The lion, "Alex," reigns supreme at the Central Park Zoo, even boasting his own tanning machine. However, his companions aren't quite as thrilled with their situation. Following a mishap involving penguins attempting to dig their way to Antarctica, “Marty” the zebra begins longing for life in the wild and impulsively buys a ticket on a train headed for Connecticut. When his friends realize he’s left without them, "Gloria" the hippo, "Melman" the giraffe, and "Alex" give chase. They don't make much progress, but unintentionally their wish comes true – the zoo staff decides to release the animals into the wild, shipping them off somewhere. During the journey, the penguins decide that Africa isn’t suitable for them and take over the ship, changing course toward colder regions. Just before the crates containing our main characters fall overboard, they wash ashore on the island of Madagascar. There, they find a population of lemurs governed by "King Julius" with an iron fist (or rather, a lettuce leaf) and plagued by small wildcats called foussa. Naturally, while the animals converse using human language, the other creatures hear only a powerful roar from “Alex,” which proves useful in warding off their enemies. The question is whether these new arrivals will adjust to their surroundings or yearn for the familiar comforts of home, and if their primal instincts will strain their bonds with one another. While I personally found there was an excessive amount of constant talking—particularly from the giraffe and zebra—it's still a lively family film full of action sequences, clever writing that offers some amusing observations, and a lesson about loyalty and friendship for everyone to learn. The jungle animation is entertaining, and thankfully, there aren’t too many songs to slow down the story. It does make you consider how many zoo animals would truly want to return to the wild (assuming they ever experienced it) and have to survive on their own!

Source on TMDB