CURIOUS GEORGE

Starring the vocal talents of:
Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore, Eugene Levy, Joan Plowright, David Cross and Dick Van Dyke

Director:
Matthew O'Callaghan

Running Time:
86 mins

"Peek-a-boo"

Ted (Ferrell) loves his job at the Museum but its owner Mr. Bloomsberry (Van Dyke) is struggling to get visitors through the door and his son Junior (Cross) wants to turn it into a parking lot. Ted then comes up with a plan to save the museum by going to Africa to find a mythical ancient giant stone idol. When he gets there everything doesn't go according to plan but he does make a new friend, a curious monkey who just loves Ted's big yellow hat.

After computers killed off traditional animation, it would take a curious monkey to bring it back to Hollywood.

Based on the beloved children's book by Margret and H.A. Rey, 'Curious George' takes a bold step for big Hollywood movie by choosing to use traditional 2D animation. After Pixar and DreamWorks collectively killed off the hand drawn animation, the big studios stayed away with only Studio Ghibli continuing to push it to the maximum. While 'Curious George' might not be a visual masterpiece that you expect from Miyazaki's films but the traditional style suits this movie perfectly.

The world of 'Curious George' is a vivid mix of bright colours and pleasing shapes. Taking place in stylised versions of the African jungle and New York City, George is just at home in the urban jungle as he is in the real one. Add to this a soundtrack by singer/songwriter Jack Johnson and George's world is a very pleasant one to watch.

Aimed primarily at very young viewers, 'Curious George' reveals how the mischievously cute monkey met the man in the yellow hat, Ted. From their first meeting in the African jungle, George instantly connects with Ted and sees him as a friend. For Ted having a monkey permanently following him around all over the jungle and then back to America, seems a little much at first but once he gets to know George it is a friendship that is incredibly nice.

The vocal cast is also very good. Comedy actor Will Ferrell provides a restrained vocal performance as Ted. He doesn't use his trademark manic, loud style instead he creates a character that you can see why George likes him so much. Drew Barrymore provides the love interest as schoolteacher Miss Maggie Dunlop. There are also good performances from David Cross and family film legend Dick Van Dyke as Junior and Mr Bloomsberry.

'Curious George' is a great family film for those of you with young children. While it may not have much there for the older viewer, you cannot help to adore the cute monkey's antics and your children will love it, which is what the film is all about.

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 with Dolby Digital 5.1, the movie is presented well.

BONUS FEATURES

Jack Johnston 'Upside Down' Music Video with Sing-a-long (3.11 mins)
Join the acclaimed singer and George as they have fun on the beach and you can join them by singing-a-long to the song.

Deleted Scenes (16.49 mins)
Entitled 'Ted's Time Machine', 'Edu throws suitcase', 'The Pet Shop', 'The End Tag', 'Extended Outfitter's Store', 'The Inflatable Rhino', 'The original lobby', 'Sparky grooms Ted', 'The hotel montage', 'Ted's nightmare', 'The balloon flight assault', 'Sparky blows up', 'Ted crashes the truck', 'Ted runs over Sparky' and 'The parade', these deleted or extended scenes are made up of completed footage, animated storyboards and partially completed animation.

Drawn to George (5.10 mins)
Animator Jeff Johnston shows you how to draw George. Monkey around the words Learn to read with George as he makes it fun.

A very Curious Car (4.45 mins)
Director Matt O'Callaghan, executive producer Ken Tsumura, production designer Yarrow Cheney, computer graphics supervisor Thanh John Nguyen and prop designer David Lee talk about the look of movie and the cars that inhabit of the streets of Ted's city. Monkey in motion Jeff Johnston teaches you how to animate your own drawing of George.

Games
Play interactive games called 'Banana Hunt' where you help hungry George find some bananas, 'Where's George?', 'Virtual Colouring Book', 'The ever changing colour chameleon' and there are more games and printable colouring sheets if you insert the DVD into your PC.

Previews
Trailers for 'Curious George: The Series', 'Barbie: 12 Dancing Princesses' and 'Polly World'

OVERALL

As the film is aimed primarily at very young viewers, so is the DVD. There is no in depth making of features or interviews with the cast but there are plenty of games and fun activities to keep them amused.

DVD

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2006