The film follows the after hours escapades of a group of animals from the New York Zoo... (ahem, which doesn't sound familiar at all). After all the visitors and staff leave, the animals come out and engage in all kinds of strange mayhem--elephants playing turtle curling and other acts of mayhem. However when Ryan, a teenage lion cub, harmlessly chases some gazelles, he gets into a fight with his father, Samson. Ryan goes off and sulks in a crate, unware that it's marked 'Return to the Wild'. Thus Ryan gets himself shipped off to Africa leaving Samson and a ragtag group from the zoo rescue him. Samson's backup includes a giraffe named Bridget, an anaconda with an undersized brain, a squirrel with a huge crush on Bridget and a koala who hates being called cute.