Curious George (film)

Curious George
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Matthew O'Callaghan
Produced by	Ron Howard David Kirschner
Screenplay by	Ken Kaufman
Story by	Ken Kaufman Mike Werb
Based on	Curious George by Margret Rey Hans Augusto Rey
Starring	Will Ferrell Frank Welker Drew Barrymore Dick Van Dyke David Cross Eugene Levy
Music by	Heitor Pereira (score) Jack Johnson (songs)
Studio	Imagine Entertainment Universal Animation Studios
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	February 10, 2006 (2006-02-10)
Running time	86 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$50 million
Box office	$69,834,815

Curious George is a 2006 traditionally animated film adaptation of the children's stories by H.A. and Margret Rey. Will Ferrell voices Ted. Matthew O'Callaghan directed (after replacing Jun Falkenstein). This project had been in development hell at Imagine Entertainment for a long time, dating back at least as long ago as 1992 (and possibly many years before this).

The screenplay was written by Michael McCullers, Dan Gerson, Rob Baird, Joe Stillman and Karey Kirkpatrick. Although it is a traditionally animated film, about twenty percent of it takes place in 3D environments that were computer-generated. This was Universal's first theatrically released feature-length animated film since 1995's Balto. It was Imagine Entertainment's first animated film.

Plot

A clumsy, mischievous, friendly and curious monkey named George (Frank Welker) lives in the jungles of Africa. His behavior amuses the other young jungle animals, but angers their parents; therefore George is left sad and alone.

Meanwhile, at the Bloomsberry Museum, Ted (Will Ferrell), a museum employee, teaches schoolchildren about natural history, not realizing that his lectures bore them. Afterward, he has a talk with Maggie (Drew Barrymore), the school teacher, who admires him and for whom he has strong feelings. Later, Mr. Bloomsberry (Dick Van Dyke), the owner of the museum, tells Ted that he is pressed to close the museum by his son, Bloomsberry Junior (David Cross), who wishes to build a parking garage in its stead. This upsets Ted, who suggests, to revive the museum's popularity, that they obtain a statue called the Lost Shrine of Zagawa. Mr. Bloomsberry is too old to go, but Ted quickly volunteers to make the expedition. Junior, frustrated, modifies his father's map of Africa to prevent Ted from finding the Shrine.

Ted is tricked into purchasing a yellow safari outfit with a yellow hat. In Africa, Ted leads a group on a four-day hike to the lost shrine. George spots the yellow hat and, mistaking it for a large banana, follows the group. They soon notice each other and become friends. When Ted reaches the end of Junior's sabotaged map, he encounters a miniature idol; believing this to be Zagawa itself, he gets depressed. He gets a call from Mr. Bloomsberry and sends a picture of the statue. However, the angle of the picture causes Mr. Bloomsberry to believe the idol is much bigger. Ted returns to the docks, while George quickly follows with the hat. George sneaks onto the ship and rides to the city without Ted's knowledge.

Upon arrival, Ted rides home in a taxi, and George follows him all the way to his apartment. Through a series of misadventures, Ted is evicted for violating a no-pets rule. Upset, Ted wonders what he is going to do with George. Together, they walk to the Bloomsberry Museum, where crowds of people await to see the idol. Junior overhears Ted complaining about the tiny idol and use this to humiliate Ted. George inadvertently destroys a dinosaur skeleton, and Junior shoves Ted out of the museum.

With nowhere to go, Ted and George sleep in a park. The next morning, Ted awakes to find George gone. Hearing a commotion, he follows it to a zoo, where he finds George with Maggie and her class. Ted attempts to court Maggie, but George starts floating away, suspended by a bunch of balloons, and Ted goes after him in the same way. Together, they fly around the city, held aloft by Ted's balloons and using a kite to control their direction. When they float over the Bloomsberry museum, Ted holds out the idol and wishes it were big, which gives him an idea.

Ted visits Clovis, an inventor who built the museum's Zagawa exhibit, who has a projection machine that can create a 40-foot-tall hologram of any object. Ted takes the projector to the museum, intending to use it to display the idol. He shows it to Mr. Bloomsbury, who agrees it would save the museum, but Junior sabotages the projector, framing George for it. Ted is forced to admit the truth to the thousands of people waiting outside, including Maggie, disappointing everyone. Angry at him, Ted allows George to be taken away by Animal Control officers and be shipped back to Africa. However, Ted's conscience convinces him that he has made a mistake or wronged his friend, as he confesses to Maggie.

Ted gets on the cargo ship and frees George. While he tries to explain to George that their friendship is more important than any idol, a beam of sunlight passes through the tiny statue, creating a pictogram showing the location of the full-size idol. Ted then realizes the true meaning of an ancient writing he saw back in Africa. Ted and George therefore travel to Africa in the ship's cargo bay, to rejoin Edu, Ted's guide, and find the true idol. Upon the exhibit's re-opening, the museum is redesigned to be more interactive, thereby igniting the children's interest in science and history. Ted and Maggie are about to become a couple in earnest when George again interrupts them by hijacking a nearby spacecraft.

