Curious George
Between the sometimes
overwhelmingly stuffed frames of anime and the still distractingly
unrealistic look (particularly for human characters) of computer drawn films
by the likes of Pixar, there is very little place in the world for nice,
simply drawn old-fashioned animation. So it is nice that this movie
based on the classic children's book series from the 1940s does not try
to be something it is not. They didn't go for an explosion of lights
and colors. They didn't turn the characters of the story into lifeless
looking automatons. Also, thankfully, they didn't try to turn this
into a live action film.
Curious George is
wonderfully old-fashioned and that is its best selling point. It
sticks to the spirit, if not necessarily the story, of the books. It
tells the tall tale of an adorable, mischievous monkey. He is happy in
his life in the jungle, playing with other animals, painting anything he can
get his hands on, basically getting in trouble.
His life changes when he
meets and befriends the Man in the Yellow Coat, a museum curator who has
visited the jungle in search of a huge idol to take back to the his museum,
hoping to save it from bankruptcy. He doesn't find the curio, but he
finds a companion, with George the monkey stowing away to return home with
him.
While Ferrell's natural
hyperactivity sometimes strains at the corners of the character of the Man
in the Yellow Coat (he even has a first name here which is Ted), for the
most part Ferrell reigns in his most annoying acting tics. Drew
Barrymore's voicework is even more charming.
Some of the parts in the
middle when George first made it to the big city appeared to be a little too
intense for several of the small children in the theater where I viewed it
(including my three year-old nephew, who was very frightened by a gruff
doorman who was looking for George because there were no pets allowed in the
building.) However, for the most part these parts were short-lived,
and all the "scary" characters eventually showed themselves to be okay.
George the monkey is extremely cute (bordering on cutesy occasionally, but
mostly staying in line) and kids will love him. Songs by surf-folk
star Jack Johnson are both catchy and incredibly non-threatening (Johnson
makes Cat Stevens look like a punk here).
Granted, Curious George
is one of those films that really is for the kids. Parents will
smile through much of it because it is keeping the kiddies happy, however
there is little here they would see if not trying to keep their spawn in
line. Curious George works perfectly well as a nice children's
film. That is all it really has to do.
(2/06)
Jay S.
Jacobs
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Posted: February 10, 2006.
