Dave

Dave is the main protagonist in the Animal Gang franchise. He is an Jack Russel Dog who was shortly raised in an African wildlife reserve, before being captured by poachers, and eventually end up being sent to the Pet Central Park, becoming one of the most popular exhibits in the zoo. He is the protagonist of the films, appears in a single special episode in The Fishes of Animal Gang, and as a cameo in All Hail King Otto.

Biography
Dave was the self-proclaimed king of the New York Pet Central Park.

Animal Gang
After Steve leaves the zoo in an effort to take a train to the wild, Dave, Bridgette and Simon pursue him and were all shot with tranquilizer darts by humans.

Animal Gang: Escape 2 California
Before Dave (whose birth name is revealed to be Alakay) encounters his parents, Zuba and Florrie who were overjoyed to see their son, he re-encounters Nana the old lady, and starts fighting but intentionally allows Nana to win so he could acquire her purse and use her cell phone to search for help. Zuba assumes that Alex is strong after hearing that he is the "King of New York" and arranges a rite of passage into the pride.

Animal Gang 3: Arizona's Most Wanted
On Dave's birthday in Africa, he and his friends decide that it is high time that they returned home to New York, as they are tired of waiting for the Penguins to return from their trip to Monte Carlo.

The Fishes of Animal Gang
Alex only appears in the special one-hour episode, "The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole", and only appears in Skipper's imagination as a spirit guide to aid him when he faces a loss of memory due to Dr. Blowhole's Mind Jacker. Alex helped Skipper on his journey to regain his memory, and return to New York to save the place from the evil hands of Dr. Blowhole.

All Hail King Otto
Alex only appeared in the final episode, "The End is Here", while King Julien and his people were celebrating Clover and Sage's wedding. He is shown being washed ashore by a crate, before spitting out sand as he got up. He then says "Where are we?" (instead of screaming in horror, like the scene when in the first film), as the series came to an end.

Animal Gang: A Little Pets
Alex is set to appear as a cub in Madagascar: A Little Wild along with Gloria, Marty and Melman.

Appearance
Alex is a brown and yellow lion with a glossy mane, which is usually shaped like a pentagon in most viewpoints, like the back or front, with a portion over his eyes extending outward. On certain angles, his mane looks more hexagonal because of this. Since the second film, he's had an Africa-shaped birthmark on his right hand. He also has blue eyes, just like his mother's. In most of the franchise, it is said that Alex has a soft fur and a silky mane.

His color varies as the animation progresses, in the first film his fur was darker and in the third film his fur is lighter.

Personality
Alex has the personality very similar to that of a celebrity because he became the star of the zoo at a very young age.

Alex loves the zoo and was surprised when he heard Marty's wish to leave and live in the wild. As the main attraction of the zoo, he is featured heavily on merchandise and gives an "Alex the Lion" snow globe and other merchandise to Marty for his birthday. He also shows an infatuation with steak, though later remarks that sushi tastes better.

In the first film, he was very scared when he discovered his predatory nature and did his best to isolate himself from others to protect them. Despite his pride and selfishness, Alex is very loyal to his other Zooster friends, especially Marty. Alex never loses the opportunity to show off and boast that he is a star, but sometimes some situations make him nervous, like when he tries to deal with the penguins or his attempts to flirt with Gia in the circus. He is also determined to fix things when he knows he spoiled them, like when he fights with Marty, or his attempt to re-fit into the lion's pride or to convince the Zoosters to return to the circus and apologize to everyone.

Alex is also very energetic, he is able to raise morale to everyone around him and also has good leadership skills, especially in the third film, when he even manages to lead a complete circus.

Marty
Alex and Marty are the best of friends and went through a lot together. They have had a few squabbles but they still remain as buddies.

When Alex arrived at the Zoo, Marty said he thought he was a kind of a show-off, however, they later grew up as best friends. They were both neighbors and liked to sing together. Alex did not support Marty's idea about escaping the zoo but was one of the first to be willing to get it back.

Despite the incident where Alex bit him, Marty decided to go to find Alex in the territory of the Fossas and said he would not leave Madagascar without him. He later Alex thanked him for not having abandoned him and later defended them all from the Fossas.

In the end, Marty asked for a toast to Alex, expressing that his heart is bigger than his stomach.

