Trivia / Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

• Acting for Two: Along with reprising his main role as Marty, Chris Rock also voices the other zebras in the film, playing into the Running Gag where the other characters can’t tell Marty apart from them. It’s taken up to eleven when Alex goes to the zebras looking for Marty later in the film, since Rock voices the entire herd.
• Creator Cameo: Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder and CEO of DreamWorks Animation, voices the fishing boy on the moon who gets beaten up by the penguins in the DreamWorks opening logo.
• In Memoriam: The film is dedicated to Zuba's voice actor Bernie Mac, who passed away in August 2008, a few months before the film's release.
• Kids' Meal Toy: McDonald's released a set of eight talking figures in the US. These consisted of Alex, Gloria, Melman, Marty, Julien, Skipper, Mason, and Moto Moto. These toys were slightly different in Europe.
• Lying Creator: Will.i.am stated in some press for the film that Moto Moto was also attracted to Gloria due to being intrigued by the fact she’s been around the world and has experienced a different life. The film proper makes it clear he’s only interested in her body.
• The Other Darrin:
  • In the theatrical Korean dub of Madagascar, Alex was voiced by national celebrity Song Kang-ho. In Escape 2 Africa, Song was replaced by Seong Wang-yeong as Alex.
  • in the Brazilian dub of the first movie, Skipper was voiced by Paulo Vignolo. From Escape 2 Africa on, he was replaced by Claudio Galvan.
• Posthumous Credit: Bernie Mac passed away a few months before the film was released.
• Real-Life Relative: Ben Stiller's son Quinn voices young Alex and Jada Pinkett Smith's daughter Willow voices young Gloria.
• Refitted for Sequel: Melman and Gloria’s romance in this film was intended for the first film but cut due to the storyline being deemed too adult at the time (due to Gloria also being pregnant and Melman deciding to help raise her child). Gloria being pregnant is dropped, though this plot thread is alluded to early in the movie when Gloria suggests signing herself up for the breeding program when they get back to the zoo.
• What Could Have Been: Alec Baldwin was initially cast to play a satirical version of himself, and the film's human subplot would have revolved around him tricking young actors into building a private resort for him in Africa, under the guise of running an actor's studio. This was ultimately dropped, though they wrote the character of Makunga (who's character design is directly based on Baldwin) so that he could still play a character in the movie.
  • Tiny Lister was originally supposed to voice Teetsi and went as far as voicing his lines only to be redubbed by Fred Tatasciore. He apparently was never told he was replaced as he promoted the movie in interviews and went to the premiere itself◊.
• Working Title: The film's original title was Madagascar 2: The Crate Escape, refrencing The Great Escape movie's title. Many publicity items and memorabilia were made with this title before it was changed to Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.

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