While Disney and Pixar are typically synonymous with the most popular animated films of the past 30 years, DreamWorks Animation can’t be far behind. The studio behind Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon, and Kung Fu Panda has created some wildly beloved franchises over the years. Many of those franchises have continued that popularity in the era of streaming, with past DreamWorks films consistently turning into big hits whenever they’re added to new services.
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At the start of October, Hulu got a DreamWorks Animation boost by adding all three of the original Madagascar movies to its lineup. Madagascar (2005), Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008), and Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (2012) are finally available to stream on the same service, allowing subscribers to binge through the entire trilogy at one place.
Unfortunately, while the original Madagascar trilogy is on Hulu, it wouldn’t be fair to say that the streaming service houses the entire franchise. Hulu is still missing Penguins of Madagascar, the spinoff movie that was released in 2014. That entry, which ditches the core group of escaped zoo animals and instead follows the secret agents crew of penguins on a mission to save the planet, was the least successful movie in the franchise by a large margin. However, it has held up well over time and stands to many as the strongest (and outright funniest) film in the series.
What’s Next for Madagascar?
The three Madagascar movies were massive successes for DreamWorks, delivering bigger financial wins with each film and earning nearly $2 billion at the box office. Penguins of Madagascar hit theaters in 2014 and failed to match the success of the core trilogy, making only $373 million globally.
A fourth Madagascar movie had been announced prior to Penguins debuting in theaters, but the poor performance of Penguins and the 2015 restructuring of DreamWorks animation caused the studio to put the next film on hold. In the decade since, there has been no real update on Madagascar 4, leaving fans to wonder if the animal franchise really is done for good.
But in this day and age, is any successful franchise ever really finished? After all, DreamWorks just delivered a live-action version of How to Train Your Dragon and has the long-awaited Shrek 5 on the way. It would honestly be more surprising if the studio didn’t return to Madagascar at some point, given just how great the three core titles performed in theaters.
There’s also the possibility that DreamWorks is too busy focusing on other franchises at the moment, and that Madagascar will continue to sit on the back burner for some time. Until there’s any kind of official announcement from the studio, it’s tough to tell exactly where the franchise will go from here.
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