helenaschair

Just hear me out. I am watching Madagascar Escape 2 Africa with my kids and the more I watch, the more I realize that Alex the Lion is gay. I am typing this and pausing the movie much to the annoyance of my kids to get the exact quotes from the movie. 

Firstly, the movie starts with Little Alakay and Zuba play fighting in order to develop Alex’s hunting skills. But little Alakay-Alex would rather dance and admire the nature around him. Zuba tells him that you are a 

‘strange kid, strange one for sure’. 

Fast forward, Alex, Melmon, Gloria and Marty are in Africa. In a scheme to oust Zuba as alpha lion, Makunga the lion insists that Alex complete a rite of passage. Alex gets badly beaten as he dances instead of fighting during the rites of passage challenge. Then he is shown sitting with Melmon and Marty, and his exact words to them are:

My dad thinks I am a total loser. I’ve ruined my parents lives. 

It is during this scene that my brain puts the two-and-two together. Many children hold off telling their parents about being lgbtqia+ because they are scared that they will ruin their parents lives. Zuba has rejected Alex for not being a ‘real lion’. Much to Alex’s dismay, he has disappointed his dad.

Later on, when the water hole dries up, Alex offers to go off the reserve and upriver to unclog the ‘pipe’. Makunga laughs at Alex’s ‘bravado’ and makes fun of his fruit hat and tells him to do a rain dance. The way Makunga makes fun of Alex is so insulting. That tension between yielding to conformity or encouraging self-expression is felt by Alex much like many children/adults experience it around the world who differ from the so called norm in our society. 

Alex than goes off to upriver and gets captured by humans who are lost in the wild due to the penguins stealing their cars. Concerned for Alex’s safety, Zuba follows him and gets to humans just in time as they tie Alex up for a bbq. 

Alex and Zuba are surrounded by humans who are hungry and scared. They all team up against them. Alex notices that they are New Yorkers, and starts dancing again. This scene is a huge nudge to ‘having a different son’, and that’s what makes it whole lot more wonderful. Especially as Zuba starts dancing with Alex. It is as if he’s thinking, “everyone else loves Alex for who he is… why can’t I?”

I had a lump in my throat because of this ending. I felt a little ashamed that I watch everything with ‘heterosexual lenses’. What a beautiful yet subtle message by DreamWorks. These movies are watched by kids who may be unaware, or lacking the words to express how and why they are different. But it’s a message of hope; stay true to yourself, you are perfect and people will learn to accept you. You are not a disappointed to anyone. This movie, along with many others (think Shark Tale: Lenny the Vegetarian Shark!)  are there to teach kids something but so subtly. 

If you don’t believe me watch the movie yourself. DreamWorks was dropping hints after hints. There are many examples of love out of the so-called ordinary: Penguin and a Wooden Doll, Melman and Gloria, Chimps asking for Maternity leave, and a double entendre about nuts on a plate. 

At the very end Alex and Marty are observing Melmon and Gloria with their mouths wide open with surprise. Marty then blurts out:

Love has no boundaries!

I know that Alex falls head over heals for Gia the Jaguar in the third movie. May be he is Bi? But it might not be as simple as this; who Am I to Judge?

what if he had feelings for Marty at the beginning? What if the desire for his best friend transforms in desire to eat him with his primal insticts’s awakening?

In the musical of Madagascar (yes, they made a musical), there’s a song instead of the American Beauty’s moment called ‘Steak’, which reminds a lot ‘All that jazz’ from ‘Chicago’ (and ‘All that jazz’ is also the title of a movie by Bob Fosse, one of Alex’s myths), where there are some female dancers that dance with plates full of steaks… And they’re dressed with some maid outfit in a zebra fantasy.

But then a bigger steak comes into the stage, wearing a top hat and Alex is more interested in dancing with him, so, draw your conclusions… 

Alex totally freaks out when Marty escapes from the zoo, and even if it’s risky, he is willing to chase him because he couldn’t think about the zoo, his personal paradise where he was THE star, without his best friend.

Look how he hugs him just before freaking the hell out because he thought he would have never seen him again (Alex, your fear of abandonment is showing)!

Even if he’s angry with him, Marty is always the most important thing. 

First he’s arguing with him because they will be transferred and the next scene he is screaming desperately his name for (what he thinks) the last time before wandering alone on the ocean.

And yes, Alex feels a little resentment for Marty because he is no longer in NY and because he thinks Marty didn’t understand the reason why he decided to chase him for a good part of the movie, but I won’t forget that semi-reconciliation on the beach where they are literally running into each other before remembering why they are on that beach <3 

Later they reconcile, go wild together, but then there’s Alex’s primal insticts awakening (read above my first reblog) and when Alex realizes it, he decides to isolate himself in order to not harm anyone he loves, AKA Marty.

And remember, Alex was THE ONE WHO NEEDED TO BE THE CENTRE OF ATTENTION AT EVERY MOMENT. 

His ‘I don’t wanna hurt you’ cracks me everytime, BTW.

But now It’s Marty’s turn to risk his life in order to save his friend from himself, to abandon what he thought about nature as his personal paradise for him.

and what’s Alex response?

‘Thanks for not giving up on me, Marty!’

The film basically ends with them stating that whatever place they would be, everything will be fine as long as they stay together.

But then there’s the second movie.

Yes, it’s Melman who says the big love declaration during the crash, but before it Marty keeps remembering about Alex’s bite, as if he tries to make him admit something else, even if Alex seems too eager to change the subject (at least, that’s my reading of the scene)…

Later, Marty and Alex had a fight because the lion say that his problems are a little bigger than the zebra’s ones (read the original post), leading Marty to think he has no value for his best friend - for which he risked his life -.

