Will Ferrell, Frank
Welker, Drew Barrymore, David Cross (II), Eugene Levy
Box
Office
$58,360,760
Running
Time
1 hrs. 26 min
Description
A
wild collection of hip actors--from Will Ferrell to Drew Barrymore
to David Cross--provide voices for Curious George, based on
the classic, gentle children's books. Ted (voiced by Ferrell,
Elf) works at a natural history museum that's fallen on hard
times. The museum director's son (Cross, Arrested Development)
wants to turn it into a parking lot, but Ted offers to bring
back a mysterious idol from Africa that's guaranteed to pull
in crowds. Unfortunately, the idol turns out to be three inches
tall. But Ted (who, before he heads on safari, gets outfitted
in head-to-toe yellow, transforming him into the beloved Man
in the Yellow Hat from the books) accidentally brings back a
lonely yet irrepressible monkey, soon dubbed George. In no time
at all George gets into all kinds of mischief--painting an apartment,
soaring aloft with a bunch of helium-filled balloons, climbing
on a dinosaur skeleton, and generally getting Ted into hot water.
Older fans of the books will probably wince at the formulaic
save-the-museum storyline, as well as at the obligatory love
interest (Barrymore, Charlie's Angels) whose role is utterly
passive. Jack
Johnson's songs are so bland you can't remember the melodies
even as you're listening to them, and the animation (an odd
but not ineffective blend of two-dimensional
drawing
and CGI) has grossly cutified the book's illustrations, eroding
their origina charm (the contrast is made sadly clear by a montage
of the original drawings over the closing credits). But the
basic relationship between man and monkey remains sweet, and
younger kids will delight in George's innocent troublemaking.
--Bret Fetzer (ZT Amazon.com)