In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, they both had many conflicts. Alex had been sad for ruining the lives of his parents, did not realize that Marty also had his problems, and because of that he unintentionally said very hurtful things. When Alex decided to leave the reserve, he wanted to apologize to Marty before leaving. He managed to recognize him among all the zebras and both were reconciled, leaving the reserve together.

At the end of Madagascar 2, Alex says that seeing him in the eye, he would always know it would be him, although in reality, he recognized him by the scar on his butt.

In Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, Marty and the others made a New York City replica out of the mud for Alex on his birthday, and later decided to go find the Penguins at the casino in Monte Carlo. They had some discussions about who was the leader or who should drive the Penguins' car. On the circus train, however, when Vitaly asked who the leader was, Marty pointed to Alex.

When the group arrived at the zoo, Marty said they would not have to be sad if he had never run away, to which Alex denied, telling him that escape was the best thing that could have happened to them.

Gia
It has been expressed quite obviously that Alex has romantic feelings for Gia, although his beginnings are somewhat conflicting.

When Alex sees her for the first time, he was impressed. Gia, believing that they are from the circus lets them climb into the train when they were in danger. Inside the train, Gia is impressed when Alex says he knew how to do a trapeze.

After the Penguins bought the circus, the animals prepared to give their show. Alex quietly decides to listen to Gia while she rehearsed alone, before falling down through the partition as it was made of paper. Alex denies that he was spying on her when she asks him, and tries to flirt with her but fails. Gia finds it rather clumsy and says that no one has spoken of him since they arrived, assuring that everyone felt sorry for the new circus boss.

Both collide heads accidentally but then Alex sincerely thanks him for letting him get on the train, she seemed happy. However, when she saw how he imitated Vitaly was, she warned him not to do anything that would endanger the circus, because it meant everything for them.

Alex gets nervous and accidentally places his paw on one of the ropes of the circus tent that is untied and pulls it to the ceiling, then fall right into Gia's arms causing the other fabrics that kept them hidden to fall and both were shamefully discovered in front of the rest of the circus.

When the circus takes a break to recover from their last shameful act, Gia supports Alex in the idea of improving the circus, later asking him personally to teach him how to use the trapeze. He refuses at the beginning but then gives in.

Later they were both on a high platform, ready to practice trapeze. Alex says many things while nervously preparing to jump, Gia gives him a push and he ends up accidentally doing some tricks, in which Gia then copies, thinking it was part of the act. When Alex makes an erratic leap and was about to fall, Gia grabs him and both return to the platform where Alex holds her before she falls, staying close together while being surprised by the act he had practiced. They were later hit by Marty who was shot from his cannon, as they fell into a net. Alex and Gia look at each other, laughing as they bounced off the net.

In the next circus performance, Alex and Gia used pink paints combined. During the presentation, both give different jumps and tricks in the trapeze, many of them where one caught the other. Finally, both closed the presentation lacing together.

After the show, Gia throws herself to hug him excitedly and Alex holds her spinning, then takes her hand and turns her around, Gia expresses how excited she is that they are both trapeze cats and can travel all over the world.

Alex is sad because his plans to return to the zoo seem to change and he sees himself divided between the circus and back home. He tries to tell Gia that he might leave but they were interrupted by DuBois who reveals that Alex belongs to a zoo and that he was coming to take him away.

The penguins are responsible for throwing it out but Gia finds Alex's note and discovers in anguish that he never went to the circus, discovering with the others that everything was a lie. Alex tries to explain and Gia looks hurt when she learns that the Trapeze Americano was never real. The Zoosters were sad but Alex was still trying to talk to Gia but she said they had trusted him, then she walks away with the other circus animals.

Despite the deception, Gia and Stefano refused to go on stage without their partners. When they were informed that the Zoosters were captured, Gia was among the first to express that they should help them because they were their friends.

When DuBois shot Alex, Gia saved him just in time, and he was excited to see her. Both used the trapeze to reach the flying platform of the circus. When Stefano was in danger, Alex and Gia used the trapeze to save him, but Alex grabbed DuBois and left Gia holding Stefano, she worried when she saw them fly so high. Alex defeats DuBois and uses the thrusters to take Gia and reach the balloons, there they both share a loving look as they celebrate for having achieved it. Alex and his friends eventually join the circus as permanent members.

