Inside her hut, Masikura was sitting on her desk and blew the dust off an old crystal ball and then polished it with a rag.
"Huh? I haven't used this one in a while?" she said to herself. "I wonder if you still work?"
"King Julien, I do believe this issue warrants your immediate attention?" she heard Karl's voice.
"Yes, sure. Just as soon as I solve this urgent dilemma." King Julien entered her hut carrying two fruits, with Karl and Maurice following after him.
"But King Julien, the sifakas and avahis are both gung-ho about escalating their family feud to dangerous extremes? All because Sam accidentally plucked a mango from the other family's tree!" Maurice implored him.
"Yes, my fly-drones showed Pancho selling the sifakas grenades!" Karl added in an urgent manner. "And Fairfax selling sharpshooter rifles to the avahis!"
"I cannot believe this whole thing lasted for three generations jus' because Old Man Damon stood up Grandma Ava at the prom?" Maurice lamented incredulously.
"Yes, yes, in a minute, you Impatient Izzies. Just after I decide what to have for breakfast." Julien stated before turning to Masikura.
"May I be of assistance, your majesty?"
"Yes, can you tell me what I should be eating for breakfast? Mango? Or grapefruit?" he held up the two fruits. "Please, this question has been boggling the royal mind all morning! It's tearing me apart!"
Masikura eyed the crystal ball. "Hmmm…I think I know how to do it?"
She walked up to the crystal ball and Julien saw her waving her hands over it, as a mystical fog appeared inside the orb before showing a vision of Julien sitting on his throne and licking his fingers. It was covered up by fog again until it revealed another vision of Julien clutching his rumbling stomach in pain while sitting on his throne.
"Uhhh…that's awesome? That crystal ball thingy shows you things?" the king said in awe.
"Ah, very simple." Masikura smiled. "You should eat the grapefruit, for the mango is spoiled and it would give you a terrible stomach ache."
"Thank you so much." Julien smiled and threw the bad mango over his shoulder, and the smelly fruit splattered all over Maurice's face.
The aye-aye grumbled under his breath while Karl offered him a hanky to wipe his face.
"Alright, King Julien." Maurice sighed. "Can we now get back to-"
"So that crystal ball can predict my future!" Julien asked with child-like excitement while tapping it with his finger.
"Sort of, this one can show you various outcomes based on what life choice you made." Masikura explained. "I haven't used it in a long while, I was worried that I had gotten rusty at using it-"
"Oh! Oh! Then I wish to be helping you hone in your mad fortune-teller skills!" Julien jumped with excitement when an awesome idea hit him. "Can you show me what could have happened if I made different choices in my life? It's been so eventful and my royal noggin is now itching to know!"
"Certainly. Just allow me to dress for the occasion." Masikura agreed and fashioned a Romani headscarf around her head.
"Yay! I brought the popcorn!" Mort popped out from nowhere while holding a popcorn bag.
"But, your majesty?" Maurice implored him. "We really need to get back to the whole sifaka-avahi feud?"
"Yes, and I do not wish to know how my fate could have gone differently." A nervous Karl backed away. "I almost ended my life in this-"
"Oh, don't be such stick-in-the-muds! This will only take a while at most!" Julien laughed and grabbed Maurice and Karl by the shoulder and placed them on chairs in front of Masikura's desk, and he sat next to Karl, while Mort sat down on the floor, munching on popcorn. Maurice and Karl deflated in annoyance.
"Alright, start bombarding her with questions, guys! Don't be shy!" an excited Julien told his entourage. "Nothing boring or mundane though! But cool questions relating to important events during my kingly reign. Or my awesome childhood! Whatever suits you."
Maurice and Karl didn't look very enthusiastic but Mort giggled and lifted his hand.
"Pick me! I have one!"
"Oh, fine. Shoot, you little misshaped hangnail!" Julien shot him a finger gun.
Masikura winced as Mort gave her an unnerving smile.
"What would have happened if King Julien never found Maurice in the Baby Patch?" Mort giggled.
