Marlene (Madagascar)

Marlene is a major protagonist in The Penguins of Madagascar. She was most likely created to give the TV series a major female character since all the penguins and lemurs (and most of the other animals) are male.
Marlene is an Asian otter and lives in her own habitat in the Central Park Zoo. She is a friend of the penguins, but is mostly neutral when it comes to the conflicts between the penguins and the lemurs.
Marlene is usually the first one the penguins go to when a five man team is needed. When a six man team is needed, she and Maurice are usually called. Marlene mostly visits the Penguin Habitat.
Her level-headed attitude always seems to clash with Skipper's paranoia, but that does not stop the two from being good friends.
She is voiced by Nicole Sullivan who also voices Shego from Kim Possible, Drew Saturday from The Secret Saturdays, Mira Nova in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Franny Robinson from Meet the Robinsons, and Supergirl from Dc Superhero Girls (2019).
==Biography==
===Past===
It was revealed in "Otter Gone Wild" that Marlene was born and raised in captivity and when she is taken out of the zoo or is outside she goes quite feral (literally).
She won three trophies in a zoo contest, as revealed in "Tangled in the Web" before being kicked out of the competition due to some sort of "scandal". She was later transferred to the Central Park Zoo.
===The Penguins of Madagascar===
*Haunted Habitat: First appearance of Marlene (And probably her first meeting with the Penguins). When she suddenly cries out in terror, the penguins come to investigate despite Marlene's claims that it is nothing. Skipper and Marlene later fall into the sewers where he discovers that the creature uttering the screams that scares Marlene is just an alligator frightened by Marlene's snoring named Roger.
*Tangled in the Web: Marlene explains to her fellow zoo mates that the cameras are only there so humans can vote for their favorite animal. Later, Julien comes to beg her to help him become popular, which Marlene accepts more because she finds the lemur pathetic. She then sets up a special effects show with Julian as the lead star until some mishandling by Maurice causes everything to fall apart. In the end, she and Julian are outraged that Alice has been voted Most Popular.
*Crown Fools: She claims that Skipper can't have fun, which leads the penguins to accidentally drop Julien's crown into the sewers. While the penguins go to retrieve the crown, Marlene tries to cheer Julien up by replacing her crown with another. Late in the evening, the penguins finally return with the original crown, only for Julien to immediately replace it with his spare crown when he notices a tiny stain on it, which makes Marlene so angry over wasting a day comforting Julien for nothing that she takes Rico's crowbar and starts chasing the stubborn lemur.
*Otter Things Have Happened: Kowalski tests his Lovulator 3000 that appears to show Fred as Marlene's "perfect match". The two date for a while, until Fred gets captured by the lemurs to fight King Julien XIII for Marlene's heart. She calls the penguins for help, but it turns out Fred didn't need saving, as Julien hurt himself trying to attack him. Later, the two broke up due to Fred misunderstanding Marlene and not actually being in love with her, and it was revealed that Marlene's real perfect match was a male otter named Antonio, who she never got to meet.
*Miss Understanding: Marlene tells Skipper that being a girl is whatever he liked doing as a guy. At the end, Skipper is revealed to be male, and hugs Marlene, although accidentally makes her angry by an insensitive comment.
*Otter Gone Wild: Marlene joins the penguins to go for ice cream in the park, which frightens her since she had never been outside the zoo. At first in awe of nature, Marlene slowly begins to let her wild instincts take over and she not only grows wild but also physically more monstrous. Marlene fell in love with Julien when she turned wild. At the end, Julien accepted to be with Marlene, but she didn't remember anything outside the zoo as soon as she returns to normal in the entrance of the zoo.
*Badger Pride: Marlene befriends with two badgers named Stacy and Becky by wanting to help Private overcome his fear of badgers but after being annoyed by their overdone nightly games, Marlene unwittingly provokes the two females who take to the hunt throughout the zoo until they end up in the park, allowing a wild Marlene to subdue the two badgers.
*The Otter Woman: Marlene's fur is turned white by an excess of chlorine in her water, and all four penguins (Kowalski did some research) and King Julien fall for her, believing her to be a white arctic mink called Arlene.
*Littlefoot: Marlene wants to see a Spanish guitar concert in the park, leaving Kowalski to use one of his latest inventions to separate Marlene from her wild side. Unfortunately, this makes Marlene absurdly fearful and turns into the physically real wild side which then sagges the town and then gets the nickname "Littlefoot". At the end of the episode, Marlene and "Littlefoot" are merged and since then, Marlene can fully control her wild side.
