 Director :
Matthew O'Callaghan
Starring : Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore, Eugene Levy
Trailer for Curious George
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The plot of Curious George
While in Africa, a man (Ferrell) who wears a curious yellow hat accidentally adopts a mischievous chimpanzee named George. With a new life in America, George's adventurous nature takes control, and he heads out into is new world.
Curious George Review
Review by Brian Lowry:
It's not just the animation that's two-dimensional in "Curious George." Rudimentary on every level, this long-gestating Universal pic based on the children's character is pitched toward the youngest of kids -- roughly ages zygote to 4 -- with direct-to-video quality animation, plotting and backgrounds. Nothing wrong with that per se, except there's zero here to divert adults, making its 86 minutes feel dangerously close to a hostage situation. The appetite for even mediocre G-rated fare suggests there's a market for this (see "Chicken Little"), but "George" is much better suited to home viewing, allowing parents to seek refuge elsewhere.Faced with a film replete with original songs by Jack Johnson featuring "Sesame Street"-style lyrics, even patient parents will likely be bored to death. (At the premiere screening, the host of a TV entertainment magazine show actually took a cellphone call during the movie, and he probably wasn't alone.)For those unfamiliar with the 1940s character created by Margret and H.A. Rey, the troublemaking monkey has received a few modern updates. For instance, there's now an actual name for the little simian's human pal (Ted) known strictly as "the man with the yellow hat" in the books.The modestly constructed story has Ted (voiced by Will FerrellWill Ferrell) embarking on a jungle expedition to bring back a massive idol that will save the natural history museum where he's employed. Barring such a coup for his employer, Bloomsberry (Dick Van Dyke), the site will be closed and transformed into a parking lot by Bloomsberry's needy son Junior (David CrossDavid Cross, whose animated likeness is his spitting image).So Ted heads to Africa, where he encounters a playful monkey who he eventually names George. As voiced by Frank Welker, the vocalizations are somewhere between a cooing baby and a poor chimp impersonation. Review By Rob Vaux:
The challenge of bringing Curious George to the screen has defied the best writers in the industry. It has taken 14 years and God knows how many concept changes to arrive at the final product, and the crass marketing campaign surrounding it suggests that the beloved monkey of the title has been co-opted as a corporate shill. What a surprise, then, that the movie turns out to be a modest delight. Not only does it understand what makes the books such classics, but it successfully reinterprets them for the big screen without losing the soul of its source material.Nowhere is this more evident than in the monkey himself -- a child-like being of warmth and happiness whose namesake trait celebrates both the joys of discovery and the mayhem to which it can lead. The books (by H.R. Rey and his wife Margret) followed George as he accompanied the Man in the Yellow Hat from the jungle to the big city, where all sorts of rollicking misadventures awaited. Rey's illustrations perfectly captured the character's innocence and charm, but in the wrong hands, that adorable little simian could easily become an irritating pest. Director Matthew O'Callaghan is far from the wrong hands, however, and the film's version of George -- while shifting slightly from the books -- is as effortlessly appealing as anyone could hope for. He radiates nothing but guileless lovability, his troublemaking curiosity fostered by only the best intentions. Before the opening credits are finished, he has walked off with the audience's heart in his pocket.It doesn't hurt that the powers that be wisely decided to eschew CGI animation and render Curious George in classic 2-D style. It's a laudable choice, for not only does it stand out from the current glut of computer images, but the bright palate (dominated by gorgeous primary colors) does a wonderful job of evoking the magic of Rey's deceptively spartan drawings. The sight of George soaring over the cityscape with a bunch of helium-filled balloons, or redecorating the local dowager's unpainted living room in a jungle motif smoothly marries the heart of Rey's work with the awesome visual potential of filmmaking.Some of the movie's changes are less gentle, however. |
