Curious George was released in the United States by Universal Pictures on February 10, 2006. It was met with generally positive reviews, and was a box-office disappointment, grossing $70million against a budget of $50million. It was followed by five direct-to-video sequels.
Plot
Ted is a tour guide who works at the Bloomsberry Museum and gives weekly presentations to schoolteacher Maggie Dunlop and her students. His boss, Mr. Bloomsberry, informs Ted that the museum will have to close due to dwindling funds. Bloomsberry's son, Junior, seeks to demolish the museum and replace it with a multistorey car park. To save the museum, Ted impulsively volunteers to find the Lost Shrine of Zagawa, a 40-foot-tall idol that could attract new visitors. Jealous of Ted's constant praise from Mr. Bloomsberry, Junior burns half the map to sabotage the exhibition.
Ted is outfitted with a bright yellow suit and hat from a clothing store and boards a cargo ship to the jungle of Africa, only to find that the idol is just three inches tall. He sends a photograph of it to the museum, but the picture's angle leads Mr. Bloomsberry to believe that the idol is even larger than expected. Ted befriends a curious monkey who follows him back to the city on the ship. In Ted's apartment building, the monkey vandalizes the walls of opera singer Miss Plushbottom's penthouse with paint, and Ted is evicted per the building's no-pet policy.
At the museum, Ted reveals the idol's actual size to Mr. Bloomsberry and is kicked out by Junior after the monkey accidentally destroys an Apatosaurus skeleton. After a failed call to the animal control service, Ted and the monkey are forced to sleep outside in a park. The next morning, Ted follows the monkey into the zoo and they encounter Maggie and her students. Ted names the monkey George after a nearby statue of George Washington and saves him after he floats away with helium balloons. At the home of Clovis, an inventor, George discovers that an overhead projector makes the idol appear huge. Ted and George take the projector to show to Mr. Bloomsberry, but Junior pours his latte on the projector, causing it to explode, and frames George by giving him the mug. A defeated Ted informs the public that the museum will permanently close and allows animal control officers to capture George.
Worried about George, Ted speaks with Maggie, who inspires him to rescue him. He sneaks onto the ship and reunites with George in the cargo hold. George notices that the idol reveals a pictogram when turned to the light, and Ted realizes that it is a map leading to the real idol, which they find in the jungle. The real idol is displayed in the museum, which reopens with new interactive exhibits. Ted is praised for saving the museum and is given his apartment back. During the celebration, Junior works as a valet at the museum, devastated over being unable to realize the parking lot, but Bloomsberry approves of him regardless.
Voice cast
Will Ferrell as Ted / The Man with the Yellow Hat, a tour guide at the Bloomsberry Museum. In a deleted scene, his last name was revealed to be Shackleford.[4]
Dick Van Dyke as Mr. Bloomsberry, the director and owner of the Bloomsberry Museum
David Cross as Junior, the son of the museum's owner who feels neglected by his father
Drew Barrymore as Maggie Dunlop, an elementary school teacher and Ted's love interest
Ed O'Ross as Ivan, the doorman of Ted's apartment. He strictly enforces his "No-Pet" policy and suspects Ted of having one with him. He speaks with a thick Russian accent. In an earlier version of the script, he was planned to believe that George would bite his arm.
Eugene Levy as Clovis, an inventor who builds robotic animals
Joan Plowright as Ms. Plushbottom, Ted's wealthy neighbor and opera singer, whose apartment gets vandalized by George
Michael Chinyamurindi as Edu, Ted's clumsy yet informed African guide who fails to throw Ted his suitcase in a deleted scene
Billy West as the Manager and Jeff Bennett as the Salesman, who sell Ted his yellow clothing
Production
Development
In 1990, Imagine Entertainment co-chairman Brian Grazer and producer David Kirschner had a discussion after lunch at Kirschner's home.[7] Discussing about Curious George, Grazer thought it was a "great idea" for a film distributed by Imagine.[7] The same year, producer Jon Shapiro contacted Margret Rey about the possibility of producing a film based on the book.[7] Shapiro recalled that he promised her to make the best version of Curious George as possible.[7] On June 10, 1990, it was announced that Imagine secured the film rights for Curious George, with plans to produce a live action film jointly with Hanna-Barbera Productions.[8] As of 1997, Alan J. Shalleck was directing, producing, and writing the film.[9]
Universal Pictures acquired the merchandising rights to Curious George from publisher Houghton Mifflin in September 1997, after Margret Rey's death the previous year.[7][10][11] In March 1998, Larry Guterman signed on to direct and worked closely with Imagine Entertainment co-chairman Ron Howard to develop the film.[7] However, Guterman left the project reportedly after budget concerns about the film's special effects.[12][13] By December 1998, Howard became the director of the film; it was scheduled to be released in 1999.[14]
In October 1999, Universal and Imagine were finalizing a deal with Brad Bird to write and direct a Curious George film that combined live action and computer-generated imagery (CGI).[12] In July 2001, the newly merged Vivendi Universal acquired Houghton Mifflin, with plans to position Curious George as the company's new mascot, coincident with the film's development and release.[15] In December, Universal was in negotiations with David Silverman to direct the film.[16] In September 2003, Jun Falkenstein was signed on to direct the film.[7] In August 2004, Falkenstein was fired by the studio after working for more than a year.[7] Falkenstein was replaced by Matthew O'Callaghan.[7] In late 2003, David Brewster joined the production as an animator supervisor.[7]
When O'Callaghan signed on to direct, Howard brought him into a meeting with Ken Kaufman.[7] After acknowledging issues with the previous scripts, Howard and Kaufman rewrote the story in a conference room for two weeks, taking some elements from the existing story, created new characters and the story of the film, and simplified the story elements.[7] They expanded the role of The Man in the Yellow Hat, making the script more like a buddy film rather than a film that focuses primarily on George.[7][18] The final script contained scenes inspired by well-known parts of the books.[7]
