Curious George, or as I like to call it, Chapter 14 in my new book called Hollywood, Can You Please, for the Love of Christ, Stop Fucking with My Childhood, isn’t so much of a travesty as it is an unnecessary waste of time.  It isn’t nearly as offensive as, say, any of the recent Dr. Seuss debacles, nor is it as abominable as recent classroom mainstays-turned-grimace-worthy remakes like Herbie: Fully Loaded or The Shaggy Dog.  In that regard, you could almost consider George a success for not sucking and blowing at the same time.

Not happy to be the first cartoon to feature product placement, George also takes the likable, cocksure character -- lovingly referred to as the Man in the Yellow Hat -- gives him a name, and turns him into a bumbling dork merely because his voice is provided by Will Ferrell, who has now officially beaten his aural co-stars Eugene Levy and David Cross in the prestigious "I Won’t Turn Down Any Script" category.  Wait, is “cocksure” the right word?  I mean, you’d have to be cocksure to wear a fricking yellow suit and hat, right?  Or be called the Man?

It’s nice to see both the shout out to the book’s original creators (keep you eye on the name of the boat that brings the monkey to the States), and a character portrayed by Drew Barrymore that doesn’t have breasts sagging down to her shins.  The endless Jack Johnson songs made me want to go home and wash the pedestrian off, as Jack Johnson songs are often wont to do.  I think I would have been much happier sans Ferrell, with a script that incorporated more of the original stories, and animation similar to that of H.A. Rey. 

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