With Ben Stiller, Jada Pinkett Smith, David Schwimmer and Chris Rock starring and with the creative direction of those responsible for Shrek and Shark Tale, you’d think the Madagascar franchise would be pretty much airtight.
Despite this, there are plenty of plot holes buried within the brilliantly funny series. Some of these are small moments that might not make perfect sense, but then again, the central characters are talking animals, so you can overlook a few physics issues. However some unravel the logic of the entire storyline.
Subway Issues
This one is only really going to make sense if you’re familiar with the subway system in New York and a really specific, detailed grasp of exactly where and when subway cars stop.
The animals take the subway from Central Park to Grand Central Station and make an impressively accurate decision for animals who shouldn’t be able to read. Their platform is apparently for trains 4, 5 and 6, even though trains 4 and 5 wouldn’t normally stop at this platform alongside the number 6.
Pineapples Grow In The Ground
When the animals are staying in the Madagascan jungle, we see pineapples dangling down from trees. You might not expect it, but in reality, pineapples actually grow in the ground.
The decision behind this particular issue probably comes from the fact that the director wanted to audience to see the pineapples (which is possible when they’re in a tree) but wouldn’t be possible if they were just underground.
Dry Crates
There is a certain morbidity to this particular plot hole. When the crates that house the animals fall into the ocean from the barge, they briefly go underwater and then float around for a while. If these were airtight enough to avoid filling with water, then all of the animals would have suffocated by now.
They obviously aren’t airtight, so they should instead be able to fill with water when they’re floating towards Madagascar. By the time they arrive on the island, theoretically, they should be dead. The fact that they aren’t is probably pretty good for the film’s reputation as kid-friendly, but it doesn’t really make sense.
The Penguins Could Have Escaped
On a similar note, there are a few flaws with the crates the penguins are housed in as well. They construct a detailed plan that allows them to be broken out by Rico, but during their entire exchange, they could have just crawled out.
The holes through which they were talking were certainly big enough to let them through, and given the fact they can talk and overthrow the human crew of the barge, they’re definitely intelligent enough to have worked this out.
They’ve Already Escaped 2 Africa
It’s rare for a plot hole to come directly from the title of a film. The Madagascar franchise is centered on the island of Madagascar, which is on the continent of Africa. Calling the sequel Escape 2 Africa really makes it sound like the animals are going to Africa for the first time, from somewhere that isn’t Africa.
In reality, they’re going from one place in Africa to another place in Africa. Admittedly they’re going from an island to the mainland, but they’re still on the same continent.
How Did Mort Stay On The Wing?
In fairness to the annoying little Mort, he is persistent. He and his squeaky voice and endless crying follow King Julian as much as they do Alex, and the fact that these characters have boarded a rickety plane to Africa isn’t going to stop him from being involved. He is seen as they’re taking off, and gets thrown (incredibly quickly) backward, off of the plane.
Considering the speed the plane is traveling at, he should be a very long way away in just a couple of seconds, but he manages to end up clinging on to the wing for dear life. When this happens, given the speed the plane is going at and the speed he is thrown back from his arms would have been pulled out of their sockets as soon as he grabbed onto the wing.
“This Ought To Be Good”
This is one of the most interesting plot holes revealed in the entire Madagascar series. It reveals an animation secret that is typically kept under wraps. When Alex is about to (dance) fight Teetsi, the camera zooms in on Makunga, who says “this ought to be good.” If you look the right a few rows back, you’ll see another lion mouthing the exact same words in exactly the same way.
This shows how the animators copy and paste models of their characters around the scene and simply re-skin them to make them look different. Obviously, they forgot to stop this one from copying the exact speech of Makunga during this scene.
How Did They Get To Europe So Easily?
The entire opening of Madagascar 2 shows the animals having a really tough time getting home. They intend to go all the way back to Central Park but instead crash land a broken plane in the middle of Africa.
It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense that they were somehow able to travel to Europe for the sequel, Madagascar 3, with comparatively minuscule issues along the way. They still encounter their fair share of issues, but, despite being animals, seem to have really worked on their travel planning.
The Penguins Should Have Caused A Nuclear Explosion
Despite bidding farewell to the Penguins at the start of the film, they make a welcome return later on, involving a nuclear reactor. They build an engine powered by uranium-238 into their Luxury Urban Assault Recreation Vehicle, and it gives them the nice speed boost they need to win the chase.
Later on, however, the vehicle crashes into the roof of a hotel. If they’d really used uranium, there would be a full-scale nuclear crisis because a massive nuclear bomb would have just detonated in Monte Carlo.
“Never Should Have Left The Forest”
When the creepy Chantel DuBois is tracking down the animals, she says, “you never should have left the forest.” There are a few issues with this statement. Firstly, she doesn’t really know where they’ve been, so has no way of knowing that they’d been in a forest at all.
On top of that, none of these animals are naturally found in the forest, so it would be a pretty strange thing to guess, especially for someone in the animal business.
