Toon Talk - From the Other Side: Curious George
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(c) Universal Pictures
The reasons for this failure are as easy to decipher as George’s finger paintings. The original Curious George stories were hardly what anyone could characterize as plot-heavy. So, by forcing him into the long form narrative format required of a feature film, the writers (and a slew of ’em took a crack at this one) have diluted what makes George George in favor of focusing instead on the contrived problems of his “owner�?, The Man in the Yellow Hat. Holy bananas, why him? Because Ted (after all these years, he finally gets a name) is voiced by inexplicable box office star Will Ferrell, and apparently they wanted to get their money’s worth (especially since his last string of films - Kicking and Screaming, Bewitched and The Producers - have not exactly climbed to Elfin grosses).
The film’s plot is all about Will … I mean, Ted, with George merely a sidekick to the big money funny man in his own movie. A museum nerd along the lines of Friend Ross Geller, Ted travels to Africa to find an ancient giant monkey temple (don’t ask) to save the museum from being leveled and replaced with a parking garage. On this safari, he of course meets our true hero, who stows away on the voyage back to the big city (presumably New York) and, his curiosity peaked, causes all sorts of shenanigans for the geek in the yellow hat, before he somehow manages to set things right - or as right as a monkey can set them.
(c) Universal Pictures
Along the way, we do get nostalgic set pieces, lifted directly from the books, which prove that one should never leave a monkey unsupervised with open cans of paint or helium balloons around. These homages to the original source material are certainly fun, but there are not enough of them - no firemen, no ether bottles. Moreover, most every scene is set to some generic, mind-numbingly dull song written by Jack Johnson, who, with just this one movie, equals Randy Newman in rhythmic repetitiveness.
All through this, Ferrell just does not shut up - no gag is too anemic for him to milk dry. His presence (which irrevocably proves that one need not be actually seen to look like a complete idiot) is just the latest in a long line of celebrity voice stunt casting, regardless if the part calls for it or not. After all, there is nothing about The Man in the Yellow Hat that screams funny, so why cast a comedian?
Such blatant casting by star name only (by the way, does anyone actually go to an animated movie because of the voices?) is further evidenced by Tim’s love interest (alas, no monkey love for George), voiced by Drew Barrymore, who apparently is making a career out of co-starring with every single doofy ex-SNLer. Without much impact, Dick Van Dyke, Eugene Levy and Joan Plowright are also heard in smaller roles.