i went into this movie blind. i had seen the trailer once and had not heard any critiques on it. i think Space Chimps won't set any benchmarks as a great animation flick - it was only so-so. to greamamerican, you've completely confused me by saying the first 30 minutes was boring, but in the same post you say you left after 10 minutes. numbers don't add up there bud. but that aside, you have to give the movie a chance. no, it won't grow on you - and more than likely you'll leave as i did thinking 'something was missing'. yes, the main character Ham can be extremely annoying and Titan seems like a recycled Buzz Lightyear but... what am i saying there is no but - this movie was not good. save it for a rental on family movie night - but don't spend your hard earned cash at the theater to see it.
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user-2754919 July 2008I 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 -
ccthemovieman-15 October 2009Have 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. -
heller112019 July 2008I just took my 4 year old boy to see this movie and we left shortly before it was over. We were not the only ones to leave early either. Only once was there any laughter from the audience. I thought most of the punch lines were aimed at the adult audience, but no one was laughing. I was very disappointed that there wasn't any moral to the story - if there was, it was vague. The characters were not all that likable either. I didn't feel any connection to them at all, nor did my son. I left the theater thinking that this was the biggest waste of time and money. Space Chimps is no Shrek. This has to be the worst G-rated movie I have ever seen. My son thought it was very boring and he usually loves action/adventure movies. The only thing he liked about the whole experience was the pack of Twizzlers I bought him.
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motorhead8502122 July 2008We just got back from seeing this movie, and I still can't believe how bad it actually was.
I think my daughter chuckled once. I simply looked on in horror. The plot was awful. The aliens looked like they were scooped up from the cutting room floor of an old Barbie movie. Even the awesome Patrick Warburton was hopeless in this movie. I don't know what he was doing here. He must've bought a new summer home. They had things in this movie, I think they were supposed to be jokes, simply awful.
Sample Dialog: Boy monkey: "Follow me." Girl monkey: "Roger that!" Boy monkey: "Who's Roger? Is it serious?"
This may have been the worst movie I've ever seen in my life. Stay far away, you have been warned.
p.s. The fact that Mr. Ebert gave this movie 3 stars is the final proof that it's time for that wonderful man to hang it up. -
www-jats23 January 2010This CGI animated movie is not complex or sophisticated. It is a simple story of very clever chimps, full of human characteristics, being sent through a space warp to a planet full of aliens, and emerging triumphant. It is aimed at kids, although there are gags in it for adults. It is bright and colloidal, the characters (humans, chimps and aliens) are all engaging, the alien world is imaginative, the action flows well, the Decalogue is fun, and the story is easy to follow.
If I sound a little half-hearted, then it's because I am. Despite all the good things listed above, the movie itself comes across as a little half-hearted. The animation, for instance, while adequate, isn't up to the standard we've become used to in CGI features. The voice cast perform OK, but aren't particularly high profile (Jeff Daniels and Stanley Tucci are the top names). And there's at least one matter which we expected to see resolved before the end, but which is still hanging loose. -
"There's no intelligent life here." Okay, so my brother and I have a tradition of seeing every animated film that comes to theaters; when we saw the previews for this movie, we thought it looked somewhat dumb but decent for some mindless entertainment nonetheless. I did not predict just how incredibly and irredeemably horrible this movie would be.
I'm someone who usually can be fairly lenient regarding movies as long as they are entertaining somehow. But while this movie certainly entertained me, as it was actually hilarious just how stupidly- and lazily-done the whole thing was, I obviously can't give it points for being entertaining only in the form of inspiring derision and incredulity.
Literally every single scene was a cringe-worthy one, laden with contrivance, predictability, and cliché. The whole story was as formulaic as one could get and pulled all the worn-out stops: the personality of the main character himself--who is pretty much a watered-down, unfunny, Kuzco wannabe; the unconvincing, charmless romance between two characters who supposedly clash at the start and fall in love through their shared adventure; the trite and forced internal conflict of the main character who tries to live up to his dead grandfather; the ridiculous and embarrassing villains; the attempts at sounding intelligent to fool the kids in the audience but failing to fool anyone older than maybe 10-years-old; and the triumphant--albeit completely uninspiring--end for the space chimps.
I honestly can't imagine that anyone would truly connect with the emotion the movie tried to suck out of its lazy and flat conflicts nor laugh at the painfully unfunny jokes seen hundreds of times in films before it. The pacing and writing seemed to make both these tasks impossible.
Every scene was so rushed that the characters and their dynamics with each other lacked any real development, and every attempt at making the audience feel what was going on in the moment (or even caring at all) was murdered by this fact. Obviously, I don't need to say much more about the writing quality than I already have; it was just lazy, lazy, lazy. I couldn't imagine anyone older than 12 writing this drivel, and it seemed as if the writers literally watched every animated film before this and wrote down only the most frequently-occurring, most unfunny gags from each of them, slapped it together, and called it "Space Chimps".
