Movie Type: Animal Picture, Family-Oriented Adventure
Themes: Mischievous Children, Nothing Goes Right, Race Against Time
Main Cast: Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore, Frank Welker, Shane Baumel, Timyra-Joi Beatty
Release Year: 2006
Country: US
Run Time: 86 minutes
MPAA Rating: G
Plot
The naughty little monkey from Margret Rey and H.A. Rey's beloved children's stories makes the leap to the big screen in this animated adaptation. Ted (voice of Will Ferrell) is an explorer with a large yellow hat who is good friends with Bloomsberry (voice of Dick Van Dyke), who runs a natural history museum. Bloomsberry's greedy son, Bloomsberry Junior (voice of David Cross), wants to tear down his dad's museum and put a parking ramp in its place, but the elder Bloomsberry is convinced that a spectacular new exhibit could save the museum from the wrecking ball. Ted heads to Africa on an expedition to find some special artifacts that will keep his friend in business, but while he's there he befriends a playful monkey he calls George (voice of Frank Welker). While George is friendly, he has a taste for mischief and seems to always get Ted in hot water; Ted thinks he's seen the last of his simian friend when his ship heads back to America, until he discovers that George managed to hide aboard the boat before it set sail. Ted's search for a eye-catching exhibit proved to be a failure, and Ted and his good friend Maggie (voice of Drew Barrymore), a schoolteacher who's sweet on him, struggle to find of a way to save Bloomsberry's museum. But time becomes precious for Ted when George has an entire new city to explore. Curious George features a handful of original songs composed for the film by surfer-turned-singer/songwriter Jack Johnson. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Bright, gentle, and full of goodwill, this adaptation of the classic Curious George children's books fulfills its contract with the audience. Little kids will enjoy the simple but attractive color scheme, George's playful personality, and the hummable melodies of Jack Johnson's numerous contributions to the soundtrack. This is one of the most thoroughly "G" rated movies of its time, there is not even a suggestion of anything edgy, but the casting of Will Ferrell and David Cross offers just enough promise of strangeness to keep parents smiling. Thoroughly and entirely pleasant, Curious George avoids the in-your-face attitude and style of so many of its contemporaries, something that helps create a mood that allows children to be drawn into the film at their own speed. The filmmakers respect and reward the curiosity of their youngest audience members, just as they do their title character. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Christopher Chen - Kid; Jessie Flower - Kid; Alexander Gould - Kid; Terrence Hardy - Kid; Hailey Johnson - Kid; Kelsey Lansdowne - Kid; Ariel Winter - Kid; Dick Van Dyke - Mr. Bloomsberry; David Cross - Bloomsberry Junior; Billy West - Manager; Jeff Bennett - Salesman; Michael Chinyamurindi - Edu; Michael Sorich - 'Seen It' Cab Driver; Ed O'Ross - Ivan; Joan Plowright - Miss Plushbottom; Eugene Levy - Clovis; Kath Soucie - Animal Control Receptionist; Clint Howard - Balloon Man; Kimberly Brooks; Wendy Cutler; Joey D'Auria; Richard Epcar; Treva Etienne; Eddie Frierson; Donald Fullilove; Philip Maurice Hayes; Bridget Hoffman; Rif Hutton; Steve Kehela; Donna Lynn Leavy; Nadia Lewis; John Mariano; Caitlin McKenna; Kerry Michele; Juan Pope; Jonny Solomon; Mandy Steckelberg; Fred Tatasciore
Credit
