Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas

It is quite remarkable how Disney manages to effectively market their films, and with the success of The Princess And The Frog, the incorporation of high-quality theatre hand-drawn animation is still relevant. But, it is easy to overlook the fact that the use of animation in film has not gone defunct over the past few years. Viewers were used to a plethora of traditionally animated films because of Disney’s increasing Two-D animated films every year, along with the efforts of other studios like DreamWorks and Warner Bros, so when CGI emerged as the new form of visual entertainment, they ignored animation. While it may seem that the new prince has a unique angle on it by marketing it as the ‘revival’ of animation, the truth is, it did not disappear.

There was a lot of time between the release of Horses With Home On The Range in 2005, and the debut of Frog this year, while back when Walt was still running the house, the features would only come once. Thus, it could be said that in comparison to animation, which has been practiced widely somehow against the odds, hand drawing was never that popular. Curious George was an example of the handful of studios that recently released high-quality films as opposed to Little Mouse, which released direct-to-video animations.

Up until that time, Universal’s devotion to animation was rather sour, as Universal ceased producing cartoon shorts after Walter Lantz’s Woody Woodpecker and Friends, and only tested the waters with their joint venture with Steven Spielberg, who had on his hands the production of Don Bluth’s An American Tail and The Land Before Time movies and opened the Amblimation studio that resulted in only a handful of films. Not even the grand Disney revival of the nineties, when it seemed like practically all other studios were trying their hand at animation, was enough to make Universal dive headfirst into the industry and even more so, it is only now when the computer-generated imagery has surfaced that Universal has seemed to have been enthralled by it and even that, is mostly when they are utilizing their subsidiary Focus Features.

As much as Universal is to blame for the cookie-cutter direct-to-video sequels of The Land Before Time, it does seem that they learned how to monopolize the cheaper market just like Disney. Perhaps, alongside Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment, serving as the impetus for the studio’s more recent fascination with animated series was their endeavor with Curious George. Considering talented actors like the passable Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore, and Dick Van Dyke lent their voices and combined with the stellar Margret and H.A. Rey’s animated series of books, it’s no wonder why Universal promised to support George’s transition to the screen, which resulted into an absolute stellar animated feature

Let me be clear: this is geared towards a much younger crowd but the voice talent is paired nicely with enjoyable animated sequences courtesy of a group of freelance animated including alumni from the James Baxter Animation studio, a team founded after the shuttering of Disney Animation Florida, and other freelance artists in need of work. From the original Winnie The Pooh mini-films to the captivating script and engaging vocal talent, the movie serves up an interesting take. The design was also nicely incorporated into George’s universe so Volkswagen’s ad placements were easy to ignore and instead relished the comical effect of the ad.

After its release, there was an animated series approved for PBS kids that took inspiration from the original books and it also included the development of a sequel for the movie called ‘Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey’, unfortunately the movie was never actually released. The movie was supposed to be released in 2009 but there has not even been a mention of it being released shortly. With that being said though there is another movie, ‘A Very Monkey Christmas’ that is set to release soon. It is a one-hour special that combines the intricacy of a theatrical feature and the more simplistic style of the PBS series.

In this part, we witness George and Ted (the name of the character usually referred to as The man with the yellow hat in this movie) counting the days till Christmas and preparing the house for the celebrations Of course, they try to conceal the fact that they are torn at the idea of what to gift to each other. It is an apropos work: the twist is slight, but pleasant at the same time. The part of George’s world is ultra soft and sweet and it should amuse the younger kids while allowing their parents to sit and have a laugh with them too. One can accept that George is always a fool and there is always an episode and even from time to time a few words of dialogue that are worth more than a penny for Ted.

Once more, the vintage appeal of the animation brings to mind the rather naive appearance of the Pooh cartoons. While George’s big splashing Andrew prefers set designs to Guardian graphics in A Very Monkey Christmas, the cartooning itself is swish and evokes a book adaptation of George’s The musical George’s PBS Kids’ show was either more graphic than the previous Pook TV ventures or the more recent ones.

The imaginative set designs bring up things to be watched, though George’s search for the ideal present for Ted may at times appear to be episodic, plus some recallable songs and well-contained voice acting (Frank Welker as George, Jeff Bennett, and Jim Cummings) has become quite a relief nowadays. In this manner, in Monkey Christmas, children will be delightedly immersed in the world of George and the world of animation for the very first time.

Watch “Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas” For Free on Gomovies.