Chris Rock Talks 'Merry Madagascar'

Tonight on NBC at 8PM, Dreamworks present another Christmas special in the vein of 2007’s success, “Shrek the Halls”. This time, it will be the animals from Madagascar that will usher in the holiday season with “Merry Madagascar.”

Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman find themselves working hard to deliver toys once Santa Claus crash lands on their island and develops amnesia. Besides pleasing some anticipating kids, they set there eyes on using Santa’s sleight to return to New York (but don’t bet on that one, because there’s a Madagascar 3 in the works with a rumored plot to return to Central Park).

Last week, we hopped on a conference call with Chris Rock, voice of Marty.

So it seems like nowadays a lot more adult content comedians are jumping into family projects. What for you is the appeal in doing a crossover like this?

Chris Rock: I mean, well I’m obviously already in, you know, with DreamWorks and Jeffrey and all that. I just want to work with the people. They do really good stuff. Kind of gets you with a younger, I mean, you know, you get some of that Hannah Montana money. So, you know, you get in with the kids and that definitely can’t hurt.

Are there certain holiday traditions that you have or particular shows that you like to watch this time of year?

I like the Grinch that Stole Christmas and I like the Charlie Brown Christmas thing.

With the films and even with the special, is there much room for you guys to ad-lib or do you pretty much just to stick to a script?

Chris Rock: Oh no they hire you to ad-lib. Why would you hire me to not ad-lib, you know? You know, Don Cheadle is a much better actor than me. I might be able to ad-lib a joke a little better. Chris Rock: I like the Grinch that Stole Christmas and I like the Charlie Brown Christmas thing.

So what keeps you coming back to this particular franchise [for the Madagascar series]?

Chris Rock: Money. No, no they’re good, I mean, you know, as you get - you realize as you get longer in this business it’s like the only thing that keeps you working is, you know, doing good stuff. You know, I mean the box office is great too but if people don’t like what you do the moment the box office isn’t fair that they don’t want to work with you anymore.

So I try to align myself with as many good things as possible even if, you know, even if I’m not starring, even if, you know, it always works out. It always works out for the best when you do something good.

Now does having kids of your own have anything to do with it?

Chris Rock: It’s weird, I started the first Madagascar, me and Ben, start the first Madagascar with no kids. You know, we didn’t have kids when the movie started. And I don’t even think we were even thinking about kids to tell you the truth the couple times we were in the studio together. You know, cut to the movie comes out we both have kids, cut to movie, you know, Madagascar 2, he’s got three and I’ve got two or what ever, you know, it just turns out that way.