Over the past few years, my boyfriend and I have revisited some of our favorite childhood films. Just last week we watched Rio, and before that Aladdin. But we love anything Madagascar from the movies to the Christmas Specials. We are currently making our way through the series All Hail King Julien, a spinoff based on Dreamworks’ Madagascar that focuses on King Julien’s lifestyle as the lemur ruler. This show was created in 2014 and contains five seasons that can be watched on Netflix. It was not long before I realized that this show may not be originally intended for children.
Categorized as a comedy, All Hail King Julien centers obviously on King Julien and his court. (Clover, security, Maurice, advisor, Mort, devoted follower, and many others.) He has rivaling nations that pose conflict within the show. (Karl, evil genius fossa, Joey, King Kangaroo, Gregor, King Crocodile, Queen Butterfly, and so many more.) It is through these interactions that adult humor is shown.
Let’s start with the most obvious and continuing example of adult-level understanding within this show. Mort, a lemur who is obsessed with King Julien, has a foot fetish. You are wondering if you read that right, and you did. Mort is in love with King Julien’s feet. To children watching Mort proclaim his love to King Julien’s feet and always trying to hug them is funny. To adults, it is quite clear he has a foot fetish. Upon my basic Google search, I found out this originated from King Julien kicking away a fossa and saving Mort’s life. But the creators continued this running joke, taking it as far as having Mort bargain with King Julien, only doing tasks for him in exchange for opportunities with his feet. At first, it is funny, but then it just gets creepy. I mean Mort has a picture of King Julien’s feet at his bedside. It’s giving foot fetish, regardless of how you try to spin it.
Another commonly shown character in King Julien’s life is Clover. She is posed as the head of security, always running interference to King Julien’s bouts with danger. She does her job well, she is a little tightly strung. I am trying to say in the nicest way possible that she occasionally loses her shit. When things do not go as planned Clover has anxiety attacks, she has anger issues, and even binge eats in one episode. The young children might laugh when she tries to kill others, gains weight, or freaks out. It will not be long before they spend more time in the real world and realized Clover has some deeply rooted trauma she’s contending with.
Not on screen as much as Clover, is two commoners, Ted and Dorothy. The couple is always attending different events in the Kingdom. While kids might pick up on their little arguments it might not be too obvious to them what the root of this couple’s problem is. Ted is clearly portrayed as a closeted homosexual. He loves his wife, just not in the same way she loves him, and it causes tension. Ted is a flamboyant lemur, using terms like “Oh no you didn’t” and “Suresies.” He loves drama both in his personal life and on the stage. All of which are gay stereotypes. The show goes as far as revealing that Ted cried on his and Dorthoy’s honeymoon. They never explicitly state Ted’s hidden desires, but he is not the picturesque masculine husband Dorthoy wishes she had.
But do not forget about King Julien’s love life either. King Julien has a short-lived marriage with Clover’s twin sister. If you thought this animated kid’s show was starting to sound like a soap opera, buckle up because it gets worse. Crimson is Clover’s evil twin sister who always one-upped her throughout their childhood. The show makes that very clear through flashbacks, (again back to Clover’s trauma.) Crimson marries King Julien because she is power-hungry, she can be identified as the quintessential gold-digger. King Julien does not see this right away, but the other members of the court do. Including Clover, who warns him, (the poor lemur just can’t catch a break, can she?) Then King Julien gets cold feet (which I am sure Mort was aware of) right before the wedding, leaving the whole relationship between Crimsion and the Lemur Kingdom strained.
The conspiracy theorist in me wants to take these observations further. The creators did not just include adult humor in this cartoon for the fun of it, they wanted to create a satire on the ruling class. It is obvious to anyone no matter what age just how ridiculous King Julien acts, all you have to do is watch one episode to figure that out. On top of that, he is put in a position of power, he is the authority and control, and he does a horrible job. It makes you want to think about the past, present, and future leaders of countries.
I highly recommend the show, it makes me laugh, makes me think, and most importantly helps me relieve stress. My mom likes to call some T.V. shows mindless, and while I don’t know if All Hail King Julien fits that category it creates a unique experience that has not been duplicated in any other type of TV I watch. I know all of this might sound a little crazy, but I am not the only one who thinks this. There’s a whole community of people on Madagascar Wiki that have similar ideas. But the best way for you to find out if what I am saying is true is to head over to Netflix, and maybe waste the next twenty minutes of your life.