*Snowmageddon: When Rico devours all the snacks planned for a football game in TV, Marlene accompanies Skipper to the grocery store but they find themselves both trapped inside by the sudden cold snap hitting New York and confronted by the now grocer Officer X. Despite the challenge X poses to them, the duo manage to beat the former animal control officer.
==Personality==
Marlene is beautiful, funny, level-headed, and acts as a voice of reason, but she can also be extremely sarcastic (which is usually taken by Skipper as her being serious). She's frequently irritated by Skipper's blatant sexism that women are weak and no good at anything aggressive. She believes that Skipper's far too paranoid. Sometimes, she's proven right and other times, she's proven wrong. On the other hand, sometimes, Marlene is the one who prompts the penguins to take action. Whenever new animals arrive at the Central Park Zoo, she, like Private, welcomes them with open arms, encouraging friendly behavior. Her tolerance for others can often have a limit, such as when she got annoyed by Rhonda the Walrus's rudeness, when she tried to beat Julian with a crowbar after he wasted a day for nothing or when she couldn't take Becky and Stacy's insane excitement anymore to the point of shout at them to stop "badgering" her.
Despite Marlene usually being sensible, she dreams of having somebody play Spanish guitar music to her (in "Monkey Love," "The Lost Treasure of the Golden Squirrel," "Wishful Thinking," and "Otter Things Have Happened") and she can also be rather vain and attention-seeking of humans, as in "Tangled in the Web" and "The Penguin Stays In the Picture," but they don't notice her.
She can be a little bit gabby and can usually babble the unthinkable, and in a result, getting her mouth covered.
As of that, she got her mouth covered by Skipper in "Paternal Egg-Stinct" when he sensed something and silenced her and in "Work Order" when Skipper quickly covered her mouth before she said anymore of the penguins' HQ.
In "Truth Ache," she was shown to secretly want to be a pop sensation, that she performed imaginary concerts.
Marlene always becomes wild and feral as soon as she's outside the zoo walls (but she seems fine inside the sewers or on the port). However, on occasion, this has been forgotten. Since the event of "Littlefoot", This has not happened anymore.
She also seems to have a major love for candy, as evidenced in "Happy King Julien Day!" and "King Julien for a Day" She also craves popcorn, as shown in "Popcorn Panic."
When her pool had too much chlorine, she jumped in and came back up with her fur bleached. This leaves her friends to think that she's a rare arctic mink named Arlene. Her personality has not changed, but she was a little angry when no one listened to her. King Julien says she is a gabby one (as explained above). Later, Marlene was brought to the vet and her fur was dyed back to its original color.
==Quotes==
==Gallery==
Wild-Marlene-penguins-of-madagascar-23309704-628-399.png|Marlne's wild side.
Marlene Badgers.jpg|Marlene becomes friends with Becky and Stacy.
Marlene Badgers KO.jpg
File:Two Marlene.jpg|Marlene face to face with her wild counterpart.
Marlene Mort.jpg|"I’m an otter, not a miracle worker."
Marlene Normal.jpg|Marlene not remembering going wild.
Marlene Smashed.jpg|Marlene after being trampled by Rhonda.
Marlene Rhonda.jpg|Marlene used as a handkerchief by Rhonda.
Marlene Angry.jpg|Marlene furiously demands that the Penguins get rid of Rhonda.
Marlene Scare.jpg
Marlene Scream.jpg|Marlene screams in fear after getting woken up.
Marlene Sweet.jpg
Marlene Ivy.jpg
Marlene Lice.jpg
Marlene Embarrassed.jpg|Marlene uncomfortable realizing she has spilled poison ivy.
Marlene Kowalski.jpg|"Arlene", Marlene with her fur bleached.
Marlene-s-just-hanging-marlene-the-otter-16097413-632-429.jpg
==Trivia==
*Marlene has a white right foot as a distinctive sign.
*She had her own plush toy series sold in the zoo gift shop until they were recalled due to a flaw.
*Curiously, whenever Marlene goes wild the transformation is not immediate but when she returns to normal and returns out of the zoo, she goes straight wild.
*In Badger Pride, Marlene is referred to by Becky and Stacy as "cousin" due to badgers and otters belonging to the same mustelid family.
*Snowmageddon is the first episode where Marlene comes out of the zoo without turning wild once, although she was previously taken out of it by the Rat King in The Lost Treasure of the Golden Squirrel and didn't go wild either.
==External Links==
*Marlene's feral form in Villains Wiki
==Navigation==
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