What animal is Mort from the Madagascar movies? Madagascar is one of DreamWorks’ most successful animated franchises and to date has produced three movies, one spin-off film, three TV shows, a handful of shorts and a series of video games. The three main movies in the franchise – Madagascar (2005), Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) and Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (2012) – follow the adventures of a quartet of animals from Central Park Zoo after they’re released from captivity.
The main Madagascar characters are voiced by an all-star cast which includes Ben Stiller as Alex the lion, Chris Rock as a zebra named Marty, David Schwimmer as Melman the giraffe and Jada Pinkett Smith as hippopotamus Gloria. A whole host of cute and funny critters make up the minor Madagascar characters too, including a pair of chimpanzees named Mason (Conrad Vernon) and Phil (an unvoiced character) and four Adélie penguins named Skipper (Tom McGrath), Rico (John DiMaggio), Private (Christopher Knights) and Kowalski (Chris Miller) – the latter of which inspired the popular “Kowalski Analysis” meme.
One of the most popular minor/supporting characters to emerge from the Madagascar movies is Mort. Voiced by Andy Richter, Mort was introduced in the first Madagascar alongside his pals King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen) and Maurice (Cedric the Entertainer) when Alex the lion and company find themselves shipwrecked on the titular island. He accompanied the main Madagascar characters on their adventures to continental Africa and Europe in the sequels too, but what kind of animal is Mort?
According to DreamWorks, Mort is a lemur – a Goodman’s mouse lemur to be precise, which is one of the smallest primates on the planet. He’s not the only lemur character in the Madagascar franchise either; his pals King Julien and Maurice are lemurs too, more specifically a ring-tailed lemur and an aye-aye, respectively. Although Mort was a relatively minor character in the Madagascar movies, he and his fellow lemurs played bigger roles in the franchise’s animated TV shows The Penguins of Madagascar and All Hail King Julien – the latter of which introduced many other lemur characters including a crowned lemur named Clover voiced by India de Beaufort and Horst, a blue-eyed black lemur voiced by Jeff Bennett.
All Hail King Julien may have finished its five-season run a few years ago but with a bit of luck, Madagascar fans could be seeing more of Mort in future franchise offerings. A fourth main movie in the Madagascar franchise has been in the works since 2014 and while it’s taken a backseat in recent years, there’s still hope it’ll go into production in the not-too-distant future.
