ARTSSENTERTAINMENT [3

Curiously Satisfying Curious George —

Vince Yim, OP Guy Wearing Yellow Fedora

cs

While there are those who have been blasting Hollywood named Ted (the name given to “The Man With The Yellow for adapting just about everything and “ruining” it for the — Hat,” voiced by Will Farrell,) who goes on an African jun- sake of selling a few more movie tickets, they've come out _ gle expedition to retrieve an ancient artifact, but comes

with yet another children’s book adaptation. Thankfully, home with a monkey instead. Given the monkey’s tendency they didn’t do it live action with a CGI monkey and by to get into trouble, this makes things especially difficult for changing it so the monkey can talk. _ our yellow hat-wearing hero.

Curious George tells the story of a museum tour guide Admittedly, the film doesn’t break much ground, has a

vastly over-simplified plot, and somewhat flat characteriza- tion. Okay, make that rea//y flat characterization, Certain characters exist for the sole purpose-of moving the plot forward, while some are mere archetypes (Drew Barrymore is essentially wasted as the love interest Maggie.) Storywise, it has all the earmarks of a children’s film (and is just_as predictable), although it manages to avoid saccharine sweetness.

And then there’s the product placement. The Dole fruit company gets a huge boost during a scene where George stows away on a cargo ship and knocks over a stack of fruit crates. Incidentally, a lot of bananas at real-life super- markets will have cross-promotional Curious George stick- ets on them.

Still, there is a lot to enjoy in this film, even if you are well past the age of the targeted audience. Utilizing tradi- tional 2D animation, while mixing in modern 3D-charac- ters, allows the characters to be lifelike without having the plastic stiffness of a computer-animated piece. As well, the film does have a lot of charm and heart to it, especially during the earlier scenes where George’s antics in the jun- gle earns the amusement of the other animals and gets him in trouble when the animals’ parents come to take them home. George’s parents, sadly, are nowhere to be seen. However, this isn’t Babar or Bambi, so we can only guess as to what happened to them.

While kids will mostly get a kick out of this film, there are one or two moments that will elicit a chuckle for the adult that is dragged along by kids. Whether you are in the target audience age group or you're just trying to recapture your lost youth, Curious George is an enjoyable film for everyone.

Editorial Cartoon by JJ McCullough