In their defense, the team behind “Curious George” did just about everything they could to redeem a fantastically flawed concept, one that was apparently approved by Universal Pictures solely for its name recognition.

Joining the dozens of other book, cartoon and TV-inspired family films of recent years, such as “Garfield” and “The Cat in the Hat,” one starts to wonder what the movie studios are thinking. In the case of “Garfield,” the filmmakers were striving to adapt a 10-second daily comic strip and a 20-minute morning cartoon into a feature film. And with both “Cat in the Hat” and “Curious George,” a 10-minute children’s book is used as the basis for a 75-minute feature film.

But at least that cat could speak.

And so there are really two stories behind this latest would-be family franchise: “Curious George,” while lacking any tangible characters or story, does manage in its best moments to evoke the innocent sense of wonder and discovery that made the books a hit in the first place. These moments, though, have nothing to do with the story, and everything to do with both the unique style and texture of the film’s animation, as well as the film’s many songs performed by laid-back, Hawaiian pop star Jack Johnson.

Sadly, however, these segments total up to perhaps a grand total of 15 minutes, meaning the remaining 70 minutes of watered-down silliness is just too much to endure.

It is during those 70 minutes where imagination gives way to much ado about nothing. The Man in the Yellow Hat (Will Ferrell) – before the hat, that is – serves as a museum tour guide, giddily preaching about historic artifacts to bored students and their fawning teacher (Drew Barrymore), while Bloomsberry (Dick Van Dyke), his boss and the museum’s owner, is confronted by his son (David Cross) who wants to tear down the museum and put up a parking lot.

But TMITYH, in a desperate bid to save the museum, proposes going on a search for an ancient idol, one that will surely bring the visitors, and the curiosity – get it? – back to the museum. He meets George during this voyage into the wild, and must play the role of the frazzled father to the hyperactive son once George returns to America as a stowaway on TMITYH’s ship and gets loose in New York City.

Still, as these many sequences on the ship, on the city’s streets, in the apartment buildings and throughout the museum play out, there is not a hint of inventiveness or creative humor. It is only when Johnson’s sweet melodies slow this word down that the film has anything remotely unique to offer.

As George basks in his native jungle, takes an unexpected balloon flight above downtown Manhattan or paints a bit of his homeland in a wealthy woman’s white-walled apartment, there’s a sense of something sweeter and calmer in “Curious George” than we have come to expect from a genre overtaken by all thing giddy, bright and loud – i.e., last year’s “Chicken Little.”

Making use of a traditional, two-dimensional animation style, and embracing the flat, simple landscapes, bright primary colors and soft edges of the pictures found in the “Curious George” books, the film looks considerably different than most of its modern counterparts. And once those soft and inviting images are set to Johnson’s relaxed, acoustic tunes, first-time director Matthew O’Callaghan does craft four beautiful, low-key sequences about something as simple as a child discovering the world around him, and forming a plutonic friendship with a father figure.

That’s why it’s tragic when the stilted dialogue, silly physical humor and meaningless plot lines come crashing down over this peace and calm fit for a Sunday morning.

“Curious George” would have worked as perhaps a series of three music videos, all built around Johnson songs. But outside these expressive vignettes, the movie feels just like every other animated family film released during the spring over recent years. It’s cute, cuddly and wacky – and completely unmemorable.

If anyone had honestly thought the project through, before approving it, the result would have been a rather obvious one.

by: Steven Snyder steven@zertinet.com, Published 2006-02-09