Movie Review: Space Chimps

TITLE: Space Chimps

STATS: U.S. RATING: G RUN TIME: 81 min GENRE: Animation/Comedy/Sci-fi/Family DATE: 6/18/2008 COMPANY: Vanguard Animation LANGUAGE: English

MY SUMMARY: An evil alien has taken over and enslaved his home planet with the help of Earth technology. Now, the descendent of the very first chimp in space, Ham III and his chimp team must fly to the alien planet and rescue the technology as well as the native alien race. However, there are many perils on the planet and much restlessness from the grumpy, scheming senator on Earth. Now, the fate of an alien planet and NASA rest in the furry hands of the space chimps.

IMDB SUMMARY: Jeff Daniels, Stanley Tucci, Cheryl Hines, and Andy Samberg lend their voices to this computer-animated comedy following the descendants of the first chimps in space as they blast off for fun and adventure on a far-away planet. Ham III (Samberg) is the grandson of Ham, the first-ever chimp astronaut. This ne'er-do-well chimp may not be the most qualified ape for the job, but a scheming senator (Tucci) has recruited him for a most dangerous mission. It seems that a powerful tyrant (Daniels) has overtaken an alien world, and now it's up to Ham III and his trusty simian crew (Hines and Patrick Warburton) to help overthrow the deep-space despot. Perhaps with some training from Ham III's mentor (Kenan Thompson) and the help of a friendly alien (Kristin Chenoweth) this fearless group of anthropoids can make the universe a safer place for aliens and humans alike.

DIRECTOR: Kirk De Micco

ACTORS: Andy Samberg, Cheryl Hines, Jeff Daniels, Patrick Warburton, Stanley Tucci, Kristin Chenoweth, Jane Lynch

MY RATING: 4 out of 10

ROTTEN TOMATOES RATING: 36%

MOVIEFONE RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

ROGER EBERT RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

THE GOOD: So there isn’t a ton that I thought was super good about this movie, but it does have some redeeming qualities, though not many. The humor and graphics in the movie was nowhere near Pixar quality, but I was expecting as much. However, the graphics were better than I thought they would be for the most part. The areas that I thought they could have improved upon was the “freznar”, which looks like an amateur animated it using some chrome filter in photoshop and the flesh-eating beast scene. When watching this scene, I wasn’t entirely sure what exactly I was watching. The reason being that the background, the creature and the characters all look like they’re are completely separate elements made from different things. For example, it looks like the characters are CG, the creature is somehow real or a puppet with the silicon skin and the background (which is a cave) is real footage. It’s a weird scene, but I thought the creature was done really well and looked pretty realistic. The music in the movie was done by The Blue Man Group which you will notice as soon as the movie begins. The Blue Man Group is known for using their experimental instruments that they create themselves and it is these instruments that make the music of the alien world come alive in the opening scene. The humor, although nothing hilarious enough for quoting, isn’t too bad. If you have young kids (I have 3 under the age of 3 right now), chances are they will find it pretty funny. It’s colorful enough and has enough action and movement to keep them entertained for the most part. The humor is clichéd, but there were still a few parts that made me chuckle. You just can’t take the movie too seriously.

THE BAD: Space Chimps has two different sides, the Earth/human/chimp side and the alien side. Now, the alien side has its own civil struggles because of our technology, but the movie doesn’t spend enough time (maybe 30 seconds worth actually) getting us used to and connected to the alien race, so we don’t feel any sympathy for them when the “evil” alien takes over. And that is another thing, the evil alien Zartog isn’t all that evil. His voice isn’t evil, his look isn’t evil  and his actions aren’t all that evil. Sure, he may dunk the aliens in the freznar, but they don’t die, they just stay frozen. And the freznar doesn’t look all that bad since it cracks as easy as that chocolate topping for ice cream. All this adds to the lack of sympathy I have for the aliens. Something else that annoyed me through the whole movie is the fact that Houston’s voice didn’t seem to “mesh” with the other voices. It was almost otherworldly. I don’t know if he was standing too close to the mic or what, but it just doesn’t seem to fit for some reason. And the last thing that I thought was bad enough to be included in this section was the lack of good adult humor. Like I mentioned before, this movie is nowhere near what Pixar and Disney have come out with, but it’s almost like they didn’t really try in some parts. The script tries for some adult humor, but misses completely. Luckily, I’m more childish than I am responsible and adult-like, so it was the little-kid humor that made me smile. So, when you watch this movie, keep in mind that you have to watch it like you’re a young child and you’ll enjoy it more.

FUN FACTS:  Fittingly, the teaser ad for this movie premiered on June 20th 2008 during a Fox broadcast of another 'Monkey in Space' movie - 2001's remake of "Planet of the Apes" Adam Samberg contributed to much of the humor in the movie

WORD OCCURS WORD OCCURS A** 0 RACIAL FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN 0 A**H**E 0 B*****D 0 RACIAL FOR HISPANIC 0 B**CH 0 C*** 0 RACIAL FOR ASIAN 0 D**N 0 F*** 0 RACIAL FOR CAUCASSIAN 0 G**D*** 0 H**L 0 RACIAL FOR OTHER 0 M*****F****R 0 S**T 0 LORD'S NAME IN VAIN 4 * These numbers are as accurate as possible, but some mistakes may be present. This is to give a general idea of the vulgarity and not to represent a precise measurement system.