As with most zoos, the lion at the Central Park Zoo is the star. Alex loves getting all the attention from the visitors. He is surrounded by an interesting group of animals including Melman, a hypochondriac giraffe; Gloria, a really sweet hippopotamus; and Marty, a zebra who dreams of getting back to the land he was born ... though he will settle for the wide-open spaces of Connecticut. The problem is that there is no way to get out of the zoo, or so they all think.

Thanks to some seriously, MacGyver-like penguins, Marty is able to escape from the zoo and works his way to the train station on his 10th birthday. His friends, who are really worried about him, follow him to the zoo in an attempt to rescue him. As they are being recaptured, protesters are concerned about the way they are being treated and start a movement to ship them all back to a Kenyan wildlife preserve in Kenya. Once again the penguins do their work, and the whole lot of them find themselves stranded on the island of Madagascar.

It does not take long for them to meet the local, a series of wacky and bizarro tribal lemurs. They try to do everything to make the newcomers feel at home.

It is a cute movie with lots of craziness that is really perfect for the little ones ... the REALLY little ones. I am young at heart (*cough* meaning I am totally immature at times), but I just found some of this movie to be totally inane and talked down to kids. Maybe I was just expecting too much because I have heard so many great things about this one. Oh, well.