Heartwarming / Madagascar

• Alex's birthday present for Marty's 10th is an Alex snowglobe. Although Marty seems to not appreciate it, he then sets it down with 8 other pieces of Alex merchandise, one of them being a picture reading "Happy 7th Marty" making it clear that these are all different birthday gifts from Alex that Marty has kept safe.
• The penguins helping Alex with satisfying his hunger by feeding him fish. Alex even states that this is even better than steak. It's quite touching to see that despite them being a little psychotic, the penguins do care for the zoosters.
  Alex: This is better than steak! I love it! I LOVE IT!
  Skipper: (proudly) The kitty loves the fishy!
• Gloria comforting Mort after Alex accidentally scares him.
  Gloria: Aw, you poor little baby, did that big, mean lion scare you?
• When Alex approaches Marty and it appears he's going to eat him, he whispers to Marty thanking him for not giving up on him and asks his friends to play along to help him scare the fossa away.
  • Before that, Marty goes back to bring Alex to the ship even after the lion nearly kills him. And even after Alex charges at Marty in his Sanity Slippage, Marty doesn't give up on his best friend and even brings up a Meaningful Echo of "New York, New York".
  "Alex, I ain't leavin' without you."

  • The reason Alex doesn't want to go back? He doesn't want to hurt his friends.
  "(After Alex nearly hurts Marty) I don't want to hurt you.
• "It really isn't the fun side without you."
• After their little feud, Marty asks Alex to go to his fun side, but Alex rejects. But after thinking it for a while, Alex asks Marty if he can come too. He also apologizes for the way he treated him eariler.
  Alex: You know, I've been kind of a jerk, Marty. But I've been thinking about what you said, and I'm sorry.
• Near the end, Marty asks the gang if they should return home, but Alex questions sincerely if Marty wants to ditch his dream of being in the wild. Marty's response:
  Marty: I don't care where we are. As long as we're together, it doesn't matter to me.
  • Julien gives Alex his old crown as a parting gift. As Alex was reluctant to have it, Julien had another one.
• The 2009 Christmas Special "Merry Madagascar" (which takes place between this movie and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa) has some very noteworthy heartfelt moments.:
  • When Alex, Melman, Marty, and Gloria have to deliver presents around the world on Christmas Eve due to Santa Claus developing a concussion after crashing into Madagascar and acts like one of King Julian's lemurs. The group suddenly encounters a girl believing Gloria to be Santa (or one of Santa's helpers). While the trio are shocked since they mainly avoid human contact, Gloria and the others decided to make this an exception since it's Christmas. Gloria then gives the little girl a hug before leaving her house.
  • The special reveals that Santa's reindeer have an intense rivalry with The Penguins (mainly between Skipper, Kowalski and Rico). The exception is Private who falls in love with Cupid the reindeer with both developing a strong friendship and ignores their rivalry compared to the other penguins. At one point, we get to see Private daydreaming where he and Cupid are relaxing on beach chairs during the summer. After Santa gets his memory back and prepares to leave Africa to head back to the North Pole. The Penguins are overjoyed knowing they won't see his reindeer again, except Private who is visibly saddened to see Cupid leaving with her wishing him a "Merry Christmas".

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