, they remembered the bonds they formed and the amazing show they created and decided yes, that mattered more than who the Zoosters really were.
  • In real life, Circus and Carnival groups tend to be very tight knit and distrustful of outsiders. They extend their trust to others in the same line of work as there's a feeling of camaraderie for those who know what it's like, but they aren't fans of those who lie to try and get their way into it.
• Why exactly did Julien decide to go to the zoo with the Zoosters at first when the Zoosters were disowned by the circus, and why didn't Maurice and Mort accompany him?
  • Julien wanted to be "king of New York", hence his fight with Sonya. He probably stormed off afterwards without collecting his followers.
• How on earth did the penguins and monkeys get a plane that fast after their van fell over the building?
  • The plane was waiting for them. That's why they were driving all over Monaco, to get to it.
• How'd the other animals bake a cake for Alex in Africa?
  • Rule of Funny. How did the fossa obtain salt and pepper shakers?
• Isn't it illegal to have animals in a circus in the UK?
  • They weren't in the UK. They went through mainland Europe.
  • Except the successful show with "Firework" was in London.
  • I don't know exactly how those laws work in this universe, but the reason circus animals are banned in many places is because of animal cruelty concerns. Obviously in Real Life, circus animal acts involve animals and human trainers. But since it is an all-animal circus with no humans, that might not be an issue.
  • According to what I've read, wild animals were not entirely banned from circuses in the UK until 2020.
• How come in the third film, Sonya can't talk when literally every other animal in the Madagascar franchise can? Does she choose not to, or does she have something that prevents her from being able to talk? It can't be a bear thing, as in the Penguins' Christmas special, Ted the Polar Bear can talk. Granted, it makes her relationship with King Julien funnier, but it just feels so jarring...
  • Rico and Phil can't talk neither, even through Skipper, Kowalski, Private and Mason can. Considering that animals in this series can have some mental problems (Melman's hypochondria and Alex's descent to madness in first movie), these three characters may just be mute, even to other animals. To us, it just may appear that they aren't emitting any noises or that they cannot physically communicate with other animals in correct way for whatever reason.
• How did Captain Chantel break through walls?
  • Because it's freaking Capitaine Chantel DuBois.
  • It's also possible she's an engineered super-soldier.
  • She underwent a hardcore survivalist training.
• How did the animals get from Africa to Monte Carlo in Europe without being trapped by people or something?
  • How did they reach Monte Carlo in the first place?
    • The penguins and chimps by airplane, the Zooers and lemurs swimming.
    • It's established in the first film that Alex can't swim. Continuity error.
    • He may as well learn to swim between the movies.
    • Still, they would've had to travel thousands of miles across the continent of Africa before they could get anywhere close to Monte Carlo. Sure, it's not as far as New York, but it's still a long way and it would take weeks (maybe even months) to get that far on foot or by swimming. How did they get there so fast?
• Why is Sonya the she-bear unable to speak and only communicates by roaring and growling? While the obvious answer is Rule of Funny, In-Universe we've seen other bears in the franchise being capable of speech, such as Corporal from the Penguins movie. Could she be the animal equivalent of a person with some type of mental disability?
  • Someone already had answered your question.
• What Captain DuBois was planning to do after killing Alex? It would have been really evident that she had killed him, because she was directing her loaded giant glove towards Alex and the public would have been surprised if while celebrating the zoosters' return then Alex the Lion falls dead on his cage...
  • Perhaps it was a slow acting poison dart, or the tranquilizers she used would give it a delay effect until everyone left the zoo. Then she’d sneak back in, take Alex’s head, and leave before morning.
    • Then she would have ended up as a wanted criminal due to killing a popular zoo animal. Especially if security cameras at the zoo had documented her.
• If I remember correctly, it was stated in the first film that animals can't communicate with humans, as shown when Alex tries to call the authorities to retrieve Marty before coming to this conclusion and breaking the phone. Here, however, before throwing Chantel DuBois into a cage, Alex speaks towards DuBois and it seems that she understands him. So humans can talk with animals but animals don't like to do so or this was just retconned?
  • Dubois doesn’t respond to Alex, or give any indication that she knows what he, or any of the animals, are saying. If you’re referring to when he tells her to “sit, lie down, rollover and stay,” she was tranquilized, so her mind wasn’t exactly on planet reality (she probably hallucinated him speaking English before passing out), and Alex was just having fun with it.
• At the end, who is shipping Captain DuBois and her men to Madagascar? I know that the penguins got them into the crates, but if they are at the circus with Alex and the gang, then who is sailing the ship towards Madagascar? If humans are in control of the ship, then they could discover DuBois and her men once they unload the crates at Madagascar. Or they've hacked the ship's autopilot like in the first film so it'd land there.
  • The ship was en route to Madagascar, as seen by the labels on the crates, so there was no hijacking. The penguins just snuck them on the ship before it departed.