This is one fun ride! Join the caravan as King Julian, the monkeys, penguins, zebra, giraffe, and other animals travel through Europe after joining a traveling circus. The action is fast-paced and the animals likable. In fact, one young girl laughed at the sea lion and said out loud, “I like him!”

There is a lot of violence, albeit fantasy violence involving animals, but several of the animals and humans too are hit with tranquilizer darts, have fist fights, and a lot more happens too. We see a van bumping into other vehicles, a knife thrower coming close to a few characters with knives and swords and various other objects, a few punches thrown, and such like. A couple of characters hang from a great height before making it to safety. The violence is mostly the slapstick and slip on a banana peel kind of humor.

The laughs will come often as you and your children watch this one together. Although it may possibly be a bit intense for very young children, the audience I screened this movie with was made up primarily of kids and everyone seemed fine with the on-screen action. In fact, “delighted” might be the better word. We are happy as a hyena to award our Dove Seal to this movie as a family-friendly film!