SYNOPSIS:
Your favourite little monkey, Curious George comes to life for
the first time in an all-new animated movie featuring the voices
of Will Ferrell and Drew Barrymore. Discover how George
the inquisitive little guy with an insatiable taste for adventure,
first meets The Man with the Yellow Hat and ends up following
him to the big city. George's curiosity leads him and his new
human friend into lots of trouble and fun! The world's most
mischievous monkey is out of the jungle out on the town and
out for adventure!
MOVIE
REVIEW :
Before
there were automated scanning machines and robotic-voice sounding
librarians manning the place, I can still recall the frequent
trips to the community library every Saturday with my mum
and sibling. Those trips apparently transported me to a realm
inhibited by colorful characters and also to a world beyond
my frugal family can afford. Curious George and The Man with
the Yellow Hat are among the many characters that aroused
and formed the curiosity and knowledge in me.
Okay I
heard people complaining, let’s just skip this piece
of nostalgic cheese and get on with the dvd review.
Based
on the original pictorial books done by husband and wife team,
Margaret and H.A. Rey decades ago, the movie version finally
came to the big screen early this year. Produced by fame Director
Ron Howard (“A Beautiful Mind”, “The
Da Vinci Code”), “Curious George” follows
the adventures of a cheeky cute primate named George, in the
big city and his down-to-earth, shy owner Ted dubbed The Man
with the Yellow Hat.
Since
the primarily target of this animation is for the kids, do
expect frequent interruption of song routines and of course,
a rather simplistic storyline. Not that it matters really,
it has been a long while since we are exposed to such an innocuous,
pure child-like entertainment and free of pop culture references
production.
Voiced
by Will Ferrell (in a rather subdued and surprisingly effective
tone), Drew Barrymore as Ted’s love interest and Eugene
Levy (that wacky dad in “American Pie” series)
as a wacky (again!) scientist. Perhaps the little ones who
are fed on today’s 3D animation (point one) might not
appreciate the hand-drawn factor of “Curious George”
which explains the straight-to-video fate here. At the end
of the day, the movie scores not only for it’s nostalgic
factor in fact it’s a great substitute for the kids
today who are exposed to (see above point one) and heavy doses
of game consoles.
Parents
should seriously consider this dvd as an early Christmas present.
SPECIAL
FEATURES :
Contains a "Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses
trailer" and a 4 minutes segment called "A
Very Curious Car". Listen to the animators discussed
about designing Ted's red Volkswagen. Pretty interesting but
we want more!
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Although
the animation is 2D and supposedly hand-drawn, the visual
transfer on this disc is pretty much on the whole free of
dirt and specks. And of course the luxury of hearing George,
I mean Ted speaks in perfect Mandarin or Thai.
MOVIE
RATING:
DVD
RATING:
Review
by Linus Tee
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