There were only maybe three to five lines that made me genuinely chuckle, but that does not redeem the movie from getting the grade it so deserves: F. And I rarely give F's out to anything, but this is easily the worst animated film I've ever seen. Period. -
fabulousrice22 February 2010This film ranks among the worst films I have ever seen in my entire life. Not a single joke was funny, not a single image of the film nice to look at or worth remembering. The last minutes of the film, where the "bad guys" of the film are present the most, were almost unwatchable considering the awful designs of the creatures, and the absence of wit and ideas in the plot. I had the feeling I was watching a badly designed video game whose graphics are below average. At times watching it felt like torture for me and if I hadn't had a principle of never walking out on a film I would have left the theater. Simply put, it is one of the worst and ugliest films I have seen.
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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.
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mungflesh12 January 2009The writing in Space Chimps feels very Family Guy esquire, which I am not at all a fan of.
Whilst there's (virtually) no offensive language or crudeness, the gags almost solely depend on quick-fire references to other films and TV shows etc. For me, this gets tedious and is a very lazy way to write comedy IMO. For my 3 1/2 year old, it's not possible for him to understand any of the references. He's too young for Space Chimps and if I had known, I wouldn't have taken him. Even for 8 year-olds I think the references would be way before their time. It's as if the gags are written ONLY for adults, which to me puts the film in a no-mans land where it is neither for kids nor their parents.
The way CGI films should be made, is that a script meant for real actors, which is technically too costly to achieve "in the flesh", can then be made using CGI. In reality, there's probably a think-tank of people who design the visuals and then the script, which is why many of these ventures are weak. -
stevex-823 February 2009Some pretty harsh comments about this movie and I don't know why. As an adult I found it funny and Titan was cast perfectly.
There was even a good message or two and some well camouflaged adult type humor in there. We liked it and we would buy it. One or two things in the show almost raised a red flag (ie: scary cave monster), but it wasn't that bad. I say enjoy!
Some of my favorite parts were with the rocket-scientists though and a little more investigation into the cast reveals some interesting characters. I gave this an 8 out of 10 and maybe I was feeling a little generous but it made me laugh. -
DICK STEEL17 August 2008I'm going to admit that I've enjoyed Space Chimps. No, I've not gone bananas, but there's something beautiful to this goofy animated comedy that appealed, perhaps in its simplicity and its not attempting to try and be more than it cannot be.
Ham III (voiced by Andy Samberg). a circus monkey whose the key to the "monkey cannonball" act, happens to be the descendant of its decorated ancestor Ham I, the first monkey to have entered outer space. As NASA does send animals early in their history of missions to perform certain tests, and more so as guinea pigs, their current space programme is under threat of being axed, unless of course the scientists can all prove their worth. Just so happens that a space probe gets send to the opposite side of a wormhole, that it presents an opportunity to send a crack team of animals to the other side as well to test waters, hence the assembly of our merry animals.
You have Ham III, the reluctant astronaut put into the team for some PR purpose, who joins the usual caricatures of team captain and beefcake Titan, as well as beautiful Luna, who provides the brains for the mission and cursory love interest for our protagonist chimp. On the ground, besides the wacky human scientists who always deny their nerd status, you have Comet and Houston, fellow chimps who provide ground expertise to our crew's mission in space. Truth is, and a departure in animated movies of late, this one is sans big name stars or voice talent, and doesn't detract you away from the story, nor have one talent steal the thunder from the rest. Like a well oiled space mission, Space Chimps is and plays out like a consolidated team effort.
The adversary they face are a group of silly aliens under the control of Zartog, who consolidated his power no thanks to the human space probe by hitting the manual override button, as well as various environmental challenges reminiscent of the latest Journey to the Center of the Earth, and provides ample opportunity for some pretty wacky characters, with set action pieces like swinging from vine to vine, making more sense here when compared to that in The Crystal Skull.
The graphics here are kept simple and uncomplicated. It's easy to find fault with so many things in this movie, given the likes of Pixar which has set the benchmark, but as I've said, I'm not looking for too much, and the simplicity of it all in Space Chimps makes it a refreshing breath of fresh air. The story at times might find itself hard pressed to throw in some wisecracks on pop culture, but there are indeed moments to have it in the movie so subtly, you'll probably blink and you miss it. If you're willing to leave your 1% intellect at the door, perhaps you may just enjoy this movie about primates that exhibit similar emotions and attributes to our own. -
neftaliw1 October 2008Wow!!!! I think this movie is funny, but not very funny. It looks like they had this huge story to run but they were short in time, everything went way to fast, there wasn't even time to laugh at a joke because in was one thing to the other, come on even things that usually take hours or days in this movie happens in half of minute (like building a rocket). Also some of the characters weren't well animated, they had very robotic movements and the aliens' skin looks so unreal (I know, they're unreal but they look like plastic!!!!) Also there where some major spoofs, for example they use geothermal energy from a volcano that doesn't have lava but a strange freezing liquid. Anyways, I think it's an OK movie, I've seen worse, and at least is OK for the whole family to watch.
