All Hail King Julian

Rating: 8/10 (31 May 2005)

I'd like to first suggest to those who pointed out some logical weaknesses in the movie that this is an animated movie about talking animals. Some reviewers had trouble with certain plot points such as them getting on a subway or building a cabana on the beach. There's not 5 minutes of this movie that could possibly be even remotely plausible! Hello! That being said, it was a relatively entertaining movie that if made into a sequel should have as it's main character the King of the Lemers, and perhaps his sidekick, the Gizmo-looking Cedric guy. I thought I was going to die when the King starts doing the Robot. The 2 lesser characters (the hippo, giraffe) were expendable and I have no idea why the hypochondriac giraffe was scripted at all, unless it was to make the other three look more interesting and less annoying. The animation is incredible, lots of eye-candy, great music, lots of slapstick (fool-proof with kids under 10), quick-paced story-line, some agreeable morality, and a thoroughly pleasant ending. Oh, and the penguins; more, more, more! I had no problem with them casting the 'big names' as the voice cast, I'm not a huge fan of any of them so I was not distracted. It's not Shrek, and not Miyazaki, but's it got enough to be entertaining throughout (provided you're not expecting anything cerebral). My kids are 8 and 6, and they were talking and laughing about it most of the night and again in the morning. Which brings me to another concern others had; for those whining about the money; go to the MatinÃ©e next time! Spending $10-12 on your kid so they can laugh for a couple of hours is a no-brainer. The movie's target audience are pre-teen children, especially those under 10, and chances are they will love the movie, whether you do or not.
I rated this based upon how well my children enjoyed it.