In celebration of Jack Johnson's
new CD, I'll review Curious George, which has awesome jams by Jack.
Curious George is brought to life (or animation) from H. A. Rey's classic picture books. The colorful illustrations translate well into the film, which stayed faithful to traditional animation (too much 3D definitely would have ruined the movie). Ted, aka the man in the yellow hat (Will Ferrell), works at a museum that is lacking in funds and the only visitors are Miss. Dunlop and her class. The museum's owner, Mr. Bloomsberry (Dick Van Dyke) wants to close the museum to make room for a parking lot that Bloomsberry Junior (David Cross) has always wanted. To save the museum, Ted accidentally volunteers himself to go to the jungle to search for the giant lost shrine of Zagawa. Junior is jealous of Ted being the "favorite child" (even though Ted isn't even Bloomsbery's son), so he misleads Ted from the Zagawa shrine. But then again, Ted is no adventurer, so he probably would get lost without Junior's help anyways. Instead of finding the lost shrine of Zagawa, a real monkey follows Ted back to the city. Mr. Bloomsberry got the city hyped up about the monkey shrine, so Ted and George has to somehow recreate the shrine or tell the truth. They work together to try stall and think of ways to fix the shrine problem. Instead, they end up on tons of adventures: George's hologram terrorizes the city King-Kong-style, they tour the city with balloons, and they get tons laughs because they're just being silly.
Curious George surprised me. I watched it with my little sister, thinking that it was a children's movie like Clifford the Big Red Dog, but it wasn't boring at all. This movie really entertained me. The animation was minimalist, which was fitting for this movie. All of the voice acting was perfect and very comical at times. The dialogue is hilarious, especially with Will Ferrell, and there are so many funny quotes that I got out of it. George, my personal favorite, was super cute. George is the reason why kids ask for pet monkeys for Christmas. Sometimes, there are breaks with the natural laws of physics, but that's the great thing about being a kid. Everything's possible. This film makes me feel like I'm eight years old again. Kids, tell your parents that balloon travel is possible and stop analyzing it. There's some speculation that the "frightening" abandonment in the movie would scar the kids, but seriously, those people should get potty trained and suck it up. Everything doesn't need to be sugar-coated. That's why obesity is a growing problem.