"Excuse me?" Maurice gave him an annoyed look.
"Would I be his bestest friend in the whole wide world then!"
"Um, no. I believe that would be Rob McTodd?" Masikura didn't need her crystal ball to tell him that.
"Who's that?" Mort tilted his head stupidly.
Karl rolled his eyes. "I believe that's the disfigured sifaka working for Doctor S, now going by the name Nurse Phantom?"
Mort blinked at him. "Who's Nurse Phantom?"
"Oh, yeah?" Julien reminisced wistfully. "I believe I dreamed of that scenario while I was in a coma? There, Rob was my advisor and allowed me to go through with every cray-cray, spur-of-the-moment idea I had?"
"Which jus' proves that it was the Sky Gods' will that you and I met..." Maurice grumbled.
"Huh? Let's see if that would happen for real?" Masikura looked into her crystal ball and it showed a vision of the Madagascar jungle, serene and peaceful as ever. Until it exploded and the vision cut to a shot of the island from outer space as a huge mushroom cloud appeared in the northern-western part of it.
"Um…what just happened?" Julien blinked.
"Oh, dear…looks like Rob convinced you that investing most of your resources into buying a nuclear bomb would be…" Masikura made air quotes "…in his own words, "totally sick"?"
"Well, that's so Rob but…also not as fun as I thought it would be?" Julien rubbed the back of his neck.
"Then maybe we should get back to more important matters?" Maurice urged him.
"Maurice, you gotta speak louder when I'm not listening to you?" Julien tapped his chin.
"Okay, no more question from the little doo-doo heap." Julien declared. "I shall be asking the questions from now on."
"Now let me think? Ah-hah!" he got an idea. "Tell me…what would have happened to Abner and Becca if I had never donned by super-convincing "Banana Guy Mike" disguise?"
He shrugged, trying to ignore that pang of guilt in his chest. "I mean, they sure got a raw deal being banished from our kingdom for high treason and being employed as my uncle's sla…eh…servants? Would things have gone better for them had they never crossed paths with me and my mad acting chops?"
"I can't imagine 'em doing any worse than their lot in this timeline." Maurice muttered.
"Shhhh…" Julien turned him. "Let Masikura do her thing."
They saw the two hillbilly lemurs traveling through the jungle.
"Come on, hun. We gotta find a new water hole." Becca said. "Ya know that good-for-nuthin' king won't keep his promise."
"But where are we gonna find a water hole in a jungle?" Abner drawled dumbly.
"We'll find one. Make it our private water hole, accessible only ta us common folks and no blue-blooded jerks!" Becca raised her fist. "We don't need no lazy bum king ta live cozy, cuz we're self-sufficient! We can take care of ourselves!"
"CAW!"
Becca gasped as Abner's head was caught in the talons of a crowned eagle.
"ABNER!?" Becca cried as she saw her husband's lifeless body being carried off by the giant raptor before falling on her knees and crying, "NOOOOOOO!?"
Maurice's ears and face fell. "But I've been wrong before?" he said in a stunned tone.
But Julien's face lit up. "Ah! See! I saved Abner's life by duping him and his lady wife into dedicating their lives to a phony revolutionary!"
"Yay! You saved him from feeding the birdies!" Mort clapped his hands.
Karl just shrugged. "I don't know? I'd argue being Uncle Julien's servant is a fate far worse than death."
"Poor Becca, what happened to her?" Maurice asked.
Masikura looked into the crystal ball. "What you would expect. She mourned but then moved on."
They saw a montage of Becca crying and being comforted by Dorothy and other lemurs, until a golden bamboo lemur came to comfort her and romantic music started playing, to accompany a montage of the two of them doing various things together, like drinking from the same smoothie, jumping in a bouncy castle and reenacting the famous scene from Titanic on the S.S. Pee Pee Pants.
Mort squinted. "Wait? Is that…"
"Willie?" Julien cringed. "Seriously now?"
