Ever since Universal Pictures had decided to do a Curious George film with drawn animation I had to wonder why. I understand that going this way allowed the film to have the feel of the books, but this style of animation also looks like it is on its way to the morgue. I don't want to sound like I don't appreciate the old style of animation, but it has become a fact that most of the recent drawn animated films won't turn out to be great films. Add the fact that the old medium favors the youngest of young audiences and Universal might find it hard to get the chaperons to the theatres.
Curious George is on its way to theatres this Friday and audiences will either experience further evidence that CG animation is here to stay or a film that could create a brief revival in the medium.
Fortunately, some early reviews should give us a sense of what to expect.
Curious George Reviews
Movie reviews have begun to pop up for Curious George and, for the most part, they are above par.
Below are one positive and one negative review to appear online for Curious George.
Variety
It's not just the animation that's two-dimensional in "Curious George." Rudimentary on every level, this long-gestating Universal pic based on the children's character is pitched toward the youngest of kids -- roughly ages zygote to 4 -- with direct-to-video quality animation, plotting and backgrounds. Nothing wrong with that per se, except there's zero here to divert adults, making its 86 minutes feel dangerously close to a hostage situation. The appetite for even mediocre G-rated fare suggests there's a market for this (see "Chicken Little"), but "George" is much better suited to home viewing, allowing parents to seek refuge elsewhere.
TheHollywoodReporter
The curious thing about "George," though, is that it might have erred on the side of being a little too benign.
Fleshing out the script to give the enigmatic Man in the Yellow Hat a much greater presence in order to accommodate Will Ferrell's decidedly 3-D personality has meant curtailing a chunk of George's shenanigans and the film bears the weight of the resulting imbalance.
Although the revised buddy picture might have some viewers taking that "Show Me the Monkey!" tagline to heart, youngsters should be appropriately tickled, while older viewers will still happily bask in all that mellow yellow nostalgia.
Though THR is a bit more positive in its review of Curious George, I believe the overall message for the film should be that adults will suffer while their kids enjoy the monkey.
Thank God I don't have any kids.
Curious George comes to theatres this Friday, February 10th.
For the trailers, movie stills, large poster, full synopsis and more movie info, go to the Curious George Movie Page.
Curious George 
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