"SPACE CHIMPS"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: **1/2 (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: **1/2 (out of 5 stars) STARRING Andy Samberg as HAM III Cheryl Hines as LUNA Patrick Warbruton as TITAN Omid Abtahi as DR. JAGU Jeff Daniels as ZARTOG Rated G Studio: 20th Century Fox Directed by: Krik De Micco Back to DVD Review Home |  |
Let me preface my review of the “Space Chimps” DVD by asking a simple question: What’s not to like about talking monkeys? (And yes, to all you biology teachers out there... I know that chimpanzees are not monkeys, but cut me some slack. “Talking monkeys” sounds better than “talking apes.”)
If you are one of those people who doesn’t giggle at the thought of talking monkeys, you will probably want to skip this movie. After all, the talking chimps in space angle of this movie is its major selling point.
This film tells the story of Ham (voice by Andy Samberg), the grandson of the first chimp sent into space. While working in his inescapably pathetic life in the circus as a living cannonball, he is offered a new chance for greatness. A NASA space probe enters a wormhole to discover life on another planet, but is lost. Ham is then recruited to travel through the wormhole to investigate.
Ham takes the job to impress the girl chimp, Luna (Cheryl Hines). However, once they get through the wormhole, they find one of the aliens is mounting a hostile campaign against his own kind. Ham, Luna and the overly macho Titan (Patrick Warburton) find themselves in a fight for survival on the faraway planet with little hope of returning home.
This movie is one of the independent CGI films like “Igor” or “Doogal.” It’s not Pixar or Dreamworks, so you shouldn’t expect that quality from this product. It’s much more of a kid’s movie than the larger studio pieces that we see hit the theaters each year. I doubt many adults are going to like this film a lot, but the kids might enjoy it quite a bit. I know that mine did.
The movie definitely has some funny moments, and there is a bit of risqué humor for a G-rated film. Fortunately, all of that flies over the heads of the kids so the parents have a chance to chuckle a few times during the show.
Ultimately, I’m a kid at heart, so I enjoyed “Space Chimps” to a certain degree. I’ve always had a fondness for the space program, and films about this aspect of our government have always fascinated me. This isn’t exactly “Apollo 13,” but that’s okay. It’s talking chimps in space... who can’t find something to love about that?
The DVD comes with only a few special features. The biggest item on the menu is “Fox Movie Channel Presents Casting Session.” This spotlight shows how the production picked the voices behind the characters – from Andy Samberg to Kristin Chenoweth.
There’s also a still gallery and multiple TV advertisements from the campaign this summer.
