List of characters in Madagascar

=Main Characters=

Alex

Melman Mankiewicz III is a fictional anthropomorphic giraffe, who appears in the 2005 DreamWorks film, "Madagascar". He is somewhat of a hypochondriac, having doses of medicine for meals and doctor's appointments frequently. He even complains about having spots on his neck. He is played by David Schwimmer.

Melman had a residence at the Central Park Zoo, where he would receive constant medical treatment for problems that, oddly enough, were all a figment of his imagination. Melman would undergo MRI's, CAT scans, injections, and be put into braces and crutches for no particular purpose at all. In the Central Park Zoo, Melman received treatment, and was so used to his cushy life taking pills and undergoing treatments. One night, however, Marty the Zebra escaped and Melman immediately informed Alex of this.In , he reveals that he is in love with Gloria.

Gloria

The smartest and tallest of the penguins, Kowalski formed plans for the group and usually took notes for Skipper.

Kowalski was part of a cadre of devious penguins who had made it their goal to escape captivity in the Central Park Zoo and leave for Antarctica. Often formulating plans for the group, Kowalski was a loyal supporter of his leader, Skipper. Kowalski had escaped the zoo with the other penguins, but was promptly captured and put into a crate for transferring with his comrades. The crates were all placed on a ship bound for Africa, where all the creatures from the zoo would be kept in a wildlife preserve. While in the crate, Kowalski confessed that he could not read and assisted another transferee, a chimpanzee named Phil, to read the words on the crate. As soon as this was done, the four penguins headed to the ship's bridge, knocked out the crew and captain, bound them up, and plotted the ship's course to Antarctica.

Once they began to come closer Antarctica, the four celebrated their successful mission and left the ship. When they left, they saw that Antarctica was not all that they thought it would be. With this in sight, the penguin troupe headed north to warmer climates, on the beaches of Madagascar. On these beaches, they encountered Gloria the hippopotamus and Melman the giraffe, but their friend Marty the zebra was nowhere to be found, having run off to a side of Madagascar inhabited by predators so as to find his friend, Alex the lion. Skipper formulated a plan to save Marty's life, which Kowalski helped to undertake. After a skirmish with some of the local meat-eaters, the penguins had reached the decision to stay in Madagascar for good, giving the ship over to Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman. The ship was devoid of gas.

Private

Mason and Phil are the sophisticated chimpanzees at the Central Park Zoo, preferring to "read" the newspaper and enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning; for them, freedom means attending a Tom Wolfe lecture to "fling poo at him." Mason (voiced by Conrad Vernon) speaks with an RP accent and plans the daily affairs for Phil and himself, but is unable to read. He is named for James Mason, whose voice inspired the character's portrayal. Phil doesn't speak, making him initially seem less intelligent and more primitive than his comrade, but can read English and "speaks" American Sign Language which instills the idea that Phil is perhaps the more cerebral of the two. Both escape from the zoo in the beginning of the movie. They are also sent to the wildlife reserve along with the main characters. Unlike the main characters, they don't wash up on the shores of Madagascar, however they do appear in the background of the final scene in crates. They raid a wastebasket for leftover coffee and a newspaper, and their crate on the ship is full of aluminum cans (in the DVD, it is indicated that they contain root beer, not beer, likely implemented in order to make the film more family-friendly).
According to a May 26, 2005 interview with Director Tom McGrath in the Seattle Post Intelligencer [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/225746_moment26.html] , the chimp's "first scene was just deciphering the code on the shipping label. We got this girl who knew American Sign Language. We wanted (the gestures) to be really frenetic so he signed out, 'Tell the tiny pea-brained birds that the sign reads: Ship to ...' and it gave us enough hand gestures. Then we went back to 'I see that Tom Wolfe is speaking at Lincoln Center,' and he gestured, 'Can we throw our poo at his stupid white suit?'"

Phil

Ted the polar bear had lived in the Central Park Zoo like many other animals and spent his Christmases alone because he had no one to share them with. The penguin Private had noticed this and set out to get Ted a present to cheer him up. Much later, the plan had changed and Ted was soon sharing his Christmas with the penguin troupe, having invited some friends over.

Creatures from the Island

King Julien XIII

Mort is usually timid, but can become quite shrill and vocal when he opens up. The zoo animals find him adorable, but King Julien is highly annoyed by him, eventually shouting "Oh, shut up, you're so annoying!" in response to his inane chatter but Mort responds to this by giggling and looking flattered. In the commentary for the Film, the director mentioned that Mort was actually 35.

The Fossa

The fossas are pack-hunting predators native to Madagascar, who look like hyenas or half-cat half-dog creatures in appearance. They are the villains of the movie, and are constantly trying to kill and eat the lemurs. According to Julien, "they're always annoying us by trespassing, interrupting our parties, and ripping our limbs off". They are cowards, however, and always flee when confronted by a bigger predator, such as Alex. They also use foreign objects such as salt and pepper shakers.

Despite appearances, the pronunciation in the film ("foo-sah") is accurate, however the spelling (Foosa or Fousa) is not, as shown in one of the signs on the island.

tevie

Teemo is a tenrec that lived in Madagascar either among a tribe of lemur or as a recruit to the penguins. He was present at one of their meetings and curled up into a ball like a hedgehog in fear when he had heard mention of the fossa or a fox.

In Other Media

Mr. Chew

Mr. Chew is a poodle that was fond of chewing (thus his name) up and tearing apart various items, including live victims, as Private discovered. Mr. Chew was once to receive a Christmas gift: a chew toy which turned out to be Private in disguise. He had almost mauled Private, but after a scuffle with Skipper, Private was freed and Mr. Chew blamed for the resulting melee.

Darnell

Darnell is an elephant that resided in the Central Park Zoo.

Darnell had a mate that he shared an enclosure with, during the Christmas when four penguins that resided there as well escaped. Later that night, Darnell joined the penguins (along with other zoo animals) in a small Christmas party.