Film Reviews

Curious George

• Rating:
• Director: Matthew O'Callaghan
• Starring: Drew Barrymore
• Details: US, 86mins, G.

Curious George is the animated version of finding malteasers in your diet coke. Adapting a popular children's book has proved hazardous in the past: The Cat In The Hat, The Polar Express and The Grinch have all come up short at the box office; but Imagine Entertainment (under the watchful eye of Ron Howard) have taken H.A Rey's books and kept the naive, untainted sheen. The story centres on the man with the yellow hat, now given the name of Ted (Ferrell), who hopes to save a museum from going under by retrieving a towering statue to wow the public. The statue Ted sought turns out to be a little smaller than first thought and on his way back, he finds that the impish stowaway and impossibly cute George (voiced by Frank Welker) has followed him home. How can the museum, run by the esteemed Bloomsberry (Dick Van Dyke) survive now and how will Ted adjust to life with a monkey? If you want your kids to glimpse a world where nothing bad happens and people smile a lot, this is the one for you. Thin on theme (and everything else), this is a safe house for parents who want their kids' entertainment to be clean and short and is one is for the youngest of rugrats only. For grumpy, hungover adults - it's a no-no.

Review by Gavin Burke