Space Chimps

I can say for most viewers in my cinema by their -sighs-, that Space Chimps was a led down. Although SOME bits were "almost" half-funny, most of the movie was portrayed through dull characters and not such a good storyline.

The disappointing thing was, that this movie could of had so much more to give and un-tapped potential, but instead was just a let down for me.

Personally, this movie would not be entertaining for most people above the age of 15+, yet more for families with their little kids.

Overall, it was a mediocre, and should be viewed by either kids, or people that like repeated jokes, and already used story lines. Rated 5/10

Disclaimer: I have no particular interest in chimps. The first email I ever sent was to what was at the time my favorite pop radio station, complimenting the chimp they had obviously hired to come up with their short-lived strange music mix.

This turned out to be better than I expected. Sure, the humor was silly, but it was fun. The nerdy scientists had some of the best lines. And there were enjoyable jokes--if you're not expecting real quality, that is--from our heroes, the aliens, and the villain.

This was also an inspiring story, because our heroes had to accomplish so much on their own, unable to communicate with home base. And their counterparts back home proved quite intelligent, even if humans could only hear screeching noises from them. The original Ham provided a touching moment from the great beyond.

I don't recall any standout performances, but Kristin Chenoweth was so cute as a tiny alien creature with a beautiful operatic voice whose contribution proved valuable. Whenever she got scared or excited, she hit that high note so marvelously.

It had to be intentional that Luna looked like Cheryl Hines. I don't recall any other characters being drawn to look like the corresponding voice actor, but she was really good-looking for a chimp. I don't actually think the real Cheryl Hines has that pretty a face, but I can see how one might think she is pretty. And the resemblance adds so much to Luna, making her seem more human.

The G rating is a little surprising considering all the potty humor, but apparently more is considered acceptable these days. The "violence" of the villain freezing those who disagree isn't as bad as it looks.

It's a worthwhile film, but nothing ground-breaking.

Have you seen movies that almost wore you out after 45 minutes? Im talking about too much action, too much bickering and yelling between people, too much happening the screen, too loud.....just too much. You want to cry, "enough, already....give us a few lulls!" That's how found this cute-at-first animated film which starts off great but quickly spirals into the "too much" category and never lets go. Maybe I'm just too old for this sort of thing; maybe this is what five or ten-year-olds want....but I'm not surprised this animated film wasn't a hit - with adults or some kids.

Don't get wrong: there are a number of funny lines in here, the animation is great in spots, and some of the characters (i.e. "Kilowatt") are very appealing. It's just that the film feels rushed, right from the start. One can never just settle down and enjoy the stories, character and artwork. This story needed more lulls.

It also need less ("wink" "wink") inside, pretentious remarks by the writers, who tried too hard to get their PC agendas in here throughout. The "heroes," the space chimps, were always bickering among themselves. That led to some funny put-down lines but also got tiring, too, after almost an hour of it. The villain, "Zartog," meanwhile, was just plain stupid. Nobody that silly/dumb, even in science fiction, could rule anyone.

In all, it was just too disjointed and too frenetic - all the while being predictable - to enjoy. Although only 80 minutes in length, I found myself often checking how much time was left in the film.

I'm not really sure what you people were looking for, but this movie was, at worst, fairly enjoyable. It will not win the academy award for best animated film, but there are thousands of other, much, much worse animated films out there. This review isn't to help anyone decide if they should rent the movie or not (maybe I'm biased because I only paid $1.00 to rent it?), but more so to just defend it a little bit. My 5 and 6 year old sons got a kick out of it. THAT'S IT. Review could be over here. They are intelligent boys who have seen some great kids movies - and they recognize the great ones. They know this one was not one of the best movies they've ever seen. And they don't care. They pretty much enjoyed it, and that's all you should expect. It was a G-rated movie which is nice to see (they're watching "Surf's Up" - free on cable right now - and one of the characters said "crap" which I don't like). It had an OK plot, OK/somewhat amusing characters, some excitement, some funny stuff, a clear point/moral (people who don't catch that should NOT be allowed to write reviews). Stop making more of it than it is. I mean, one reviewer - or maybe it was on a message board - said (and I'm paraphrasing just a little bit), "I didn't connect with any of the characters AND NEITHER DID MY 4 YEAR OLD SON." I wonder how exactly they asked their 4-yr old the question... "honey, did you feel a connection with any of the Space Chimps? How about the aliens? No, none of them either? Hmmm, I thought so..." C'MON!! Hey, if you paid $10 bucks a pop to see this one, well shame on you. But otherwise, get over it, folks! It's not that bad.

Three chimps are trained via the space program to save aliens who have become the victims to a ruthless dictator. Very slight animated feature that is pleasant enough, but may bore some more discriminating viewers. With that said, "Space Chimps" should be enjoyable to the youngsters and some of the tongue-in-cheek humor will keep most hardened adults watching as well. Good animation techniques, cool voice characterizations, and an adequate story are more than enough here to keep this spaceship flying at a safe orbit for animated feature productions. One of those films which seems to get kind of lost in the shuffle of the genre, but is not a bad effort at all by the film-makers involved. 4 stars out of 5.