Cast

• Will Ferrell as Ted Shackleford (The Man in the Yellow Hat), Curious George's friend. He is sent to find the Lost Shrine of Zagawa. He finds George and eventually befriends him loyally. Ted is somewhat clumsy, but remarkably resilient and compassionate. In a deleted scene, his last name is established as Shackleford.
• Frank Welker as Curious George, a chimpanzee living in Africa with his friends, until he follows Ted to what is apparently New York City. George is constantly curious, quite innocent of the consequences of his investigations, and compassionate. He is very clever and has an impressive proficiency in visual art, as well as a strong sense of natural beauty.
• Drew Barrymore as Maggie Dunlop, a teacher who brings her students to the Bloomsberry museum every Thursday, partly out of duty and partly out of her own romantic admiration for the dedicated and handsome Ted. Maggie is honest with Ted and presumably with her students, who express no visible reaction to her courtship of him. She is Ted's girlfriend.
• Dick Van Dyke as Mr. Bloomsberry, the kind elderly owner of the museum. Mr. Bloomsberry runs into trouble when profits are down and his son wants to turn the museum in a parking lot. He sends Ted to Africa to find the Lost Shrine of Zagawa, to hopefully attract customers to the museum.
• David Cross as Junior, the son and only child of the museum's owner, and the main antagonist of the film. He believes the museum would be of more use as a parking garage. He bears little physical appearance to his father, and is apparently jealous of Ted, who is one of the elder Bloomsberry's favorites. Ultimately, Junior becomes his father's employee and thereby earns the elder's much-coveted praise.
• Eugene Levy as Clovis, a museum employee who is an eccentric inventor. He builds robotic animals to help him with his work.
• Joan Plowright as Ms. Plushbottom, a neighbor of Ted's at his apartment builidng, Ms. Plushbottom is an opera singer about to have her room repainted. George shocks her by painting murals in her room. She takes long baths while wearing slices of cucumber on her eyelids and reacts noisily when people surprise her. She is the owner of a parking garage near the museum, which draws a great deal of revenue. The revelation of this is somewhat to Junior's annoyance.
• Ed O'Ross as Ivan, the doorman at Ted's apartment building, and possibly its landlord. When George finds his way to Ted's apartment, Ivan evicts both of them. At the end of the film, he befriends George, who had painted a portrait of Ivan on its model's back and gives Ted his apartment room back. Ivan is a large man who speaks with something akin to a Russian accent and has an especially sharp sense of smell. He can often be belligerent and frightening, though he is softhearted when George shows a liking for him. He starts off as a minor antagonist of the film. At the end, he becomes protagonist.
• Michael Chinyamurindi as Edu, Ted's African guide on both expeditions made to find the Lost Shrine of Zagawa. He is patient with Ted's clumsiness and speaks little to him, smiling indulgently.

Production

In various points during its development, it was proposed that the film be entirely CG or live-action mixed with CG, before the decision was finally made to use traditional animation to bring the titular character to life.^[1] As of 2001, Brad Bird had written a script for film.^[2]

Director Matthew O’Callaghan greatly appreciated having Dick Van Dyke voice one of the characters. "I was surprised when I actually finally met him that he had never done an animated voice before, with his association with Disney for all those years. I was just blown away so I’m going, ‘This is great,’ because as an animation director you always want to use people who are fresh, who haven’t done animated voices – at least I do." he said.^[3]

CG Supervisor Thanh John Nguyen states that they tried to duplicate the look of the cars in the book, which Executive Producer Ket Tsumura describes as bearing the look of the 1940s and '50s; According to Production Designer Yarrow Cheney, the filmmakers also partnered with Volkswagen to design the red car that Ted drives, simplifying it a bit and rounding the edges.^[4] Cheney also said that prior to this they had based some of the models on Volkswagens due to their suitability.^[4]

Difference between the film and original books

• In the books, the Man in the Yellow Hat does not have a love interest, nor is his given name ever revealed. The original books focus solely on George's misadventures, and on the Man's getting him out of trouble. Here, George is more of a catalyst to his friend's adventures.
• George, in the book, was captured by a bag. In the movie, George follows the Man in the Yellow Hat.
• In the film, when George climbs up the dinosaur bones the skeleton shatters, whereas in the books George climbs down.
• Numerous changes were made to Curious George’s appearance, such as the large eyes with pupils that replace the small black dots from the book.^[5]

