King Julien (Madagascar and All Hail King Julien)

King Julien “You can be anything you want if you dream hard enough!” Gender: Male Type: Ridiculous yet Lovable Comic-Relief Age: 20s Species: Ring-tailed Lemur (Lemur catta) Portrayed by: Sacha Baron Cohen Status: Alive Media of origin: 'Madagascar'

"🎵I like to move it, move it,
I like to move it, move it
I like to move it, move it🎵
We like to? *move it!*"

— King Julien, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

King Julien XIII, formerly known as Prince Julien, but otherwise known as King Julien, is one of the main characters in the Madagascar franchise. He is the main protagonist of All Hail King Julien, the deuteragonist of The Penguins of Madagascar, and a supporting character in the films.

He is the King of the Kingdom of Madagascar, ruling the lemur kingdom since his uncle, King Julien XII abdicated in King Me. In the films, King Julien abdicated his throne to join the Zoosters on their way back to New York when they ended up landing in Africa instead, as of the third Madagascar movie, he retires from being a king for his lover, Sonya. In his own spin-off, All Hail King Julien, he now continues to reside in the Kingdom of Madagascar.

Why He Likes To Move It Move It

1. He contributes to the franchise's funniest moments ever since his first appearance in Madagascar.
2. Sacha Baron Cohen does a brilliant job voicing him. Danny Jacobs also does a wonderful job in the video games, The Penguins of Madagascar (despite Julien's flanderization in the series) and All Hail King Julien, sounding nearly identical to Cohen.
3. He is by far, the most eccentric, goofy, playful, cheerful, fun-loving, and comedically expressive character in the series alongside the Penguins. This gives him a lot of personality to his character that'd make him fascinating yet enjoyable to watch.
4. His levels of sarcasm, enthusiasm, and sassiness are very entertaining and hilarious to listen to.
5. As an idealistic and optimistic leader, he comes up with many plans that'd help his tribe, making him seem somewhat childlike and understandable to an extent.
6. He may have facetiously called Alex and his friends "pansies" and "giant freaks", but his party-related ideas are meant to be supportive of them and Julien's ideas altogether; especially since Julien did his best to convince his friends and Maurice how Alex can keep everyone safe from the foosas.
7. He sees the good in others before he's proven wrong, where Maurice thought Alex was just as much of a threat as the foosas are for being carnivorous and blood-thirsty hunters, Julien thinks of Alex as someone he and the lemurs can feel at ease with.
8. In the first movie, he may come off as idealistic, selfish, and jerkish, but he is more intelligent and understanding than he seems. His ambitious and fair-minded attitude is what makes him likable as a person before he became a "comedic jerk with redeeming qualities" as he became in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.
9. He may seem like a party animal who doesn't get what's coming to him, but he does have his moments of receiving some level of comeuppance for his impulsive actions.
10. He has a very cute romantic relationship with Sonya in the third movie. This just further showed how much of a likable boyfriend when he was bonding with this bear whom nobody cared about yet he was the only one who thought to get her a gold ring he kept and a bicycle in order to please her and for her to be happy when Sonya gets to ride a motorcycle after they traded both the ring and bicycle for that motorcycle. At one point, when Julien claims that he doesn't want to be king anymore just to be with her, it shows how caring and thoughtful he is as her lover. All of this shows how wholesome and endearing Julien actually is.
11. He even got his own TV show, All Hail King Julien.
    • Speaking of which, while he may be easily excitable, eccentric, having fantastical and often outlandish ideas (becoming wholly consumed by an idea or notion), being easily distracted, and being very self-centered to the point of never taking the blame for his actions, but he has become much more likable as the show progresses.
      • Ever since the episode "The End is Here", he blames himself and takes the responsibility for what was his fault like forgetting where he buried Sage, though he first blamed Maurice by mistake. He steadily becomes less self-centered than usual. While in season 1 his concerns were more geared toward his people's perception of him (as seen in "Poll Position" and "The Really Really Big Lie"), but he's shown to care more about the happiness and safety of his people than himself.
12. While he still has moments of selfishness and is portrayed as a self-obsessed character, he still proves to be selfless and self-sacrificing when it really counts, which crafts King Julien into a great and memorable king of the Kingdom of Madagascar with a great legacy. The character of Julien in All Hail King Julien is much more selfless and less autocratic (probably due to the advice he got from his royal entourage). At times, he becomes extremely selfless and caring, only in All Hail King Julien, he does this to ensure that his people are happy and his friends are safe, no matter how eccentric and weird his ideas and plans are.
13. He has provided plenty of quotable and humorous one-liners, quick quips, and banters, these include:
    • "Come on everybody! Let's meet the pansies!!"
    • "Don't you just love the people? Not a lively bunch though."
    • "Shut up! You're so annoying!!"
    • "Does anyone have the hibbiejibbies?? No? Good, so shut up!"
    • "How long is this GOING to TAKE!?"
    • "You have a very hairy back, I like that in a woman."
    • "It's the stupid ones who show true bravery"
14. Despite his Flanderization in The Penguins of Madagascar, his love-hate relationship with Skipper is hilarious nevertheless and they have awesome and believable chemistry.

Bad Qualities

1. He was badly flanderized in the The Penguins of Madagascar TV series. Thankfully, he has recovered since All Hail King Julien.
   • To add further insult, he was flanderized again in the All Hail King Julien episode "Diapers Are the New Black", where he turned diapers into a hot fashion trend and caused an all-out fashion war.
     • King Julien and the other characters wearing diapers is nonsensical, humiliating, laughable and irrational. Diapers are only for babies and elderly people who can't control their bowels; it would also be rather uncomfortable for the characters to wear diapers, as doing so could hurt them due to chafing.
2. Even before and after he was flanderized, he has had his moments of being irresponsible and foolish for the wrong reasons, which of these can lead to him being less competent than he seems sometimes.
3. While still likable and entertaining, he's a bit dumbed down in the second movie.
   • When he and Maurice come across Melman in the death hole, they don't even recognize him, to the point that Julien even introduces himself to him again, if I, King Julien... that's my name....only had two days left to live, despite the fact that Melman is their friend and has lived with them on their island for more than a year, making this out of character for them. This makes him and Maurice seem brainless, unlike other comic reliefs, like Sid from Ice Age, Donkey from Shrek, Dory from Finding Nemo, Mater from Cars, Olaf from Frozen and Ron Weasley from Harry Potter, who act goofy and ridiculous yet they all have a lot of smart and wise moments and always recognize their friends (even Dory recognizes Marlin despite not remembering his name in the first movie).
     • He and Maurice also seem to not care for their friends at all in that movie, as they left Mort behind in Madagascar (even though that's kinda understandable since Mort has a creepy obsession with Julien's feet and can be considered a stalker), tried to throw Melman at a volcano, believing his sacrifice would bring the water back to the reserve, and he didn't even join Marty, Melman, Gloria, the penguins and the chimpanzees in rescuing Alex and Zuba from Nana and the humans. However, he is still likable and entertaining for the most part, unlike his flanderized version from The Penguins of Madagascar.
4. Although he is very charismatic and comedic, he has an arrogant, rude, irresponsible, facetious, and childish streak.
5. While very funny, he can be very mean-spirited towards his followers.
6. He can be annoying at times because of his jerkassery at times, especially towards Maurice and Mort, even as a crazy goofball type of character.

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