"Huh?" Karl looked mildly surprised. "I didn't think she of all lemurs could possibly trade down?"
"I don't know. I always wanted a girlfriend?" the fanaloka jolted as Willie popped up from the window between him and Julien.
"I just want someone who loves and understands me, is that too much to ask for?" Willie shook and hugged himself. "Just so I won't be all alone in this cruel world that always has it out for me-"
"Nobody invited you, Willie!" Mort yelled while suddenly wielding a baseball bat. "Buzz off!"
He struck Willie in the face and knocked him out of the scene.
"Hah! Some lemurs just have no manners." Mort huffed, even though he himself had come uninvited.
"Ow. Why does Frank hate me?" Willie was heard sobbing in the distance.
"Well, the Willie thing was incredibly creepy, I'll be needing some brain bleach for that, but on the upside…" Julien clapped his hands "…we just witnessed how my kingly decisions have had a positive impact on my peeps!"
"I wish to know more!" Julien pondered, then thought of the perfect question to ask.
"Okay, tell me what would have happened if I hadn't left Crimson at the altar? After all, that tincy-wincy mistake of mine made her a constant pain in my and Clover's booties."
"Hmmm…that is an interesting question, your majesty?" Masikura had to agree. "After all, Crimson almost became our queen and Clover's warnings about her sister's character were ignored, since all of you assumed Clover was simply jealous that her twin stole the king away from her, all because she's a woman."
Maurice shrank and flushed at that comment. Given how Clover got hitched to Sage and Julien was totally cool with it, even throwing the groom a bachelor party, there was no doubt now that Maurice's assumptions were dead wrong.
Julien looked at the crystal ball with keen interest until the fog cleared and the king's intrigued expression changed to one of pure, unadulterated horror.
He saw a very miserable-looking version of himself, wearing an apron but no crown and ironing a shirt while a whole slew of loud and hyper hybrid children with grayish-red fur, ringed tails and dark markings on top of their heads, ranging from preteens to diaper-wearing newborns, were wreaking havoc across Julien's plane. Except for the oldest one, who was just scowling and listening to edgy music on her walkman while leaning in the corner.
"Wow? Looks like you and Crimson had a very…passionate marriage?" Maurice couldn't help but snigger mischievously.
"… twenty-five…twenty-six…twenty-seven?" Karl counted the children before chuckling lightly and elbowing the horrified Julien in jest. "Way to go, my friend."
Two of the toddlers were riding on their father's back and pulling on his ears when he heard his dear queen calling.
"Oh, Juju-Bear!" Crimson emerged from the curtains, wearing countless diamond rings on her fingers, jeweled bracelets and necklaces, and a huge, expensive-looking crown made from pure gold and adorned with several diamonds.
"I need you to buy me more shiny things." He grabbed him by the shoulder and whispered into his ears in her sultry tone. "I've noticed that I don't have an even number of rings and bracelets, and everyone knows odd numbers are jinxed."
"Yes, dear. Whatever you say dear." Julien said in a hollow tone.
"Oh, and we need new, bigger outdoor air conditioners to keep that 30-foot ice sculpture of myself from melting? Can you get that for me, pretty please?" Crimson cooed while tapping his nose.
"Yeah, sure I can do that…" Julien giggled uneasily "…but…but after I do that, can I finally go to a dance party again?"
Crimson chuckled. "Don't be silly, my little love muffin, you can't have a party with no guests? And all your subjects are currently busy trying to kill each other over mangos."
She then scowled and huffed. "The nerve of those people? Blaming me for their mango shortage just because of my expensive taste in gifts? Those needy, low-class ingrates."
"Yes, it's not your fault. It's my fault, isn't it?" Julien smiled meekly.
"If you insist." Crimson shrugged before walking away. "Besides, you'll be too busy overseeing the construction of a new nursery."
"New nursery?" Julien's eye twitched as one of his kids blew his nose and wiped all the mucus on his father's arm.
