The penguins were enjoying their quiet Saturday morning. Skipper was reading the paper, Kowalski was coming up with a new invention, Private was coloring, and Rico was slicing watermelons with his large knives.
"King Julien won't be bothering us today. I got the gorillas as our new security guards," Skipper said looking up from his newspaper.
Just then, King Julien burst into the penguins' secret hideout. King Julien was their lemur neighbor in Central Park Zoo. He thought that everyone loved him and wanted to serve him. He was a self-proclaimed "king".
"Hello, neighbors!" King Julien said, "I bribed the gorillas. Oh, I see Rico has some large knives. Maybe I can borrow one," he said as he reached toward a knife.
Rico pulled the knife back and swallowed it. Rico could swallow anything from a bomb to a pair of shoes. No one knew how he did it or how he was able to puke it back up anytime he wanted to.
"Julien, what do you want here?" Skipper asked. Skipper was clearly not happy to see his lemur neighbor. He was also pretty angry the gorillas were bribed so easily.
"I was just coming over to tell you that I have come up with a plan to escape this dump and go back to the wild!" he said as he danced around the room.
Skipper was not convinced the King Julien could actually come up with a working plan to escape the zoo.
'Well," he said jokingly, "let's see this 'escape plan'".
King Julien looked very proud of himself. He puffed up his chest and said, "I will be right back with my escape plan."
He marched out of their secret hideout and toward the lemur habitat.
Skipper went back to reading the paper. Private sat up from his coloring paper.
"Skipper," he said in his British accent, "You don't think that King Julien might actually have a real escape plan?"
Skipper almost fell out of his chair because he was so shocked.
"Private, there is no possible way that brain dead lemur could have done anything like that."
Private shrugged and went back to his coloring. Kowalski looked up from his experiment.
"King Julien might actually have a good escape plan," he said, "but we'll just have to see."
Mort and Maurice, King Julien's lemur subjects, fell into the hideout. King Julien came right after them.
"I like King Julien's plan!" Mort said in his high pitched voice.
Mort was a small Goodman's mouse lemur. Maurice was a chubby aye-aye lemur. Mort was happy to serve king Julien but Maurice was reluctant.
King Julien handed a paper to Skipper. Skipper looked over it and, surprisingly, found that it was a great plan. Skipper and King Julien gathered the things they needed and soon the lemurs and the penguins were on their way to Grand Central Station.
King Julien's plan was to take a train in Grand Central Station up to Connecticut. There they would find the wild. The animals were tired of being treated horribly by the zoo so they wanted to be free.
On the train some people noticed that not all of the passengers were human. Three lemurs and four penguins were sitting on the train. Children giggled while parents thought they were seeing things.
Soon, the animals made it to the wild. Everywhere they looked they saw wide open spaces. Trees dotted the horizon. A smell of wildflowers floated through the air.
"Oh, look, Maurice!" King Julien shouted, "This is the most beautifulest thing I have ever laid eyes on! Well, other than myself, of course."
Every animal was soon building his settlement. By the end of the day there were 7 huts all in a circle. Each hut was made from sticks found around the trees.
They loved life in the wilderness. No bossy zookeepers, no loud people, and no New York City. However, soon they started to realize other things were missing, too.
"My lychee nuts! Where are my lychee nuts?" King Julien shrieked.
They all begin missing the things they got so easily in the zoo. They missed their friends and the things they left behind.
In the next few hours, Rico's knives were dull, King Julien's crown was cracked, and Private's crayons were melted. They were all hungry. None of the foods they liked were in sight.
"Meeting everyone!" Skipper shouted.
Soon, the animals were gathered around Skipper as he said how much he wanted to go home. Everyone agreed that it was best that they went home.
Mort and Maurice, commanded by King Julien, climbed up a tree to look for the train station. Maurice was first to spot the station.
"There is a path up ahead," He pointed to his right, "that we can take to get to the station.
They walked up the path and found themselves at the station. They were able to sneak on in someone's suitcase. They found it too crowed and split into separate cases.
It took 4 hours to get back to Central Park Zoo. When they got there they tried to sneak back without anyone noticing.
Kowalski ran to his science lab, Private to his coloring corner, and Rico to his knives, bombs, and rockets. Skipper stayed behind to lecture King Julien about escape plans.
"Ringtail," he said using the name he gave King Julien when he is angry, "the next time you come up with an escape plan, just throw it away."