A lion and zebra and two other of their pampered friends, from New York's Central Park Zoo, accidentally find themselves on a ship heading for Africa. When their vessel is hijacked, they become shipwrecked on the exotic island of Madagascar where they discover it really is a jungle out there!

Follow the adventures of Skipper, Kowalski, Private, and Rico, four penguins who perform paramilitary missions to protect their home in the Central Park Zoo from a trio of lemurs who believe that their leader, Julien, is the Zoo's rightful ruler.