There is a scene when the lemurs are showing a book called "To Serve Lemur". This is similar to one of the classic episodes of The Twilight Zone, "To Serve Man" when the "aliens" allegedly come in peace but actually want to eat the people of earth.

In the scene where Marty the Zebra is building his shelter, Alex gets jealous and looks to a basketball with a handprint face with grass for hair and says, "Shut up, Spalding". This is a reference to the film Cast Away, in which Tom Hanks' character, Chuck Noland, starts talking to a Wilson volleyball and gives it the name "Wilson."

Since the names of American football teams were not as widely know in Hungary, the Hungarian version of the DVD refers to Alex and company as the "Gangs Of New York" as opposed to the NY Giants.

The movie references the novel "The Lord of the Flies" several times: They land on an island and quickly split into two groups. One wants to signal for help, and the other wants to stay on the island. A line is drawn between the two sides. The dead parachuter in the trees is the directly-channeled "beastie" in the book. Maurice assumes the floor in the meeting by blowing the conch shell.

When Phil the monkey signs the words "ship to wildlife preserve kenya," he is actually signing "tell the stupid bird it says" because when they had a girl come in to sign for them, they thought that was enough.

In the German translation, the chimps go to hear (and throw poo at) Hillary Clinton.

When Alex (voiced by Ben Stiller) is taking pictures for the crowd in the beginning he strikes the famous "blue steel" pose from another one of Ben Stiller's movies, "Zoolander".