"Yes, Doctor S says I'm pregnant with another set of twins." Crimson chuckled while pointing at her bulging belly. "But knowing that quack, it's probably triplets again."
"Stop it! Make it stop!" Julien cried and covered his eyes. "The king is not some henpecked Mr. Mom husband! I'll have freaking nightmares about this for years!"
"Marriage and child-rearing always are." Masikura said matter-of-factly.
"Yikes. I thought it was pretty scummy what ya did to Crimson, but watching this?" Maurice said, having some serious second thoughts.
"You dodged a bullet, as it were?" Karl smirked. "I told you women were the devil's work."
"But if you do have kids, can one of them be named after me?" Mort giggled.
"Enough of this. I've seen enough. Time for a new plan!" Julien declared and pointed at the aye-aye. "Maurice, you ask Masikura the questions now!"
"Me?"
"Yes, clearly I'm jinxed to be witnessing unsightly horrors no matter what I ask but you aren't! So hop to it! Ask something? Something crazy! Something absurd! Something off-the-wall unthinkable! Something that's guaranteed to be an awesome-tacular watch!"
Maurice scratched his head, trying to think of the most absurd thing possible?
"Well okay…how 'bout…I dunno…a timeline where King Julien just ditched his kingdom and never came back?" he spitballed.
Julien blinked, before erupting with laughter. "Maurice!" he said between giggles. "I was meaning about something that could actually happ-"
"Actually, I believe there is a timeline where King Julien did just that." Masikura's response shocked everyone.
"What? Me, abandoning my peeps? And forfeiting the throne?" Julien scowled. "Masikura, quit pulling the royal leg? That is the most unbelievable, far-flung ridiculousness I have ever heard."
"Yes, you would think so now. But under certain circumstances, if you hadn't gone through as many life-changing experiences that shaped you into the king you are today?"
"It can't be…" Julien insisted, dumbstruck by the very thought.
"Oh, yes. It can." Masikura narrowed her eyes. "If you never met Koto? Or Karl? Or most of your foes? Or if Clover wasn't there to be a positive influence on you and if Maurice was more subservient to you, you might have thought differently about the prospect of globetrotting and seeing this much-lionized "New York City" with your own eyes, without understanding the gravity of your poor decision. I have seen visions of a timeline where all of those disparate elements coincided."
Karl grew a big smile, pleased with the thought that he has had some influence on shaping Julien into who he was today. Maurice tried not to show it, but he felt very much the same way.
"What? No Clover?" Julien said sadly. "But how?"
The crystal orb showed another vision, this one had Julien cooing and holding an adorable little piglet with a speckled coat.
"Awww…you are the cutest thing my kingly eyes have ever seen! From this day forth, you shall be known as Petey! You shall be my royal pet and I will love you forever and ever and ever and we'll play fetch and go for walks and-"
Something blew the crown off Julien's head and he looked back and yelped as he was confronted with a huge, scowling bushpig, flanked by her whole sounder. Their white, tribal paint-esque face markings and the pair of weird protrusions on their snouts made them all the scarier as Julien put the piglet down and gave it a pat on the head.
"Oh, you must be the mother?" Julien chuckled awkwardly and backed away. "You have a very beautiful child-HEEEEEELP!?" he ran like a headless chicken, with the squealing and grunting bushpigs in hot pursuit.
"Don't worry, your majesty! I've got this!" Clover front-flipped between her king and the angry sounder, adopting a fighting stance.
The bushpigs were unfazed and continued charging towards her as Clover leaped at them with a spin-kick before the mystical fogs ended the vision.
Masikura sighed somberly. "Unfortunately, here, Clover perished protecting King Julien, a mere month after he was crowned."
"Egad…bushpigs are very unruly beasts." Karl cringed, feeling pity for Clover, while Julien was left speechless at the thought of having led Clover to her death.
"Clo-Clo…" he whimpered, now more so than ever regretting taking his bodyguard and friend for granted. He made a mental note to never look for piglets as pets, no matter how mind-numbingly adorable they inherently were.
