Four animal friends get a taste of the wild life when they break out of captivity at the Central Park Zoo and wash ashore on the island of Madagascar.
Focusing on the ''Madagascar'' penguins and taking place before the events of the first ''Madagascar'', the youngest penguin on the team, Private, slips out of the zoo on Christmas Eve to find a present for a lonely polar bear named Ted. While roaming the streets of Manhattan, he is captured by Nana (the mean old lady from the first film) who mistakes him for a chew toy for her vicious dog, Mr Chew. The other three penguins, Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico, rescue Private from Nana's apartment before it is too late. They escalate into chaos against Mr. Chew, all-the-while, not noticed by Nana, who is occupied watching a American football game. When they are done, they detonate the door with a stick of dynamite (which Rico had repeatedly attempted to use prior), finally attracting Nana's attention and leaving Mr. Chew to take the fall for what the penguins have done to her place.
A botched rescue strands Alex the lion and his companions in Africa. Sadly, Alex discovers he has little in common with the locals.
The penguins carry their missions in their habitat in Central Park. Julien, the king of the lemurs, and his subjects Maurice and Mort, his new neighbors, appear, who constitute the exhibition of lemurs at the zoo. Now the penguins must keep things under control, often despite the antics of the lemurs as well as helping out with unusual chores or out-of-the-ordinary adventures.
List of characters in Madagascar#Alex (Ben Stiller), List of characters in Madagascar#Marty (Chris Rock), List of characters in Madagascar#Melman (David Schwimmer), and List of characters in Madagascar#Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) attempt to escape Madagascar and return to New York City using a hot air balloon they built, only to be thwarted by the lemur population, led by List of characters in Madagascar#King Julien XIII (Danny Jacobs (actor)), who mistake them for the "red night goblin" that visits every year at this time, the 24th of "Julianuary". Immediately after that, the Santa Claus appears and begins showering the island with coals.
Next stop: New York! But to get back home, Alex and friends must hitch a ride with a traveling European circus and evade an evil animal-control officer.
Valentine's Day is one of Alex the lion's (Ben Stiller) favorite holidays back in the zoo, for he was practically showered with Valentines from numerous admirers, but now that he is in Africa, he is finding that Valentine's Day is not what he was used to.
In Antarctica, three young penguin brothers—Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico—defy the laws of nature to save an egg the other penguins believe to be doomed. After saving it from a pack of leopard seals and accidentally setting themselves adrift on an iceberg, the egg hatches into their new member, Private, (before the events of the Madagascar (2005 film)).
Wrapped up in the endearing humor and physical comedy that made the "Madagascar" movies so popular, this animated musical comedy series features the lovable foursome Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Gloria the Hippo and Melman the Giraffe as young residents of a rescue habitat in the Central Park Zoo. Like everybody who lands in New York, these little guys have big dreams and big plans. The series celebrates being yourself, never giving up, and pursuing your dreams with abandon, no matter the size.
King Julien is here to party, and no one can stop him from ruling with an iron fist... in the air, wavin' like he just doesn't care! ALL HAIL KING JULIEN brings the wild world of Madagascar to a totally original, totally hilarious and totally insane television series in which the king takes on the craziest adventures the jungle has to offer. A new cast of fantastic, colorful characters joins King Julien himself, along with his second-in-command, Maurice, and his longtime devotee, Mort. It's a riot of color - not to mention a laugh riot - when viewers ALL HAIL KING JULIEN!