Matthew O'Callaghan's CURIOUS GEORGE was released in 2006, an animated adventure I stumbled upon at the theatre one Bacardi-induced evening. I vaguely remembered liking it when some months later, a Gordon's-induced evening, I found myself floating up and down the aisles of my local DVD rental shop in search of something lighthearted, considerably more lighthearted than the bottle of gin I was to finish that night. The bright yellow packaging of CURIOUS GEORGE must have been enough to appeal to my somewhat giddy state and somehow I found my way home with it tucked safely under my arm. I vaguely remembered liking it, again, when, after returning it to the rental shop a day late, and realising that the weekend was over, I switched to coffee and rented it a second time, after paying the late-fee, for a more neutral criticism thanks to the more neutral level of alcohol in my blood.

The last great animated films were THE INCREDIBLES and HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE and both were released two years before CURIOUS GEORGE, so after a gap of two years, which saw such crass as THE POLAR EXPRESS and THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself basked in the hand-drawn 2-D glory of this latest animated offering, which was ten years in the making and which has more charm than BARNYARD and THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE combined. After some digging and some name-probing I made my own discovery that the director, Matthew O'Callaghan, wasn't just one of the writer's of THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE, which I love, but one of the animators of THE LITTLE MERMAID, which I love, so with a finger in every pie of animation he clearly knows how to make entertaining animated adventures and CURIOUS GEORGE, produced by Ron Howard, is no exception. It is an adaptation of some beloved children's stories by Margaret and H.A. Rey and contrary to the film originally going to be made into a live-action feature it's charm, regardless of Disney's new modern position on animation, is due solely to the non-computer-generated, simple and beautiful and utterly pulchritudinous 2-D action, with no lazy musical scenes of curious George singing because, thank God, the chimp never sings and so the story ticks along quite smoothly, without interruption and with some delightful original numbers sang instead by characters more capable of bursting into song. The voices of the characters are all likeable, with Will Ferrell as Ted, Drew Barrymore as Ted's love interest and Dick Van Dyke as the museum owner, but the hilarity is watching the curious little chimp trying to do the right thing only to get into more and more mischief. It is very sweet and very touching to watch and by the end of its short running time of under an hour-and-a-half you will wish it had been longer. Indeed, children will absolutely love it and even the most self-morbid of adults will be hard-pressed not to crack into wide ugly smiles of this friendship-soaked gentle charmer.