The "Curious George" books were never my first choice for reading, even as a kid, but they were my wife's favourites, and so we rented this for our 3 year old daughter. It's a kids movie, and she watched it all the way through and her attention didn't seem to wander much, so I have to rate this as a success.
The story was updated pretty well to the 21st century (for example, cell phones) and the story was fun to follow and solved at least one of the things I didn't like about the original stories. My memory is that back then, George was captured by the man in the yellow hat (voiced in this movie by Will Ferrell) and brought back to a zoo, where the man tells him he'll be so much happier. This story is a little more eco-friendly. George likes Ted (the name of the man in the yellow hat) and follows him back without his knowledge. I still have a bit of trouble with the monkey wanting to leave the jungle to become a pet, but, hey, it's a kiddie movie, right? In a couple of ways, the movie is too formulaic. There's the apparently requisite romance, for example, between Ted and Maggie (Drew Barrymore.) Would kids really care? And, of course, there has to be the evil character, in the form of Junior (David Cross), whose father Mr. Bloomsberry (Dick Van Dyke) owns the museum Ted works at, and who sets out to close it to build a parking lot.
Having said that, the movie worked (especially for the target audience.) I got worried at one point because it seemed as though the solution for saving the museum was going to be built on a lie (what kind of message would that have been for kiddies?) but finally the lie is abandoned (interestingly enough it's evil Junior who points out that lying would be wrong - although he does it for his own evil purposes!) It's a lot of fun and has some great animation; worth renting for the kids, or if you have unsatisfied longings to return to your childhood. 7/10
The story was updated pretty well to the 21st century (for example, cell phones) and the story was fun to follow and solved at least one of the things I didn't like about the original stories. My memory is that back then, George was captured by the man in the yellow hat (voiced in this movie by Will Ferrell) and brought back to a zoo, where the man tells him he'll be so much happier. This story is a little more eco-friendly. George likes Ted (the name of the man in the yellow hat) and follows him back without his knowledge. I still have a bit of trouble with the monkey wanting to leave the jungle to become a pet, but, hey, it's a kiddie movie, right? In a couple of ways, the movie is too formulaic. There's the apparently requisite romance, for example, between Ted and Maggie (Drew Barrymore.) Would kids really care? And, of course, there has to be the evil character, in the form of Junior (David Cross), whose father Mr. Bloomsberry (Dick Van Dyke) owns the museum Ted works at, and who sets out to close it to build a parking lot.
Having said that, the movie worked (especially for the target audience.) I got worried at one point because it seemed as though the solution for saving the museum was going to be built on a lie (what kind of message would that have been for kiddies?) but finally the lie is abandoned (interestingly enough it's evil Junior who points out that lying would be wrong - although he does it for his own evil purposes!) It's a lot of fun and has some great animation; worth renting for the kids, or if you have unsatisfied longings to return to your childhood. 7/10