Reception and box office performance

When the film was released to 2,566 theaters on February 10, 2006 and opened at #3 with a total opening weekend gross of $14,703,405 averaging to about $5,730 per theater. The film grossed a better-than-expected $58.3 million in the United States and $11.4 million overseas, totaling $69.8 million worldwide and becoming a minor success. The film was received fairly well by critics and earned a 69% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert praised the design of the film and its faithfulness to the “spirit and innocence of the books.”^[6] Since he himself didn’t particularly enjoy the film, Ebert made an exception in this case in recommending it for young children based on its better qualities, a point on which he said he disagreed somewhat with his TV show co-host Richard Roeper.^[6] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly was “pleasantly surprised” by the film’s calm tone, which he found to be against modern trends, but said that George was perhaps a bit too sweet and that the “movie comes close to denying he's any sort of troublemaker”.^[7] He noted somewhat negatively the few modern anachronisms in the film.^[7] Brian Lowry of Variety was fairly negative of the film, criticizing the quality of the animation, the music, and other aspects.^[8] Lowry notes that there are some updates to the story, such as that “The Man in the Yellow Hat” from the books is finally given a name.”^[8] He also notes that David Cross’ animated character bears a strong resemblance to the actor himself.^[8] Colin Covert of the Minneapolis Star Tribune noted that the film’s use of ‘’traditional cell painting and digital effects’’ compliments the original watercolor illustrations, and thought the film entertaining and yet still quite simple.^[9] He considered the difficulties in adapting the original stories (in which George basically causes trouble and the Man in the Yellow Hat fixes it all up) into a film, and how some conflict and a slight romantic subplot were added.^[9]

Soundtrack

Main article: Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George

Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George is the soundtrack to the film, featuring songs by Jack Johnson and Sally Williams. In its first week on Billboard 200 albums chart, the soundtrack made it to number one, making it Jack Johnson's first number one album (In Between Dreams peaked at two, On and On peaked at three) and making it the first soundtrack to reach number one since the Bad Boys II soundtrack in August 2003 and the first soundtrack to an animated film to top the Billboard 200 since Pocahontas reigned for one week in July 1995.

Home media history

• September 26, 2006 (DVD)
• March 20, 2007 (DVD - 2-pack with The Land Before Time)
• November 6, 2007 (DVD - 2-movie collection with Babe) (Note: This is a widescreen DVD box set only.)
• August 5, 2008 (Carrying Case DVD with Fun Activity Book - Universal Watch on the Go) (Note: This is a pan and scan DVD copy only.)^[10]

TV airings

The film aired on HBO and Cinemax from 2007 to 2008. Following Disney's Aladdin, the film aired on ABC Family on November 18, 2008, with an encore presentation on November 19, 2008, along with a re-airing of Garfield: The Movie. The film aired on Nickelodeon on December 19, 2010. PBS Kids will air the movie on November 23, 2011.

TV series

The film has been adapted into a PBS Kids animated television series, also called Curious George narrated by William H. Macy for Season 1 and Rino Romano from Season 2 onwards.

Sequel

A sneak peek for the sequel, Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey! was included in the special features for The Tale of Despereaux. The sequel was released on March 2, 2010.

The plot for the sequel centers around George becoming friends with a young elephant named Kayla. George tries to help Kayla travel across the country to be reunited with her family.

References

1. ^ Ball, Ryan (2006-02-10). "Moviegoers Get Curious". Animation Magazine. http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/5031. Retrieved 2008-12-29. 
2. ^ Linder, Brian (2001-07-31). "Grazer Curious About CG George". IGN. http://movies.ign.com/articles/301/301840p1.html. Retrieved 2008-12-29. 
3. ^ Murray, Rebecca. "Director Matthew O'Callaghan Talks About the Family Movie "Curious George"". About.com. http://movies.about.com/od/curiousgeorge/a/curiousmo012906.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-01. 
4. ^ ^{a b} (DVD) Curious George. Bonus Features: A Very Curious Car. Universal Studios Home Entertainment. 2006. 
5. ^ Strike, Joe (2006-02-10). "Curious & Curiouser (continued from page 1)". Animation World Magazine. AWN. http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=Special+Features&category2=&article_no=2785&page=2. Retrieved 2008-12-29. 
6. ^ ^{a b} Ebert, Roger (2006-02-10). "Curious George". Rogerebert.com. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060209/REVIEWS/60206001/1023. Retrieved 2008-03-14. 
7. ^ ^{a b} Gleiberman, Owen (2006p-02-10). "Movie Review: Curious George (2006)". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1157661,00.html. Retrieved 2009-03-14. 
8. ^ ^{a b c} Lowry, Brian (2006-02-04). "Curious George". Variety. Reed Business. http://www.variety.com/awardcentral_review/VE1117929466.html?nav=reviews07&categoryid=2352&cs=1. Retrieved 2009-03-14. 
9. ^ ^{a b} Covert, Colin (2006-02-10). "Movie review: A curiously mild 'Curious George': "Curious George" stays true to its gentle beginnings.". Star Tribune. http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/11520421.html. Retrieved 2009-03-18. 
10. ^ Amazon.com: Curious George Carrying Case: Drew Barrymore, David Cross, Richard Epcar, Donald Fullilove, Bridget Hoffman, Clint Howard, Rif Hutton, Donna Lynn Leavy, John Mariano, Ed O'Ross, Joan Plowright, Kath Soucie, Dick Van Dyke, Wendy Cutler, Eugene Levy, Frank Welker, Jeff Bennett, Kimberly Brooks, Jonny Solomon, Michael Sorich, Heitor Pereira, Klaus Badelt: Movies & TV

External links

• Official website
• Curious George at the Internet Movie Database
• Curious George at Box Office Mojo
• Curious George at Rotten Tomatoes
• Information on Curious George