Alex realizes immediately that he made a big mistake by arguing in such a delicate moment with Marty and guess who is the last person to which he decides to talk before showing to his dad he is a real lion?

That’s right, Marty.

Gosh, this scene.

Alex apologizes for not always being the friend Marty deserved, the kind of friend Marty has always been, stating that he’s really one in a million.

(And then there’s me who thinks immediatly to the Ne-yo song that came out 2 years after the movie but who’s got 2 thumbs and everytime she listens to it thinks to these 2? Me!)

He is talking with his heart and every zebra cries for this ‘friendship’ declaration… And even Marty is on the verge to cry when Alex recognizes him.

And look at his face.

It’s like: “This idiot is trying to say me 'I love you’ without using those 3 words, but whatever he’s my idiot and I’ll follow him anywhere!”

I think a hug wouldn’t had ruined the scene.

Plus, the final scene.

There are the two canon romantic couples walking together to this verse of Travelling Song by Wil.l.iam:

See I’ve been travelling, been travelling forever,

But now that I’m home feels like I’m in heaven…

This verse starts immediatly after Alex saying that he will always recognize Marty and then he looks to his mark on the zebra’s butt with a malicious smile… Marty realizes that and Alex rubs affectionately his mane and then they follow the other couples in their walking towards a better future…

Guys, what other proof you need in order to understand that Dreamworks made a big mistake in not making them Canon?

That’s my personal finale to the Madagascar saga, the third movie doesn’t exist.

Yes, it's a thing that happens!! It happens during the dam facility fight (which is... I wanna say chapter 4?? or somewhere around there??). The space is flooded with water and with BOWs so Leon, in true Leon fashion, makes a comment about him and Krauser holding hands... and then nearly drowns when he gets swept up in the current. Krauser managed to revive him mouth-to-mouth so we got homoerotic hand-holding jokes and an indirect kiss hehe.

Because based on the fact that Leon's all bloody and still in his RPD uniform, I'd assume the picture is a mugshot taken after he and Sherry were kidnapped by the government, meaning it's probably the photo attached to Leon's dossier that was given to Krauser when he started Leon's training.

Could Krauser perhaps give a little fishing rod treat to the government? Hunnigan said that their intell was correct....

Just a little theory... to get Leon there. Perhaps Krauser got to know that Leon was chosen bc of many known aspects and wanted to have him for himself. He even diy prepped the soldier warfare lol

Perchance

As funny as Krauser ragebaiting the gov would be, I think he was just an obsessive, bitter ex-boyfriend.

Assuming the lore about Krauser having faked his death following his discharge in 2002 is still at play from the original OJ, the gov might've known it was an inside job, but not Krauser specifically since he was "dead." And even if Krauser *did* ragebait them, there would be no way for Krauser to know Leon specifically would be the agent they sent. He still would've had to have had the picture of Leon from before Leon's arrival though, and if I'm right in thinking that pic is from Leon's dossier, that would imply Krauser held onto that for a minimum of 2 years.

The four agents are initially called to the White House because of a server breach and they’re basically asked to do detective work to figure out where it came from. Meaning, when Leon is called directly away from the BOW attack in Pennsylvania without a break or any medical attention, at that point it’s not even to fight BOWs. In fact there wasn’t a reason to suspect BOW activity or involvement of bioterrorism at all, right?

It makes sense if the agents were picked out by Wilson, since he planned the zombies and wanted them to shake up the president without actually harming him (and also not dying himself). So, preemptively call in the BOW guy and you know you’ll limit casualties. Totally checks out.

BUT what stands out to me is Leon wasn’t suspicious about him being suddenly jerked to DC directly off the back of another mission for fucking normal ass detective work AND THEN the BOWs becoming involved. As if that was a typical thing for them to do to him, not even letting him go to sleep first. That is some actually insane treatment. My poor baby.

Yes!!!! I've talked about this before but I think that was mainly back when the prequel comic came out so I am definitely down to ramble about this some more:

Interestingly enough, we actually get to see the PA bioterror attack mission in the Infinite Darkness: The Beginning comic. It's a canon prequel to the series and it ends with Leon getting into the helicopter where the animated series opens. This comic takes place in the 'Leon's no longer working under Krauser but the DSO hasn't been created yet so it's not exactly 100% clear who Leon works for outside of him just being an Agent for the government' section of the timeline but Leon is contacted by the FBI and told to get his ass to PA ASAP because, per the report from the bomb squad, Leon had previous experience with a BOW case that used a similar bomb so they wanted him to check things out. But the big thing to note here is that Leon's still wearing the same clothes he wore throughout that mission-- the suit we see him in at the start of ID.

Once Leon finally finishes the mission and "saves the day" he prefers to watch the conference from above rather than being part of it despite doing a lot of the leg work. He receives a call from someone in Washington telling him to get his ass there ASAP and Leon doesn't even get to finish his sentence. Leon says he'll catch the next flight back to DC but surprise, the helicopter they didn't even tell him was on the way is already arriving to pick him up (which is why Leon's kinda pissy in the show in the helicopter lol).

Leon being dragged around from mission to mission without time to so much as change his clothes, let alone eat or sleep, isn't out of the ordinary. He complains about it in Damnation too-- though I think that movie just really showcases how even though he's the DSO's It Girl, he's still treated like shit. But Leon is immediately suspicious of the China operation once he gets there. As soon as they get everyone down to the sub, there's this blink and you miss it moment where once everyone's turned away, he makes this very worried/apprehensive expression, and he outright says "why don't we just hack them back?" Why secretly send in agents to another country, something that could potentially provoke them and cause a much bigger incident (because keep in mind, they're not sending them via plane, this is a stealth mission)? To which Leon gets a less than satisfactory response. Now he knows something is off.