Movie Review: Curious George

Curious George: Torgo approves

So the little man had to go for a little operation yesterday, which meant that when we got home, it was a day for peaceful kid's movie watching. He doesn't watch much tv, but it can be one of the few things to make him sit quietly, which we needed him to do.

So aside from "Shrek," which we own and, speaking for the adults, had seen, we watched the "Curious George" movie. The boy loves that monkey.

When he was small(er), we got some of the original George books from the library. Wow, they're offensive. It's your typical "noble white man saves poor, ignorant creature from wilds of dark, dark Africa" story. It's overtly, horribly racist.

They managed to keep much of the story intact and lose most of the racism factor here. George follows the man onto his boat, he isn't "rescued." There is still a plot involving cultural pillaging, but it's less offensive than pretty much any Disney movie.

Will Ferrell plays the man in the yellow hat well. Drew Barrymore plays an excessively flirtatious, um, flirt -- that was weird, that's all she does in the movie. She shows up and flirts. Dick Van Dyke gets work as the museum owner. And David Cross is his maniacal son. (sidenote: what an odd world it'd be if David Cross was Dick Van Dyke's son. That's kind of like Johnny Knoxville being Bob Newhart's son.)

It's an entertaining little movie. I find something about George's endless mischief-making annoying, especially as he never learns anything. But it's amusing.