Review of Curious George

Introduction

The latest kids cartoon adventure has some literary pedigree. Curious George was the creation of husband and wife team H.A.Rey and Margret Rey, their first book appearing in 1941. There has been some controversy over the books down the years, with some academics with more time than sense pushing their point of view that the books were inherently racist. Still that hasn`t stopped UPI from bringing out this film, with the voice talents (?) of Will Ferrell and Drew Barrymore as the top draws in this film.

Ted (Will Ferrell) is the eponymous Man In The Hat, a timid museum guide who`s highlight of the week is when schoolteacher Miss Maggie Dunlop (Drew Barrymore) brings her class to the museum every week to hear Ted speak. The kids are easily bored by Ted`s dry commentary, but Maggie somehow sees past this and has other feelings for Ted.

Then Ted hears some bad news, the museum takings are down and no-one is even buying sticky luminous stars from the gift shop. Museum owner Mr Bloomsbury (Dick Van Dyke) is devasted and is being played by devious son Junior (David Cross) to sell the museum so that he can build a car park. Ted gets a bit carried away and volunteers himself to lead an expedition to Africa to recover an exhibit that would raise the profile of the museum again: the shrine of the Zagawa.

Sabotaged by Junior, Ted`s expedition ends up only halfway to the shrine, where he not only finds a miniature of the shrine that he believes is the real thing, but also bumps into George, a very curious monkey. Crushed by his failure, Ted returns to America not knowing that George has followed him.

And then the adventures begin…

Video

Nice enough animation but nothing spectacular. The animators have gone for rounded edges on their vehicles and a definite retro city skyline. What is slightly weird is the combination of modern technology and retro style. Mobile camera phones (for example) sitting alongside steam ships and 50`s styled cars.

What really spoils the visuals though for me, and I can`t forgive UPI for this, is the placement of the `Property of Universal Pictures International` banner. It was annoying enough on United 93, placed at the top of the picture, but this is slap bang in the middle of the picture and effectively ruins it (which knocks down my marks accordingly).

Audio

Again, nothing spectacular. One thing that does work though is the use of Jack Johnson on the soundtrack. I`m not a fan of his, never really remember hearing any of his work prior to this, but it suits the visuals.

Features

Very meagre, nothing but…

A Very Curious Car - a 5 minute fluff piece highlighting the partnership of the filmmakers with Volkswagen. I found this quite tacky actually based on the audience…

Conclusion

Nearly every kids film/cartoon these days has a sop to the parents taking their youngsters to see the latest thing. Adult humour is placed in strategic places so that the adults (and teenagers) are as amused as their children. This is the way, and there`s big money in it too; not only box office takings, but also DVD sales and merchandising. Not only that, but with box office takings up, the bigger budgets also attract all manner of movie stars who would previously not touched animated films with a bargepole.

Which is why it`s quite surprising that this film doesn`t really cater to adults at all. Presumably keeping really faithful to the books, this film is for kids only, and small ones at that. I sat and watched this with my 10 year old daughter and whilst she thought it funny at first, she got bored before the halfway point and wandered off. Some of this undoubtedly was the fault of the UPI banner, which was mentioned by her a few times, but it was a bit too simplistic for today`s older children. I`m pretty sure that very young kids will take to this in the same manner as The Tweenies or Teletubbies. It`s a veritable collage of bright colour and simple sound/emotion that will get their attention and amuse them.

As the wont of things aimed at youngsters, the story is very simplistic and pretty much unbelievable in a way that will just amuse kids more (floating across the city holding onto a bunch of balloons?). There is no sense of scale or distance.

But I`m being extremely picky as I didn`t really take to this and its clearly not aimed at me. I`m sure when I sit in front of it with my 1½ year old son, I`ll feel different watching his reactions. Well, until his attention span wanders off after 10 minutes and he starts to hit me over the head with a toy hammer or something…