Location from Madagascar by DreamWorks Animation
A zoo in the middle of Manhattan that is simultaneously a comfortable home for its animals and the most poorly supervised covert operations hub in North America.
The Central Park Zoo is where the franchise lives — the home the characters left, the place they were trying to return to through two sequels, the thing that turns out to mean something when it's gone. It's comfortable in the way that familiar constraints are comfortable. The animals have their habits, their routines, their relationships across the wire. The penguin habitat is its own classified situation. Below the surface-level enclosure: bunks, equipment, tunnels, sub-levels, a periscope, weapons, and a Speak and Spell. The zoo staff is apparently unaware of any of this. The lemur habitat is adjacent and contains King Julien's throne, Mort's spot by Julien's feet, and Maurice's everything else. Alex's lion habitat has a mirror. He uses it every morning.
A real zoo in Central Park, New York City — winding paths between habitats, a food court, a gift shop, visitor signage, and the hum of a functioning institution. In the mornings before opening, it has a particular quiet: animal sounds layered under the distant noise of the city, the smell of feed and water, the concrete cooling from the night.
Also known as: The Zoo, Central Park Zoo (CPZ)