Space Chimps (2008)

Titan: Are you in aluminum clothes?

Ham III: Yes.

Titan: Are you in a rocket?

Ham III: Yes

Titan: In outer space?

Ham III: Yes.

Titan: Are you David Bowie?

Ham III: Uh... no.

Short Attention Span Summary (SASS):

1. NASA loses probe in wormhole

2. To account for losing the billion dollar probe, they plan to send a billion dollar space craft after it, piloted by a team of chimps

3. To get full media coverage, they decide to send a celebrity chimp, and since Lance Bass wasn't available, they choose Ham III (voiced by Andy Samberg)

4. Ham III is the grandson of Ham I (I bet you figured that out on your own), the first chimp in space, III being currently employed as a simian cannonball with a circus.

5. Ham III, Lt. Luna (Cheryl Hines), and Commander Titan (Patrick Warburton) become space chimps

6. Lots of monkey business follows as the intrepid team go boldly where no chimp has gone before, to an inhabited planet ruled by cold-hearted Dictator Zartog (Jeff Daniels)

7. This is actually a much better movie than it sounds

This underrated cartoon is actually a lot funnier than you'd think. The animation won't make Pixar lose any sleep, but is pretty good anyway, and the humor will tickle your funny bone without ever once resorting to lowbrow potty jokes. [Note: Beware of the puns]

Although not in the class of Wall-E or Finding Nemo, this is one that can be enjoyed by the whole family.

Rated: 3.5 stars

Amanda Richards, September 20, 2008

Took my girls to see this movie over the summer loved it. We're still using the lines "Permission to speak" "Permission Granted" "You're a dork". We had fun. It's a good family movie. I probably laughed more than they did!

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Ham III 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 has recruited him for a most dangerous mission. It seems that a powerful tyrant has overtaken an alien world, and now it's up to Ham III and his trusty simian crew to help overthrow the deep-space despot. There's nothing complicated about "Space Chimps". It's a simple tale of 3 chimps sent to outer space and somehow end up on a strange and unmanned planet. Your kids will like this movie, but it's quite boring for the grown ups.

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It's true what they say: Stick with your opinion even if it isn't fashionable. And such is my feelings for Space Chimps. I thoroughly enjoyed this animated feature. It had everything I look for (intelligence, humor, an interesting plot, crisp visuals) in an animated feature without going overboard as is so often the temptation with this type of film.

Then, before coming online to share my own approval of the picture, I made the mistake of browsing what others (amateur critics especially) had to say about it. The fact is, not a whole lot of good! Now I'm not suggesting that their nay-saying swayed my opinion any, I am however rather surprised that mine was the popular consensus as I tour any and all animated features from Pixar's blush-worthy budgeted blockbusters to some of the quietest little releases to hit the States (Pinocchio 3000 and The Snurks for example) and feel Space Chimps offers a lot to love. Both the New York Times and Roger Ebert heaped praise upon it however. Is it possible that it demands a certain level of intelligence to fully appreciate this one? Who can say for sure?

The tale tells of a hi-tech earthen space probe that veers off course thanks to an unexpected riff in the space-time continuum (that's a worm hole to you and me). It ends up on an uncharted planet, the likes of which is too distant and uncharted to risk sending a crew of human beings for retrieval. The solution presents itself by looking at our own past (and how we used to do things); a team of NASA chimpanzees is assigned the retrieval mission.

Chimps, it turns out, can communicate with one another as clearly as we human beings can but to us their language appears little more than chirps squeaks and hand gestures.

Enter Ham III (Andy Samberg), the grandson of the first chimp astronaut, along with two other primates (Titan; Patrick Warburton and Luna; Cheryl Hines) are blasted off into space by an opportunity-seeking senator.

Soon, the fun-loving chimp discovers that doing the right thing involves more than simply retrieving the downed probe: It turns out this far-away planet's citizens are under oppression by a nefarious leader. Fortunately for Ham III and his simian peers, the technology giving this dictator his powers just so happens to have come from earth.

So that's the plotnothing too insulting so far right? Well there's quite a bit of humor along the way and contrary to what you might suspect looking at a film of this nature, much of it is actually intelligently written witty dialog rather than in-your-face slapstick (again leading me to suspect that many of the harsh words viewers have written about this one stem from the lack of juvenile antics).

Perhaps the greatest strength indeed is Andy Samberg, Patrick Warburton and Cheryl Hines' characters genuine and witty exchanges. The personality spectrum of the three lead antagonists is quite flawless with a counterpoint to each of the other's points. Small things like the turbulence training to pass through the wormhole or that the ship's controls are in fact make-believe as humanity is convinced no chimp could actually fly the craft anyway make for some humorous moments. As does the ship's landing sequence.

In all it's truly unfortunate that this film seems to flounder in negative reviews because quite honestly I am thoroughly convinced that there are countless over-hyped films that fail to elicit a fraction of the charm found here. Apparently, though, 20th Century Fox views the project successful enough to warrant a sequel to arrive on DVD October 5th. Sometimes the best response to the nay-sayers is to say nothing at all, but rather to allow the film to do what it was meant to all along.

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I think the movie is funny. It was really cheap and I'm pretty sure i already did a review for this itme when i first got it.

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