Before its full transition to animation, Grazer tried different genres for the film, including live action and live action animation, as well as digital effects, but he was worried that it would look "old-fashioned".[7] In 1999, Bird was planning to direct the film as a combination of live action and CG.[7] In July 2001, Grazer announced that it would shift the film towards all-CG due to the success of Shrek.[20] Grazer further explained that the transition was done to become easier for George to be conveyed in CGI animation.[20] Eventually, a final decision was made to use traditional animation for the film to recreate the look and feel of the Curious George books, lowering the costs of the animation.[7][21] Following a strict production schedule, the film was animated in eight studios located at the United States, Canada, France, Taiwan, and South Korea.[7]
Jack Johnson was hired to write and perform the songs in the film. Growing up liking Curious George, Johnson wrote thirteen songs for the soundtrack of the film Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George; nine of the songs were featured in the film.[7] Johnson worked closely with the animation team and created songs by writing lyrics and making rough versions of each song in response to black-and-white sketches of a scene.[22] After the editors changed the amount of frames to synchronize the beats of each song, Johnson added other instruments, including strings.[22] As George never speaks, Johnson wrote the songs and used his voice as a narrative of George, carefully writing lyrics that appeal to children that is not dumb or "too childlike" for adults.[7][23] A cavaquinho was played to represent George, and a piano set the tone for the Man in the Yellow Hat.[18]Matt Costa, Ben Harper, and G. Love were also featured in three songs.[24]
Release
In September 2003, Universal announced that Curious George was scheduled to be released on October 7, 2005.[7] After DreamWorks Pictures scheduled Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit to be released a week early, it was shifted to November 4.[7] In August 2004, the release date was moved to February 2006.[7] The world premiere of Curious George took place on January 28, 2006 at the ArcLight Hollywood in Los Angeles.[25] The film was released on February 10 in 2,566 theaters.[3] It ranked at #3 with a total opening weekend gross of $14.7 million averaging $5,730 per theater.[3] The film grossed $58.4 million in the United States and $11.5 million overseas, totaling $69.9 million worldwide.[3]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 70% of 106 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.10/10.The website's consensus reads: "Curious George is a bright, sweet, faithful adaptation of the beloved children's books."[27]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 62 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[28] Audiences polled by CinemaScore during opening weekend gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[29] Reviews frequently praised the film's light-hearted tone and its traditional animation style, though some criticized the plot and modern references.[27]
In The New York Times, Dana Stevens called the film "an unexpected delight", praising its "top-drawer voice talent" and "old-fashioned two-dimensional animation that echoes the simple colors and shapes of the books".[30]The Austin Chronicle's Marrit Ingman wrote positively of the film's "sweet, simple message" that "children see the world differently and have much to teach the people who love them".[31]Christy Lemire of the Associated Press praised George's character design, writing that "with his big eyes and bright smile and perpetually sunny disposition, he's pretty much impossible to resist".[32]Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, noting that it remained "faithful to the spirit and innocence of the books" and writing that the visual style was "uncluttered, charming, and not so realistic that it undermines the fantasies on the screen". Ebert wrote that while he did not particularly enjoy the film himself, he nevertheless gave the film a "thumbs up" on his Ebert & Roeper show because he felt that it would be enjoyable for young children.[33]
Richard Roeper, Ebert's co-host, criticized the film for similar reasons and said that he could not "tell people my age, or someone twenty-five [years old], that they should spend nine or ten bucks to see this movie".[27] Brian Lowry of Variety felt that the plot was too simplistic, writing that the film consisted primarily of "various chases through the city" and was "rudimentary on every level".[34] On the other hand, Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune wrote that the film was "overplotted and misfocused" and that "the script's jokes are tougher to find than the shrine", though he praised the film for staying "relatively faithful to the style of the original and delightful H. A. Rey illustrations".[35] Jan Stuart of Newsday criticized the modern references in the film, including cell phones and lattes, writing that they resulted in "modernization traps that the makers of the very respectable Winnie the Pooh films managed to avoid".[36]Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly also negatively noted the anachronisms in the film, such as the use of caller ID.[37]
A sequel, Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey!, was released on March 2, 2010. The plot of 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. A second sequel, Curious George 3: Back to the Jungle was released on June 23, 2015. A third sequel, Curious George: Royal Monkey, serving as the fourth film of the series, which is flash-animated instead of traditionally animated was released on DVD on September 10, 2019. A fourth sequel titled Curious George: Go West, Go Wild premiered on September 8, 2020 on Peacock,[40] and was also released on DVD and digital on December 15.[41] A fifth sequel, Curious George: Cape Ahoy, serving as the sixth and final film of the series, was released on Peacock on September 30, 2021. With the exceptions of Frank Welker and Ed O'Ross, none of the voice cast from the original film returned for the sequels.
Live-action remake
In July 2010, shortly after the release of their first film, Despicable Me, Illumination Entertainment was reportedly developing an animated film based on the book,[42][43] but the project never materialized.
In August 2016, Andrew Adamson was in negotiations to direct, write, and produce a live-action adaptation of Curious George for Universal Pictures, along with Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, David Kirschner, Jon Shapiro, and Erica Huggins serving as executive producers for it.[44][45] By March 2020, Jim Taylor was brought to re-write the film.[46]
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