Curious George (2006)
Genre: Animated Comedy
Format Viewed: DVD
Filmography links and data courtesy of The Internet Movie Database.
Now this was a fun, little movie!
Believe me – I was just as surprised as any of you who haven’t yet seen this flick in which the man in the yellow hat makes his silver screen debut, but as much as I had expected this animated children’s movie to be just over-the-top ridiculous, it wasn’t. In fact, it was actually pretty good … to the point where I wish a few more of the movies that I watched this summer resembled this curious little monkey…
Of course, we all know by now that the main reason for my bitterness in resurrecting childhood favorites for the silver screen is that they often just fail so miserably at recreating the original feeling of those favorites, hence you get a live action movie where robots turn into cars and trucks and that’s about it. I remember reading the Curious George books when I was just first learning to read and they were always very playful, fun, captivating, even educational, and I’ve got to say that I was oh-so-impressed when I popped this DVD into my home theater to find exactly that – a light-hearted, upbeat children’s adventure that, as an added bonus, even us adults could be entertained by as well!
Seriously, I haven’t enjoyed a Will Ferrell performance this much since he chased after Jay and Silent Bob when they stole a monkey back in 2001, although admittedly the language was just a bit cleaner in this particular episode! And again, I would’ve never expected it unless I saw it for myself, but the man was simply dead on for the persona of the man in the yellow hat! The bumbling, yet harmless to the point of being endearing character that he’s come to be known for in some of his best flicks translated just beautifully into the animated lead who can’t seem to do anything right. Grand slam, though, was the commentary that retained that Will Ferrell sarcasm while still remaining entirely and completely kid-friendly – something that seems kind of obvious for this kind of movie, but both Shrek and Madagascar proved apparently isn’t quite a given just yet…
“Who leaves eight open cans of paint lying around?!”
Oh yes, and we mustn’t forget a fun and whimsical soundtrack by one of my favorite acoustic artists, Jack Johnson, who does a marvelous job of carrying this upbeat adventure during the dialog breaks in the story. Hands down, Curious George was a great movie and I know if I had kids, they’d be watching it eight times a day until the disc finally wears out. And while in the meantime I might not watch it quite nearly that many times myself, that certainly doesn’t discount the fact that this was one of the very best children’s movies that I’ve seen in a long time.
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