Les chimpanzés de l'espace

Disclaimer: I have no particular interest in chimps. The first email I ever sent was to what was at the time my favorite pop radio station, complimenting the chimp they had obviously hired to come up with their short-lived strange music mix.

This turned out to be better than I expected. Sure, the humor was silly, but it was fun. The nerdy scientists had some of the best lines. And there were enjoyable jokes--if you're not expecting real quality, that is--from our heroes, the aliens, and the villain.

This was also an inspiring story, because our heroes had to accomplish so much on their own, unable to communicate with home base. And their counterparts back home proved quite intelligent, even if humans could only hear screeching noises from them. The original Ham provided a touching moment from the great beyond.

I don't recall any standout performances, but Kristin Chenoweth was so cute as a tiny alien creature with a beautiful operatic voice whose contribution proved valuable. Whenever she got scared or excited, she hit that high note so marvelously.

It had to be intentional that Luna looked like Cheryl Hines. I don't recall any other characters being drawn to look like the corresponding voice actor, but she was really good-looking for a chimp. I don't actually think the real Cheryl Hines has that pretty a face, but I can see how one might think she is pretty. And the resemblance adds so much to Luna, making her seem more human.

The G rating is a little surprising considering all the potty humor, but apparently more is considered acceptable these days. The "violence" of the villain freezing those who disagree isn't as bad as it looks.

It's a worthwhile film, but nothing ground-breaking.

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.

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

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 can say for most viewers in my cinema by their -sighs-, that Space Chimps was a led down. Although SOME bits were "almost" half-funny, most of the movie was portrayed through dull characters and not such a good storyline.

The disappointing thing was, that this movie could of had so much more to give and un-tapped potential, but instead was just a let down for me.

Personally, this movie would not be entertaining for most people above the age of 15+, yet more for families with their little kids.

Overall, it was a mediocre, and should be viewed by either kids, or people that like repeated jokes, and already used story lines. Rated 5/10