Netflix’s animation offerings outside of Bojack Horseman, which isn’t for children, have been rather disappointing until this offshoot of Madagascar started last year. King Julien stole both the movie and the Penguins show with his devil-may-care attitude mixed with equal parts of general narcissism.
Hail takes place sometime before he met the zoo animals, or maybe he and his friends got returned. Does it matter? The first season kicks off with Julien inheriting the throne from his cunning uncle King Julien XII (Henry Winkler) who’s trying to outwit a prophecy that will kill the wearer of the crown. Obviously it doesn’t work this way and the lemurs in the kingdom prefer the rather irreverent King Julien XIII.
The remainder of the show entails Julien’s crazy, temporary obsessions over coffee (Brown Julien), diapers, Clover’s evil twin Crimson, having a brother, etc. It’s not always about him, the supporting characters get their turns to force Julien to stop thinking about himself…for maybe a minute. The second and fourth seasons end of cliffhangers.
You get to learn about the island’s other residents: big rats, foosa/fossa (lemur predators), crocodiles, aye ayes (related to lemurs), tenrecs, geckos, fanaloka and butterflies. It’s kind of a mini-lesson about the African island.
The numerous supporting characters in the cast add to the hilarity: Maurice, Mort, Clover (the bodyguard), Xixi (a TMZ-like toucan), Masikura (the chameleon prophetess) and other lemurs you see on a regular basis with the personality quirks. My favorite is Horst and his obsession with his drinks. They’ve also had some interesting guest voices: Lance Henrikson, H Jon Benjamin and the always clever David Koechner.
I highly recommend the show because it’s equally entertaining for kids and adults alike, with the latter, there are elements we’ll get as it shoots over the kids’ heads.