Space Chimps - Affen im All

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 just took my 4 year old boy to see this movie and we left shortly before it was over. We were not the only ones to leave early either. Only once was there any laughter from the audience. I thought most of the punch lines were aimed at the adult audience, but no one was laughing. I was very disappointed that there wasn't any moral to the story - if there was, it was vague. The characters were not all that likable either. I didn't feel any connection to them at all, nor did my son. I left the theater thinking that this was the biggest waste of time and money. Space Chimps is no Shrek. This has to be the worst G-rated movie I have ever seen. My son thought it was very boring and he usually loves action/adventure movies. The only thing he liked about the whole experience was the pack of Twizzlers I bought him.

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.

When I saw the trailer for Space Chimps, I honestly thought it looked cute and fun, also they mentioned that it was made by the same folks who did Shrek, so I figured that it was going to be gold. I was first off a little surprised that it didn't do so hot at the box office, not only that, but it has a pretty low rating here on IMDb. I was thinking how this movie was probably awful, but how could it be? It's an animation film, so I still wanted to see it, I checked it out today and honestly, it's not a 4.4 rating movie, I think people are being a little too harsh on it. I agree that it's nothing special, but it's a cute movie that had it's moments. Opening the same weekend as The Dark Knight and Mamma Mia, we needed a good hearted film for the family as well, and Space Chimps does deliver on that.

Ham is a chimp who is the grandson of a famous chimp astronaut who was the first chimp in space. When there is possible life found on another planet, three scientists decide to experiment and instead of risking human life, the send out the chimps including Ham to space to find the alien life form. Ham, Luna, and Titon are sent out into space, but Ham isn't taking it seriously, constantly joking around, hitting on Luna, Titon constantly taking credit for everything. When they do land on the planet, they meet some interesting creatures and have to save the planet since one alien, Zartog, wants to take over.

Space Chimps isn't a bad movie, it's just nothing special, I'd recommend waiting for the rental. It's a cute movie thought for the little ones. But I did enjoy a few scenes, I loved the line Titon says to Ham "Are you David Bowie?"... you'll have to see what I mean, but there are some cute and fun moments. The animation is so-so, the voices are decent, except some moments seemed a little stereotypical and cliché. But as a family kid movie, I would say that this is a go, just don't expect anything like Shrek.

6/10

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.