There is genuine sparkle in the voice work and more than a few jokes that really do hit the sweet spot.
Space Chimps (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:89
Fresh:33
Rotten:56
Average Rating:4.7/10
Consensus: Space Chimps' cheap animation and overabundance of monkey puns feels especially dated in a post-Wall-E world.
Australian Theatrical Release:
Sep 4, 2008 Wide
US Box Office: $29,942,542
Synopsis: Circus monkey Ham III (voiced by Andy Samberg) works in a circus where he's regularly shot from a canon but he still lives in the shadow of his father's legacy (Ham I was the first chimp shot into... Circus monkey Ham III (voiced by Andy Samberg) works in a circus where he's regularly shot from a canon but he still lives in the shadow of his father's legacy (Ham I was the first chimp shot into space in 1961). A natural born rebel against authority, Ham the third is initially reluctant to go on a dangerous space mission to rescue a lost space probe, but away he goes, for lots of RIGHT STUFF-style astro-training alongside two highly prepared chimps, Luna and Titan (Cheryl Hines and Patrick Warburton). NASA's by-the-book methods jar with Ham's mischief-making of course, but once the space training ends, the mission begins, with myriad dangers along the way, including: a big-toothed monster and a run amok alien named Zartog (Jeff Daniels) whose harnessed the previous space probe for world-domination purposes, all good opportunities for Ham III to redeem himself. Despite all the fangs, parents shouldn't worry too much; not a hair on any chimp is seriously singed, and along the pratfall strewn way there's time for lessons about responsibility and realization of one's full potential. While the animation here is not quite up to Pixar level, it's still pretty and colorful, with a pleasing Candyland quality to the alien planet surface. Samberg brings a savvy zest to his vocal duties as the Ham, Stanley Tucci is a nefarious senator and--getting big laughs with flawlessly deadpan elan--Patrick Breen as one of the trio of egghead scientists. Kird De Micco directed; based on the computer video game. [More]
Starring: Andy Samberg, Cheryl Hines, Jeff Daniels, Patrick Warburton
Starring: Andy Samberg, Cheryl Hines, Jeff Daniels, Patrick Warburton, Kristin Chenoweth, Stanley Tucci, Omid Abtahi, Patrick Breen, Kenan Thompson, Carlos Alazraqui, Kath Soucie, Jane Lynch
Director: Kirk De Micco
Director: Kirk De Micco
Screenwriter: Kirk De Micco, Rob Moreland
Story: Kirk De Micco
Producer: John H. Williams, Barry Sonnenfeld
Composer: Chris Bacon
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Reviews for Space Chimps
A movie called Space Chimps ought to be cheap, crude and silly, and this computer-animated lark delivers on all fronts.
Given that we have a gorgeously-animated, beautifully-constructed interstellar fantasy like Wall-E currently in theaters, why would anybody waste their time on Space Chimps?
It's likely that few people will ever even notice the success it might have been or the unremarkable failure it turned out to be.
It'll keep the kids entertained for a while and give their parents a chuckle or two along the way.
A film that, in a non-Pixar dominated reality, would be cleaning up at the box office. It's enough to make you laugh.
Like a poorly designed videogame, it's as much a test of endurance of repetition as anything else.
I never thought that a movie with a terrible song playing like the "Monkeyrena" would actually keep me entertained and make me laugh, but it did. It still has nothing on Wall-E.
This banana-brained picture doesn't deliver. Parents will prefer shuttling everyone to a second showing of WALL-E.
As bland matinee diversions go, Chimps isn't the worst thing to plop your child in front of, but it's hardly worth the hundreds of dollars it takes to get a family to the movie theater these days.
At a time when we are bombarded with dazzling CGI creations, the release of a film with such dull animation is intriguing. A film with clear adult aspirations held back by its supposed audience.
Space Chimps is delightful from beginning to end: A goofy space opera.
Space Chimps sucks a whole lot of talented people into a wormhole of lousy.
Why would you take your kids to see Space Chimps, an uninspired animated feature about chimp astronauts, when you could take them instead to see Wall-E.
The movie is so routine that you welcome offbeat things like an alien who makes incredibly high-pitched noises. It's the sort of thing that might jolt you out of your sleep.
A real writer would have turned this in to a great animated action flick instead of animated ADD pabulum...
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