Curious George

Curious George, everyone's favorite primate, has received the dubious promotion from children's book to big-screen movie, in Matthew O'Callaghan's mellow, inoffensive and frightfully boring animated adaptation of the classic cartoon.

Will Ferrell is the voice of the Man in the Yellow Hat, and although he is the only element of the film that seems to have a pulse, his brand of zany humor and wacky antics fall pointedly short of making the film remotely worthwhile.

It's been a string of misses for Ferrell, with Bewitched, The Producers, Kicking and Screaming, and now this (although he struck gold with bit part Chazz Reinhold in last summer's Wedding Crashers). It seems like it's a struggle for Ferrell to find himself in the highly constricted role of rom-com lead and within the maze of tasteful children's humor.

To be fair, he is castrated by the G rating and bland script (courtesy of Dan Gerson and Robert L. Baird, who teamed up to help out on the misbegotten attempt at Chicken Little). He did manage to show a little versatility in Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda-and by versatility, what's implied is that Ferrell didn't rely on reacting to Ben Stiller, Owen and Luke Wilson, or Vince Vaughn. Perhaps Ferrell is only really at home teamed up with one of those previous colleagues while being an unrestricted jackass, a field in which he currently reigns supreme.

Ferrell's harmless voice-work perfectly mirrors the film's soundtrack, written and recorded by relaxation expert Jack Johnson. Seamlessly integrated, the soundtrack, featuring a wide variety of original Johnson material and covers of songs like The White Stripes "We're Gonna Be Friends," is remarkably suitable and conveniently reflective of the film as a whole-it's certainly pleasant, but it also hovers way too close to soporific.

Although it's nice to see a feature film with old-school animation (hats off to the tribute paid to the original author, H.A. Rey), cutesy peek-a-boo jokes with an animated monkey and Will Ferrell's mere presence aren't enough to entertain anyone above the age of six.