Zuba
When Alex was young, Zuba gave him lessons in hunting and fighting but was disappointed when he (the name given to him by his parents before losing him) preferred to dance. In one of his lessons, when Zuba is distracted to fight Makunga, Alakay was captured by the poachers, as his father tried to save him before getting shot in the ear by one of the hunters, causing him to fall off the truck, Alakay's box fell into the river and Zuba did not notice, going back to chasing the hunters.

Zuba spent weeks looking for Alakay out of the reserve until he reached a certain time where he assumed he would not return because the hunters had killed him. Zuba spent the last years blaming himself for the loss of his son.

When Alex and zoosters show up with the other animals from Africa, Zuba did not receive them well. On the other hand, Alex kept looking at him because his face was quite familiar, Zuba mistook Alex's words as a challenge to his alpha leadership and threatened him, but was stopped by his wife, Florrie, who immediately identified him as his son. Zuba and Florrie recognized him by the birthmark of his paw, thus finally recovering his lost son. Alex was very happy to know that he had parents. Alex told his parents that he was the "King of New York:, but they interpreted him as really being a true King. Zuba was very happy for the arrival of his son, he even introduced him to the pride, but Makunga said he could not be part until he passed the Rite of Passage hullabaloo.

At night, Zuba and Florrie show Alex, where he slept when he was a cub, they even told him how he had disappeared at that time. Zuba was still blaming himself for what happened but Florrie always reminded him that it was never his fault. His parents ended up encouraging him and wishing him good luck for the rite of the next day.

Unfortunately, Alex lost the rite because he believed that it was really a dance competition and not a fight. He and his family ended up being banished when Makunga took control. Alex was disappointed when his father told him that he was not a true lion.

Later, Florrie told Zuba that they should not lose their son a second time, in that, Makunga comes to tell Zuba that his son had gone out of the reserve to find out what had happened to the water before he ran to find him.

Zuba attempts to rescue Alex from the New York tourists but when they are surrounded. Upon realizing that they were from New York, Alex began to dance to let people know that he is Alex, the lion from the Central Park Zoo. Zuba finally ends up joining his son to dance. And they were later rescued by the other Zoosters and together destroyed the dam.

Later, they are both seen safely meeting the other animals. Zuba wanted his son to be the leader of the pride, but when he refused, he decided it would be for both.

After the penguins left, Zuba starts to joke with Alex and looks more excited, rather than before. He and Alex now share a better father-son relationship.

Florrie
Florrie loves her son, and she also felt devastated when she lost him, believing that the hunters had killed him. She was the first to recognize him when he saw him again, she said it was him when she saw the birthmark but she could actually recognize it when she saw his eyes.

Florrie has a really motherly character, she accepts her son as he is, even if he decides to dance and not to fight. It proved to be very encouraging when her son decided to do something, like when they introduced him to the pride, she was excited when they named him "King", or when Alex decided to do the rite and Zuba had to choose who would start first, but Florrie was too excited to encourage him, preventing Zuba from concentrating. She and Zuba still remember Alex's habits when he was young, even she let him keep his "foofie” even if Zuba did not want to, letting him be himself.

She has loving habits like kissing him in the forehead when he said "good night", showing that she really loves him. She is also overprotective and is often terrified of losing him again, as when Zuba told her he was not a real lion, she scolded him and told her not to lose him once again. She was worried when Makunga told them that he left the reserve, but he was relieved when he saw them both (Zuba and Alex) safe and sound. She and Zuba are still calling him by his birth name, "Alakay."

Melman
Alex and Melman are very good friends. If it were not for Melman who woke up to pee, Alex and Gloria would never have known that Marty disappeared. Both have their differences.

In Madagascar, Alex seemed to get angry when Melman used to be very nervous or worried about the number of diseases that could be spread, Alex was even bothered with him for having burned the lady liberty when they were stranded. Alex also tried to eat him along with the other animals when he showed his predatory attitude because of not eating for days.

In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Alex is aware of Melman's feelings towards Gloria, even tried to encourage him to tell them when he saw them fight, but seems to be glad that both are finally together.

In Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, Melman and the other Zoosters make a New York City in mud for Alex as a birthday present, then the four of them set off to find the penguins in the Monte Carlo casino, they had a little dispute over who would be leader and Melman argues that it could be him because he was a doctor.

Alex later saves Melman from DuBois by cutting the rope tied to the neck of the giraffe.

