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Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this animated chimp comedy is straightforward and age-appropriate for the young kids it's targeted at. There's some mild peril on an alien planet (an alien tyrant terrorizes his fearful followers by threatening to permanently freeze them), but other than that, there's nothing that even the youngest viewers can't handle.
Families can talk about why Ham doesn't take anything seriously at first. Is it difficult to live up to accomplished relatives? Kids: How does teamwork save the day? What else do the chimps learn in this movie? Families can also discuss whether the high standards set by Pixar's Oscar-winning movies have made other animated films less enjoyable. Do you expect more from animated movies now? Why or why not?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Sandie Angulo Chen
The nation's space program is in jeopardy after an expensive rover unexpectedly goes off-course through a worm-hole too dangerous for astronauts to navigate. Mission control concocts a last-ditch plan to send chimps on the retrieval mission. Since the first chimp in space, Ham, is long dead, the powers that be select his grandson, wise-cracking circus performer Ham III (voiced by Andy Samberg) to join trained chimp crew members Titan (Patrick Warburton) and Luna (Cheryl Hines). Things get a bit tricky when they eventually find the rover on a pastel-colored planet where a tyrant named Zartog (Jeff Daniels) is using it to enslave his fellow aliens.
With Pixar creating thoughtful, memorable animated films like WALL-E that even childless adults love, it's hard for a regular old cartoon comedy to compete. But once your initial surprise at the Care Bears-level animation wears off, you may find that it's easy to enjoy SPACE CHIMPS' silly jokes. The references to The Right Stuff, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Apollo 13 are obvious but still clever.
Bottom line? The combination of space exploration and talking animals should make this appealing for the 7-and-under set. Not every animated movie has to be a sophisticated masterpiece, and sometimes a goofball chimp and his buddies are good for laughs.
Fans of space adventures may also like the films mentioned above, as well as Zathura and Space Camp. For more of our favorite movie monkeys (and other primates), click here.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentHam has a crush on Luna and keeps flirting with her. |
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ViolenceZartog freezes aliens into statues and enslaves/terrorizes his fellow aliens. |
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LanguageMade-up alien words are used in place of actual swear words. |
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Social BehaviorA chimp with self-esteem issues lives up to his potential and helps save an entire planet of oppressed aliens. A tiny scared alien overcomes her fear to act bravely. The chimps use teamwork to find solutions to various problems. |
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