Space Chimps

When Ham III, the slacker grandson of NASA's legendary chimpanzee astronaut, is recruited to help retrieve a lost space probe, he has a close encounter of the hilarious kind as he teams up with the lovely Lieutenant Luna and their by-the-book commander, Titan. But when the ship crash-lands on a strange planet, can this mismatched chimp crew work together to save the mission without driving one another bananas? Rated G

Featuring the voice talents of Cheryl Hines, Jeff Daniels, Stanley Tucci, Andy Samburg and (my favourite) Patrick Warbuton etc..... Apparently created by "one" of the primates that brought us Shrek.

This movie was alright. The graphics were great and the story was new and refreshing. My children found this movie interesting but I didn't hear one argument when I turned it off half way through (because we needed to go out). They were happy to return to the movie later but I don't think it really would have mattered to them one way or the other and they probably would have just forgotten about it.

Having said that, it probably is a movie well worth renting for something different. For older children than mine, it can lead to great talks about astronauts and NASA etc. I am sure, living in the USA, this movie is more of a hit because the whole space program is more real there than it is to this Western Canadian who is so far removed from rockets and the like.

I did have a few qualms about letting the children watch this as there is one particularly bad alien who dunks his enemies into cold lava and freezes them and is determined to take over the world er planet, plus NASA put the chimps through all sorts of rigorous tests etc to prepare the chimps for space which can appear almost tortuous. I find myself yet again having to explain to E why some people are mean and guess at why they want to put other people down. Then on the other hand it's no worse than any of the Barbie movies or even many Disney movies.

What the blurb on the back of the DVD leaves out is that Hami III is descendant from the first chimp who went into space. He's disillusioned and is more interested on getting back to his life in the circus than going into space and his antics causes the crew to be put into danger.

All in all, it's not a bad movie and since everything always works out typical movie style, I am sure your kids will enjoy this space tale.

Cheers,

Zeemaid