Russ Edmonds - Animator, Marc Eoche-Cuval - Animator, Sandro Cleuzo - Animator, Uriel Mimran - Animator, Steve Baker - Animator, Florian Wagner - Animator, Mike MacDougall - Animator, Tobias Schwarz - Animator, Sean Springer - Animator, Antoine Antin - Animator, Bee Shyu - Animator, Travis Blaise - Animator, Todd Bright - Animator, Larry Cariou - Animator, Cat Lin - Animator, Chun Mao Jiang - Animator, Ron Cohee - Animator, Odile Comon - Animator, Todd Cronin - Animator, Dan Chen - Animator, Dawson Li - Animator, Jeoen Dejonckheere - Animator, Jean-Sebastien Duclos - Animator, Frank Liu - Animator, Frog Shi - Animator, Edison Goncalves - Animator, Dax Gordine - Animator, Gou Xiong Tu - Animator, Cerissa Grieve - Animator, Grant Harris - Animator, Alexandre Hesse - Animator, Hsiang Huang - Animator, John Hurst - Animator, Ivan Yu - Animator, Joey Chu - Animator, Blair Kitchen - Animator, Chris Land - Animator, Kezia Ma - Animator, Deanna Marsigliese - Animator, Satjit Matharu - Animator, May Chang - Animator, Mei Ju - Animator, Michael Huang - Animator, Branko Mihanovic - Animator, Mike Li - Animator, Daniel O'Sullivan - Animator, Orma Huang - Animator, Pearl Li - Animator, Shannon Penner - Animator, Pierre Perifel - Animator, Perry Chen - Animator, Jens Pindal - Animator, Show Chen - Animator, Wade Hong - Animator, Nadine Wagner - Animator, Samantha Youssef - Animator, Eagle Zheng - Animator, Mary Hidalgo - Casting, Mary Thorne - Consultant/advisor, Pete Denomme - Consultant/advisor, Alastair King - Conductor, Matthew O'Callaghan - Director, Julie Rogers - Editor, Bonne Radford - Executive Producer, James Whitaker - Executive Producer, David Bernardi - Executive Producer, Ken Tsumura - Executive Producer, Mary Alice Drumm - Line Producer, Heitor Pereira - Composer (Music Score), Jack Johnson - Songwriter, Yarrow Cheney - Production Designer, Lizabeth Velasco - Production Manager, Pierre Chiasson - Production Manager, Stephen R. Craig - Production Manager, Dae Won Cho - Production Manager, Danny Yeh - Production Manager, Gin Liu - Production Manager, James Hathcock - Production Manager, Joe Hernandez - Production Manager, Kim Repka - Production Manager, Susan Chen - Production Manager, Brian Grazer - Producer, Ron Howard - Producer, David Kirschner - Producer, Jon Shapiro - Producer, George Thompson - Recording, Cheryl Murphy - Sound/Sound Designer, Ken Kaufman - Screen Story, Mike Werb - Screen Story, Ken Kaufman - Screenwriter, Richard "Bo" Dietl - Associate Editor, Mark Deimel - Associate Editor, Hans Zimmer - Executive Music Producer, Kathy Nelson - Executive Music Producer, Jack Johnson - Musical Performer, Zach Gill - Musical Performer, Merlo Podlewski - Musical Performer, Adam Topol - Musical Performer, Cheryl Murphy - Post Production Supervisor, Chris Jenkins - Re-Recording Mixer, Frank A. Montaño - Re-Recording Mixer, Gregory King - Supervising Sound Editor, Darren King - Supervising Sound Editor, Maureen Higgins - Production Accountant, John Alfred - Production Accountant, John Pomeroy - Storyboard Artist, Frans Vischer - Storyboard Artist, Bert Ring - Storyboard Artist, Barry Caldwell - Storyboard Artist, Kevin Gollaher - Storyboard Artist, Caroline Cruikshank - Storyboard Artist, Kirk Hanson - Storyboard Artist, Don Dougherty - Storyboard Artist, Hank Tucker - Storyboard Artist, Jorgen Klubien - Storyboard Artist, Kurt R. Anderson - Storyboard Artist, Peter Paul Bautista - Storyboard Artist, James Fujii - Storyboard Artist, Christien Lignan - Storyboard Artist, James Mitchell - Storyboard Artist, Ray Nadeau - Storyboard Artist, David Stephan - Storyboard Artist, Darrell Rooney - Sequence Director, H.A. Rey - Book Author, Margret Rey - Book Author, Shane Prigmore - Character Design, Jeffrey P. Johnson - Character Design, Prologue - Title Design
