Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe, Gloria the hippo, King Julien, Maurice and the penguins - all the loveable characters are back. They were left marooned on the distant shores of Madagascar, so the New Yorkers hatched a crazy plan. The penguins repair an old crashed plane. Once aloft, the crew stays airborne long enough to make it to the wildest place of all – the vast plains of Africa itself. Where the zoo–raised crew encounter species of their own kind for the very first time...