"And without her, this more subservient Maurice simply didn't have enough sway to make you change your mind during some of your more….ill-conceived decisions, and so…"
The fog cleared, and they saw the lemur kingdom gathering to bid the New York Giants farewell as they were heading for a plane, and Julien, Maurice, Mort and Karl quickly realized it was actually Julien's "palace", which had been repurposed into a (sort of) functioning airplane by the penguins, who were busy starting the engines.
"You just gave away your plane?" Maurice said in shock. "This has been family heirloom passed down from generation to generation, ever since King Julien VI?"
Julien hugged his tail, being given a bitter reminder of just how (even more) selfish and shortsighted he was back when he was still green about the whole king business. How could he do something this foolish and disrespectful to his lineage?
"Hey! Surprise, freaks!" Julien saw himself pop out of a cake in drag in front of the giant mammals.
"Which of you was attracted to me? Hands up!" his alternate self posed for his subjects, with most of them raising their hands and cheering.
"Well, at least that part makes total sense." Julien shrugged. "I am very attractive and irresistible. No matter if you're a dude or a girl."
Karl squinted. "Is it just me, or does King Julien's voice sound…off in this particular vision?"
"Neeeerd…" Mort whispered to him mockingly.
The freaks didn't seem all that thrilled to have Julien tag along, but Julien insisted that he did, citing how he was the owner of the plane.
"Until I return with the spoils from the new country…Stevie will be in charge!"
Julien blinked in disbelief. "What?! I left my kingdom in the care of a gecko? And what's up with that hideous crown? Where is my beautiful leaf crown!"
Karl narrowed his eyes in contemplation. "To be quite frank? Even under those circumstances, I cannot imagine King Julien simply abandoning his kingdom without a second thought? To me, this comes across more like a thinly-veiled pretense to ride the coattails of the king's popularity?"
"Neeeeeeeeerd!" Mort shouted at him, prompting the fanaloka to give him an indignant glare.
"I'm coming for you, King Julien!" Mort turned back as he heard his own voice and saw himself clinging onto the wing of the plane, his lips pulled back and flapping against the powerful winds.
"What? Mort came along with me?!" Julien felt his stomach twisting.
"Indeed, he did. Neither the ocean or man-eating sharks could prevent him from finding you." Masikura explained while showing a vision of Mort being chased around by a shark…on land.
"I'd told you I'd follow you to the ends of this world, my king." the mouse lemur gave Julien a creepy, dead-eyed smile, making the latter shudder.
"The consequences of this shortsighted decision should be obvious to you." Masikura sighed. "Your uncle reclaimed the throne without any resistance and became even more of an oppressive tyrant than before."
They saw Uncle Julien putting the old crown back onto his head and laughing maniacally while raising his fists into the air, as his subjects, including familiar faces like Ted, Willie, Pancho, Dorothy, Horst, Abner and Becca, all cowered in fear.
"Bah. I don't see much of a difference." Hector shrugged bitterly.
"But…but this was just a temporary setback, right?" Julien grinned nervously at the chameleon. "I did say I would return from my travels, right?"
"You did, but with time…the memory of your kingdom simply…faded while the excitement of reaching this fabled New York City only grew, as did you desire to rule it."
"What happened then?" Maurice asked. "I pretty sure I saw one of the plane's engines being on fire? Did we get far?"
"Nope. You crash-landed in Mozambique…" the chameleon said flatly while showing a vision of Alex, Marty and Melman screaming inside the plane, while Gloria was soundly asleep.
"Raise your arms, Maurice! It's more fun when you raise your arms like this!" Julien laughed and waved his arms, while a petrified Maurice was clinging onto his seat and various objects were floating through the air.
"Maybe you're right?" Mort reluctantly admitted to Karl. "His voice does sound weird here?"
"…fortunately, there were no casualties." Masikura continued while the fog returned and retreated to show the badly damaged plane making a soft landing with a parachute.