In Madly Madagascar, Alex and Marty distract Gloria so that Melman can plan her surprise for her, Alex even tries to prevent Gloria from using the love potion by arguing that she really does not need it and that she was not losing Melman.

Gloria
Alex and Gloria are very good friends, and she could be considered as an older sister to him. The Zoosters seem to be afraid of her size, she is often seen scolding the other Zoosters, as when she threatened Alex with hitting him if he did not talk to Marty to cheer him up, arguing that he is his best friend. She also encouraged Melman to leave the Zoo saying that Marty needed group therapy and that everyone should go look for him.

Gloria seems to be used to and tired of watching the Zoosters fight among them, and she often ends up as a mediator between Alex and Marty's fights. She stopped Alex so he would not grab Marty when they discovered they were stranded on the island.

Gloria also refused to leave Alex after they escaped him when he tried to eat them, but she also did not let Marty go just because Alex was still too dangerous for them.

In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Alex was aware of Melman's feelings towards Gloria, and he even encouraged the giraffe to tell her when he saw them fight. At the end of the movie, Alex is happy because they were both finally together.

In Madly Madagascar, Alex and Marty distracted Gloria so that she does not discover the surprise that Melman had prepared for her. Alex even tried to convince Gloria not to get involved in Julien's potion, arguing that she did not need it and that she was not really losing Melman.

In Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, Gloria was still enduring the fights between Alex and Marty and was even tired of the situation. She tried to direct them but the glass window under her feet gave way.

The Lemurs
At first, Alex and the others thought that King Julien and the lemurs were weirdos. But soon they came to befriend the lemurs and even drive away the Fossa for them. They still think they're a bit odd, however.

At the end of Madagascar, King Julien gave his crown to Alex as a sign of how grateful he was because he had thrown the Fossas. Alex still believes that King Julien is a bit irritating. When King Julien announced that he would go with them to New York, Alex was one of the first to refuse but King Julien argued that he would go the same way because it was his plane.

Skipper
Alex seems to get along with the penguins, but even so, he does not seem to understand them at all. He calls them psychotic and has had some disagreements with Skipper, several of which were about the crashed plane. Skipper is also tough when dealing with Alex, he possibly finds him as one of the most annoying Zoosters although he recognizes his leadership in the group and often addresses him when they must make a decision.

In Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, Skipper and the other penguins warned Alex if they saw DuBois, but they also pretended to be offended when the group was discovered by the circus, although it was mostly to blend in and stay with the other circus animals.

In the episode of The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole, Alex was presented in the imagination of Skipper as a spiritual guide.

Skipper was at first really annoyed by Alex, and he even imagined him to be gone so he would disappear from his mind.

At the end of the episode, however, Skipper understands why his conscience chose Alex and he sees them both with a good friendship.

Vitaly
At first, Vitaly didn’t trust Alex because he was a total stranger and wanted to change the circus. When Vitaly tried to quit, Alex convinced the tiger not to give up on his friends and try his act again. He then used a hair conditioner on Vitaly, which successfully caused him to nail his act. Since then, the two have become great friends and Vitaly was the one who convinced the other circus animals to save him and the gang from DuBois.

Stefano
Stefano really admires Alex because of how amazing and talented he is. When Stefano explains to the lion why the circus went downhill, Alex decides to help improve the circus and save everyone’s jobs.

Physical Strength
Alex seems to be fairly strong, but the fact that Alex loses the challenge in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and is kicked in the crotch by Nana in Madagascar gives the impression that he is weak; although this is not true, because he reveals right after that he let her win in order to get her purse.

Indeed, even for a lion, Alex is shown to be unusually strong, such as when he broke the zoo's public telephone, and lifted Melman, Marty and Gloria (a being whose weight is more than enough to break apart a thick concrete wall) all at once almost effortlessly. He also defeated many fossa almost single-handedly.

However, he lacks hunting and fighting skills due to his tamed upbringing in the zoo.

Great Agility
Alex is also very agile, running on four legs and able to reach a moving jeep. (Though weighing an unusual 250 KG or 550 lbs, according to DuBois). He is also good at jumping as he took a great leap on the moving train, making him an incredible trapeze artist. Alex and Gia could be considered the most agile animals in the circus, both were able to take a great turn together from the trapeze to the flying platform of the circus on the Zoo. Alex's agility may be due to his fascination with dancing since he was young, which is demonstrated when he danced with his father in Africa.