Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas

A touching special, but not very exciting, and not as enjoyable as the Curious George Halloween special. The nice thing is that the plot is built around the monkey and the Man with the Yellow Hat's mutual anxiety to find a suitable present for one another. That is admirable, but it doesn't carry the episode for the 40 or so minutes it runs. Also, they live in an upscale Manhattan apartment in this episode; what happened to the New England farm of the Halloween special? One continuity is that Bill is selling festive accessories again, this time Christmas trees instead of pumpkins.

Ever since I was very little, I've always been a huge fan of Curious George. However, even though I've seen the TV show countless times ever since preschool, I hadn't seen this special until just today, even though Christmas is already past.

The special stays true to the heart, settings and locations of the show, and delightfully centers around George and his best friend, Ted the Man with the Yellow Hat, nervously struggling to find just the right present for each other. Of course, this is quite a simple plot, but this 57-minute special turns it into an endearing and fun experience, with lots of clever humor as usual.

The animation is simple, yet charming and fluid, and perfectly matches that of the show. Obviously, that has to do with the fact that this was literally all the same people from the show. In addition, the voice-acting, as per usual, is terrific. The show's cast assumes their usual roles in this special, and all do excellent jobs, especially Frank Welker as George and Jeff Bennett as Ted. In addition, as usual, Jim Cummings is a delight as Chef Pisghetti, Elizabeth Daily and Grey DeLisle are great as Steve and Betsy, respectively, and Rino Romano is fantastic as the narrator.

And then the music. Of course, as usual, it's great. Nick Nolan, the composer of all the show's music, was brought in to score the special, and of course, he did a terrific job. In addition, the three songs he co-wrote with writer and show developer Joe Fallon, that the characters sing, are terrific and fit really well. It probably helps that before Fallon developed the show, he was the original head writer for Arthur (in which he also wrote and sang "Crazy Bus").

Everything considered, Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas, though not spectacular, is a warm and funny Christmas special, and a great showcase of what Christmas looks like with Curious George. If you're a fan of Curious George, this makes for an enjoyable watch at Christmastime!

We watch this show every Christmas season, one of only a few must-sees. The plot is cute, the characters might be taken as simplistic, but they have unique eccentricities, and the songs slap! Christmas monkey? ...awesome. Do fish know that it is Christmas? ...a classic the kids break out with year round. You won't be able to get them out of your head. The chair in the tree bit is fun, the messes George gets into are creative and well played, distinctive animation. Who knew you could get pathos from a cartoon monkey. There are Easter eggs referencing other Christmas shows. Seriously, this is a joy.

My son was very young when this came out, so this has been one of our traditional Christmas shows we watched every year since. He always enjoyed Curious George, and I really loved how this one showed all the things they did together in the days leading up to Christmas that built their own memories.

The songs are great, and one of the things that he always loved best about it. So enjoyable that we have the MP3's so we could listen to the soundtrack in the car during the Christmas season.

The only reason I didn't give it the 10 stars is that there was such a focus on George and what toys he wanted, and how the Man with the Yellow Hat thought it would ruin Christmas if he couldn't get the right gifts. Seemed a bit too stressed since the entire show leading up to that point was about all the OTHER things that Christmas means.

But it's enjoyable, and a staple in this house now every Christmas.

My local theater plays this every weekend and the wifey and I just had to go and see it. We both want monkeys for Christmas and a Curious George cartoon will probably be the closest thing to monkeys we will probably ever get. Sadly, we saw both saw this and Chronicles of Narnia in one weekend and didn't bother taking the kids. Not only that, we rushed out to see it this morning. We need help.

Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas is really about George's first Christmas. The Man in the Yellow Hat teaches George about how people spend their Christmas like baking cookies, going out looking for a tree (which George wreaks havoc yet no one seemed to be mad), singing Christmas Carols (unfortunately they sing in this one), and buying that special gift for someone.

Of course, that's not all it's about as both The Man in the Yellow Hat and Curious George try to find out what each other wants for Christmas. When George writes his Christmas list, all he does is draw up circles and triangles yet somehow The Man in the Yellow Hat thinks this is some kind of clue. I don't know about you but if a monkey draws up some gibberish of various shapes, I would probably discard it as gibberish.

I mention before about how George wreaks havoc. How come no one gets mad at this stupid monkey? There's one scene where George is trying to make tomato snowmen for The Man in the Yellow Hat. When The Man in the Yellow Hat comes home, he sees that George got tomato paste all over the kitchen. That's a big mess yet he never gets mad. Why is he so passive? Not only him, but the rest of the adults in his life seem to just laugh it off and treat George like his fingers on dial with 911 if they ever lay a hand on him. I want to choke that monkey!

In the end, Curious George does something that suggests that "It's the thought that counts" while The Man in the Yellow Hat still tries to figure out that gibberish. This leads to some crazy "It's A Wonderful Life/Christmas Carol" segment that seems a little out of place, and somehow he just figures it out. When you finally discover it, you realize that stupid monkey is expensive!

This Christmas Special is being shown for one reason and one reason only: For the Man in the Yellow Hat to shout, "I understand my monkey!"