All Hail King Julien

All Hail King Julien, centered around three of the lemurs Julien, Maurice and Mort on their adventures around Madagascar, became the third TV series from DreamWorks Animation and on Netflix after Turbo F.A.S.T. and Veggietales in the House before The Adventures of Puss in Boots in 2015. Since the show still has it's fan base after it ended, I really agree with them that this is a really solid prequel to the Madagascar franchise.

Not only does it deliver on the characterization and complexity of Julien and his antics that we know and love, but his interactions with Maurice, Mort, and everyone else in Madagascar including Clover, who steals the show due to her combination of bad*** and funny, along with his determination to protect the throne from his evil Uncle King Julien. Speaking of which, the villains are interesting, especially Karl, who is by far one of the best characters in the entire show due to his rivalry with Julien. Dwight Schultz, known for his roles in The A-Team, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: First Contact, and Ben 10 as Dr. Animo, did a great job providing a mixture of evil and funny to the character. Also, it provided some social commentary on important topics including coffee addiction, social media, election votes, modern music, and more and they all work without feeling heavy-handed.

Everything else is neat too. The music score is nice, the comedy is well-done thanks to the line-delivery of Danny Jacobs, who did a great job impersonating Sacha Baron Cohan's voice from the movies, and the rest of the cast members including Andy Richter who returned to voice Mort from the movies. And last but not least, the animation and by golly is it gorgeous. The backgrounds, the movements, the expressions, and the cartoony-ness. Oh, and the characters are likeable especially Julien, Maurice, Mort, and Clover.

If there's one nitpick that I do have with this show is that it did started out a little bit childish in the first couple of seasons until the rest of the show got better. That's all I have to say, though.

Overall, as a prequel to one of DreamWorks' Animation's successful franchises, All Hail King Julien is definitely the exact Netflix show that everyone else should check out. It's funny, it's clever, and it's really worth your time. Recommended! :)