There are very few things as wholesome as a franchise following a group of delightfully mismatched, quirky anthropomorphic animals. The Madagascar franchise is pretty much the epitome of this. With a cast spotlighting Ben Stiller, David Schwimmer, Chris Rock, and Jada Pinkett Smith, it was destined to be a hit.
Despite its widely-loved success, there are a fair few continuity errors that rear their heads both within and between films.
Alex’s Changing Crate Size
One of the first scenes that demonstrate just what a mess Marty’s desire for freedom has gotten his friends into is when the group is stuck in boxes on a mysterious barge in the middle of the ocean. Each animal is in a crate that matches their size, and they’re stacked up neatly.
When these crates are thrust into the ocean a few minutes later, Alex’s crate has changed size dramatically, showing a distinct lack of continuity between the two scenes.
Melman’s Changing Crate Size
During the exact same scene, we are shown exactly how big Melman’s crate is. He isn’t exactly comfortable (well, in fact, he is upside down and his long neck pretty contorted), but it allows him enough space to move around somewhat.
When the group actually ends up on the island of Madagascar, it seems to have shrunk so much that Melman can’t even get out of it, let alone move around.
Marty’s Injury Changes
After the events of the first Madagascar film, Marty is left with a big bite mark on his butt, thanks to Alex’s attempt to eat him. It doesn’t really seem like the fact that his best friend quite literally tried to eat him is discussed enough, but we’ll let that slide.
When Marty makes the excellent “you’re a real pain in the butt” quip at the end of the film (lightening the fact that his friend tried to eat him alive), he gestures to the completely wrong side for it to match where his actual injury was.
A Brand New Birth Mark
One of the major features that set up the storyline of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is the fact that Alex is shown to have a birthmark that matches that of his father, who still lives in the wild. The thing that doesn’t really match up with the previous film in the series is that Alex’s apparently birthmark was never visible, nor mentioned.
Not even in shots where his hands (which have opposable thumbs, by the way) are completely visible, or dialogue in which it may have been interesting or relevant. It was clearly only thought of when the second film came around.
And It’s Not There Half Of The Time
Even though the birthmark was created specifically for the second Madagascar film, it doesn’t do a good job of making sure such an important plot device is always actually there.
There are various shots in which Alex’s hand is visible and this birthmark is nowhere to be seen. Of course, you can’t really expect the animators to keep every shot this detailed, but you’d think they’d at least put a little brown dot on his hand to keep the distant shots consistent.
And Neither Is Marty’s Bite Mark
There is one scene in Madagascar 2 in which Marty and Alex discuss the bite mark on Marty’s butt. They look over and see it, perfectly replicated from the first time.
The problem is, there is no real attempt made to keep this in the rest of the film. The opening scene in which the gang is dancing to music doesn’t have the mark there, and neither does pretty much every other shot later on in the film.
Reappearing Purse
The old lady in Madagascar is their (warmer) answer to Scrat from Ice Age. She gets up to her own adventures that don’t really have much of an impact on the main proceedings, but her moments of comic relief and uniquely side-lined stories are one of the main appeals of the franchise.
She is given a larger role in this sequel, and when fleeing from the exploding dam, it is clear that her bag/purse goes flying into the river. Later on, the purse magically reappears and ends up being given to Makunga.
Magical Rope
The opening scene of Madagascar 2 provides us with the origin story of Alex The Lion and his impressive dancing ability. While out learning to fight with his father, hunters threw a rope into the nature reserve the family lived in, in order to draw Alex off the reserve.
The fact that it was so far away from the fence suggests that the hunters would have had to throw it into the reserve, yet when Alex follows it, it is being pulled under the fence, which makes no sense.
Dry Water
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted isn’t exactly the most well-loved sequel of all time. Many consider it to be a huge step down from the brilliant humor and touching storyline of the first two films, and it still has just as many errors in continuity.
One thing that is almost guaranteed to happen when you submerge your entire body in a large pool of water, is that you’ll get wet. When the animals land in water at Monte Carlo, they’re all bone dry when they exit the water.
Disappearing Periscope
The Mafia-esque group of penguins who appear in each of the Madagascar films are always plotting some sort of mischievous master plan of criminality. In the third film, the penguins are seen in a casino using a periscope to assist in their surveillance.
Just after Skipper says, “I say we let it ride”, he pushes up this periscope to look around. When the shot changes, the periscope he just used had completely vanished.