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Madagascar: A Little Wild character Odee the non-binary okapi is voiced by non-binary Broadway star Ezra Menas. (YouTube/ DreamWorks)
The animated children’s TV series
Madagascar: A Little Wild will feature its first non-binary character, Odee the okapi, in a Pride-themed episode.
The third episode of the TV show’s third season, titled “Whatever Floats Your Float”, sees the animals at Central Park Zoo prepare for the big Animal Pride Parade.
But when Odee the okapi is introduced, zebra Marty can’t figure out which float they should ride on as they look like both a giraffe and a zebra.
From DreamWorks Animation,
Madagascar: A Little Wild is kicking off Pride Month with a Pride-themed episode and brand new original song “Be Proud!”, featured among the series’ newest episodes premiering on Peacock and Hulu on May 27. The episode and colorful anthem features new habitat resident and nonbinary character “Odee Elliot” the Okapi and is voiced by nonbinary actor Ezra Menas (Spielberg’s
West Side Story, Broadway’s
Jagged Little Pill, pronouns: zie/hir/they).
“If I would have seen this when I was a kid, I don’t even know what I would’ve done,” Menas said in a statement. “This kind of acceptance and love and celebration, I think, is the biggest takeaway from this episode. It’s just a beautiful thing. Makes me cry.”
Founder of Animals 360, Roger Marshall says the solution for the rampant stray dog and cat problem in Trinidad and Tobago is to have them spayed and neutered.
Why? The fact remains that there are more pets than there are responsible homes for them, he said.
The overpopulation of dogs and cats is so severe it will take a more âhands-onâ approach to combat the problem, Marshall said.
âA lot of people in the past have focused on shelters and carrying the animals to shelters. While there are many shelters in Trinidad that do good work, it doesnât solve the problem,â he said.