"On the upside, Alex got reunited with his long-lost parents. Melman and Gloria revealed their true feelings for each other. And Marty learned a valuable lesson about how he is special even if all the other zebras on the savannah were literal copies of him…because he had bite marks on his buttock."
"I wouldn't have pegged Melman as a chubby chaser?" Mort giggled mischievously.
"Mr. Alex's long-lost parents?" a somber Maurice asked, the lion's plight breaking his heart. "Your majesty, shouldn't we tell 'im the whereabouts of his folks?"
"Yeah, yeah, that's all very cute, but can you be getting back to me!" the ringtail said impatiently. "What happened to me!"
"That intel about Alex is of no use to him anyway." Karl whispered to Maurice. "At least while we're keeping him hostage."
"Yeah, but we could play matchmaker for Melman and Gloria?" Mort suggested. "That oughta offer a lot of juicy drama."
"Well, as any monarch would, you aspired to rule over the inhabitants of the savannah, but since most of them were….well, giants just like the freaks, your small lemur stature wasn't very impressive to them, so most either ignored you or just humored you for laughs and giggles."
Julien's eyes twitched. "How dare they-oh, oh! I know, but then I did something incredibly awesome to win their hearts, right?"
"You tried. When the land was hit by a drought, you tried to offer a sacrifice to Larry himself in order to get him to bring the water back. Conveniently, the shark that was hounding Mort proved to be the ideal sacrifice."
The fog cleared, and they saw a ruffled-up Mort being chased by the shark while Julien and Maurice, decked out in tribal wear and the latter wearing some kind of voodoo mask, screamed at the edge of a cliff as they and Mort jumped down and clung to each other. The shark hurled itself right into the boiling magma.
"Ah!" Julien, Maurice and Karl all winced at its horrific demise, while Mort kept munching on his popcorn.
"I wonder if the gods like seafood?" the alternate Maurice in the vision asked.
"Ah! That's it!" Julien became excited. "That's how I saved the day and the other animals were so grateful that they elected me as their all-powerful king!"
"No. You missed your chance by a hair." Masikura shook her head. "Your valiant efforts were for naught because Alex and his father Zuba already destroyed the man-made damn that was blocking the water and they were hailed as great heroes while you remained unnoticed."
Julien's jaw dropped as he saw Alex and Zuba standing tall on a giant, floating bucket and waiving to their adoring public.
"What the hell?!" Julien curled his fingers in frustration. "What kind of cockamamie cruel twist ending is that?"
"Quite unfortunate timing, King Julien." Karl said sympathetically. Though he was pretty sure the sacrifice would have done diddly squat anyway, he didn't wish to upset his king.
"Eventually, following a failed scheme involving a potion called "Love Potion Number 9" and after the penguins flew off to gamble in Monte Carlo with their new, chimp-powered plane, King Julien finally figured that there was no hope for him in Africa and he had his eyes set on reaching New York City more than ever. Unfortunately for him and the freaks, the penguins kept prolonging their European vacation but-"
"Huh! Not like I would have accepted help from the stupid bossy penguin anyway!" Julien folded his arms petulantly. "I'd sooner let myself be gobbled up by giant goanna!"
"That's what the other you thought too." Masikura confirmed. "You decided that you needed to shape your own destiny, so you, Maurice and Mort tried to reach New York on your own. After hitching a ride via elephant caravan to Namibia, you set sail…"
"Set what now?" Maurice blurted and his face promptly fell as they were shown a vision of Julien, wearing a captain's hat, standing tall and proud in a small lifeboat, while Maurice and Mort were breaking their backs rowing, in the middle of the ocean (or more specifically, just far enough not to see the coast of Namibia any more).
"Faster, ya scurvy scallywags!" Julien barked exuberantly. "My destiny awaits me in the New World!"
"King Julien? My arms are getting tired." Mort whined.
Maurice was no better for wear. "King Julien, please listen to me!" the out-of-breath aye-aye implored him. "We can still turn around, this is a bad idea."
