Mordecai (commonly known as Mort) is a supporting character in DreamWorks' Madagascar franchise, and the tritagonist of the DreamWorks•Netflix's spin-off series, All Hail King Julien. He is a naïve, and annoying Goodman's mouse lemur on the surface (although 60% of his genetic makeup consist of numerous non-lemur entities, such as bears, starfish, spiders, sawdust and woodchips). Despite his overtly cute and childlike appearance, Mort's age has been a recurring enigma throughout the franchise, although the All Hail King Julien episode "Fast Food Lemur Nation" reveals he is at least 50 years old;[1] later episodes of the series likewise reveal that he is old enough to have had 12 ex-wives (most of whom had died of old age by the franchise's timeframe), to be represented in a questionably accurate, but pretty old history book on the Kingdom of Madagascar.
Mort deeply loves King Julien's feet to the point of obsession, which began when he witnessed King Julien utilizing them to defend him by kicking some foosas in the first episode of All Hail King Julien. Mort's love for Julien's feet is so extreme, in fact, that, while sleeping, he can rip down a tree to get to them, as seen in "Two Feet High and Rising." Nonetheless, King Julien does not reciprocate Mort's deeply-rooted affections and is often disturbed by and dismissive of the mouse lemur touching or embracing his feet, usually opting to kick him away as a deterrent.
Protected by a permanent "force field" of ignorance, Mort is incapable of feeling pain, one of many probable causes of his extremely long life and unmatched ability to survive dangerous situations. Although Mort's claim that he hates drowning (as seen in "Assault and Batteries") ostensibly implies that he is not completely incapable of fearing injury or death, his statement may refer to a dislike of watching other air-breathing creatures drown rather than a personally-centered fear, given that his possession of gills and ability to drink entire oceans in under 15 seconds (as revealed in separate episodes of All Hail King Julien) indicate that drowning is highly unlikely to endanger Mort himself. He laughs hysterically a lot (in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, while being chased by a shark and laughing crazily, while at the same time, he says "Why am I laughing?!?"). He likes things even if he doesn't know what they are. He says "I like [fill in]!". (i.e. In "Tangled in the Web," he says "I like computers!" despite not having a clue as to what a computer is, and claims "I don't have to know to like"). And his favorite color is blue.
Smart MortIn All Hail King Julien: Exiled, it is revealed that morts are a species that can absorb the souls of other morts across the multiverse and accommodate them within their minds. In addition to countless parallel morts, Mort has also absorbed the souls of his own grandmother and grandfather, who continue to live on inside the infinite confines of his mind. As all of these other morts seems to maintain independent consciousness, Mort often draws on them for advice, sometimes allowing one of them to possess him and assume control over his external actions and personality as a kind of "persona". On occasion, consuming external substances may cause specific personas to monopolize Mort's behavior: two alternate versions of the character, Smart Mort, and later “Groovy 60's cult leader” Mort (also known as Hippie Mort) are unlocked when Mort consumes coffee (AKA Brown Julien) and tea (AKA Golden Julien) as revealed in One More Cup and its sequel episode. Smart Mort is an intelligent character, while “Groovy 60's cult leader”/Hippie Mort is a peaceful character.
Mort is at least culturally Jewish; Karl-Mageddon reveals that he grew up receiving Hanukkah presents from his grandfather, Grandpa Mort. He expresses enthusiasm for Hanukkah pencils.