"Don't be silly, Maurice." Julien scoffed, his eyes glued on the horizon while holding a map crudely drawn in crayon. "All we need is my mad navigation skills and for you and Mort to row nonstop for the next 8,000 kilometers! Now put your booties into it! Row! Row!"
The other two lemurs had no option but to keep rowing.
"But King Julien? We have no supplies? We have no means to shelter ourselves from the weather? We don't even have a sail!" Maurice pleaded.
"Or a poop deck?" Mort giggled.
"I really don't see how this is supposed to work?"
"Hmmm…you may be slightly right, Maurice." Julien reluctantly admitted before smirking. "No matter, I shall ask Judy, the goddess of water, to lend me an assist!"
Julien looked down at the water. "Hey, Judy? It's me, King Julien XIII? Long time no see? Get it!" he laughed. "Because we're on the high sea right now! I'm so funny!"
"King Julien?" Maurice begged him.
"Alright. Tough audience." Julien rolled his eyes before looking at the water again and holding Mort in his hands.
"We're having a wee bit of a problem reaching New York on our own, so I was hoping that you could be helping us? If I sacrifice Mort to one of your hungry shark thingies, could you send us a huge wave that me and Maurice can ride all the way to New York?"
"Yay! My sacrifice will save the day!" Mort cheered.
"King Julien, I don't think this part of the world is within Judy's jurisdiction?" Maurice told him. "And we can't just sacrifice Mort?"
"Shut it, Maurice." Julien hissed. "I'm negotiating with Judy over here."
"King Julien? Why is the water turning red?" Mort asked innocently.
The water around them was indeed turning red from a massive congregation of krill.
"Ah! It must be a sign from Judy!" Julien beamed. "But what does it mean?"
The vision changed to an overhead shot which showed a humpback whale opening his cavernous jaws and swallowing up the boat and the lemurs within it, with Maurice screaming in terror.
Just for the record, I really do like the Madagascar films and the Penguins of Madagascar tv series (not the movie though), but the former was about the Zoosters and the latter about Skipper's team, and while King Julien had a more prominent role in the latter, he was still playing second fiddle to the avian protagonists, and while they and their brotherly comradery was the heart of the show, Julien was the comic relief and while much more well-rounded than his movie counterpart, he is still nothing compared to his incarnation from All Hail King Julien, who is by far the most fleshed-out iteration of the character.
For the above reasons, the Lemur Kingdom itself wasn't really a character in either the movies or POM, meaning Julien flat out abandoning them in both incarnations wasn't really anything worth noting since the audience wasn't meant to think (or care) about that. But when it comes to All Hail King Julien, with the kingdom being a fleshed-out world here, the other lemurs having their own quirky personalities and King Julien caring deeply about his kingdom being, y'know, the show's premise, I simply can't help but view AHKJ as its own continuity and this is how I imagine this version of Julien would react to his movie counterpart's less-than-noble choice of ditching his kingdom.
That said, it was fun imagining how these three installments could be interconnected (even if only in a branching timeline sort of way) and what the reasons behind some of the character inconsistencies between timelines could be. POM was likely written with the possibility at least that it could be in continuity with the first two movies (even if its creators said that they really didn't have continuity in mind), and since the third movie hadn't been made yet while POM was airing (and the show ended the same year the movie came out), but it became a full-on AU once Europe's Most Wanted came out. So I offered my own take with how Julien and co might have reached New York City between Escape to Africa and POM, basically the same way Marlin and Dory reached Sidney in Finding Nemo XD
And Karl and Mort's comments about King Julien's voice sounding off in the Escape to Africa scenes is, of course, referencing the fact that Julien wasn't voiced by Danny Jacobs in the movies but by Jacobs's poor man's substitute, Sacha Baron Cohen XD Not to harp on Cohen's performance, which was good and set the foundation for Julien's character, but Jacobs IS King Julien, having voiced him in every single appearance sans the three movies, including the two shows where Julien was a full-fledged character and not just comic relief XD