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tfrizzell6 July 2011Three 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.
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After the first ten minutes of this movie I knew I was in for a long 90 minutes. The opening sequence was nothing great, and the aliens looked like a cross between Boobah's and oompah loompahs! Andy Samberg (as Ham the third) has a couple funny moments, but the comedy for the most part is truly horrible one liners that you'd expect to hear on an unpopular Cartoon Network show. Patrick Warburton (who I've always found funny, ever since his Putty days on Seinfeld) is a bit type-casted here as the burly but dumb guy (or chimp I should say), and not really funny at all in the movie.
I think the biggest surprise to me was Jeff Daniels as the enemy alien. How did he stoop to this level?? Not that I'm a huge Jeff Daniels fan, but he just didn't seem to fit the rest of the cast at all.
I actually don't remember the last time I was at a movie with my wife and we both looked at each other at least three times rolling our eyes at the corny, almost embarrassing "jokes" in this movie.
I will say that my 5 year old and 8 year old loved it and insist that we will buy it on DVD when it comes out (which shouldn't be too long considering it's flopping). So, the kids will love it, but don't expect to have a good time at this one. -
This movie has nothing new for us except the freezing stuff on the alien planet. It was a long time since such an incoherent concoction was construed before us. The plot is almost impossible to bear or follow, due to its hops between different scenes, and the myriad of aliens, chimps and people. To top it all, the animation is quite inferior compared to Pixar's. So why was this movie done? If you love chimps to the point of being a fan, you can admire their virtues as the inheritors of corrupted people. Even the most free spirited chimp, represented by Ham IIIrd, can grasp itself and rise beyond the highest human morals.
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javierdiazdeleon2 January 2009I won't deny the fact that my disappointment steams mostly from the fact that I'm myself a 3d animator, and a huge fan of EXCELLENT 3D Animated film makers such as Pixar, Dreamworks, and BlueSky. This being said, I couldn't help but notice the much lower quality used for those ugly aliens (their colors, skin textures, character design, voices, etc), and their world (very empty, ugly colors too, etc). Aside of the technical side of it, one can see that this movie was made for young kids, strictly. I have to remind myself not to take my chances on a film made by Starz Animation again. I might watch a bit if it's on TV.
JDL -
BradleyIKB56 November 2008What a disappointment; it was both a waste of money (and worse)time. I took my kids, ages 10, 7, 5 & 3. They spent more time running back and forth to the restroom than watching the movie; my 3 year old fell a sleep with about a half hour left in the movie. The plot was allover the place, was this about self-discovery or a PSA to protect our planet? The jokes were predictable and forced, my kids got the jokes but still failed to laugh. IN short I should have known this movie was a throw-away-film, being released so late in the summer with little fan fare. I also should have seen there was little or no line on opening day. But sometimes when your kids are excited you look for the best in everything. Skip this when it comes out on DVD.
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typher12 September 2008I watched it last night... What can I say this movie was terrible! The animation was very weak specially on the planet.
The plot? Well there wasn't one! The jokes were not funny the whole movie was set for kids in saying that I think something like this should be on TV not at the cinema.
I can imagine this movie would have not been successful at the box office and I don't understand how they can charge people 2 see it.
The voices for the characters were all wrong apart from Kilowatt I think Kristin Chenoweth was perfect for that part.
I felt ripped off actually was looking forward to seeing it.
Don't waste your time!!!! -
I'm not really sure what you people were looking for, but this movie was, at worst, fairly enjoyable. It will not win the academy award for best animated film, but there are thousands of other, much, much worse animated films out there. This review isn't to help anyone decide if they should rent the movie or not (maybe I'm biased because I only paid $1.00 to rent it?), but more so to just defend it a little bit. My 5 and 6 year old sons got a kick out of it. THAT'S IT. Review could be over here. They are intelligent boys who have seen some great kids movies - and they recognize the great ones. They know this one was not one of the best movies they've ever seen. And they don't care. They pretty much enjoyed it, and that's all you should expect. It was a G-rated movie which is nice to see (they're watching "Surf's Up" - free on cable right now - and one of the characters said "crap" which I don't like). It had an OK plot, OK/somewhat amusing characters, some excitement, some funny stuff, a clear point/moral (people who don't catch that should NOT be allowed to write reviews). Stop making more of it than it is. I mean, one reviewer - or maybe it was on a message board - said (and I'm paraphrasing just a little bit), "I didn't connect with any of the characters AND NEITHER DID MY 4 YEAR OLD SON." I wonder how exactly they asked their 4-yr old the question... "honey, did you feel a connection with any of the Space Chimps? How about the aliens? No, none of them either? Hmmm, I thought so..." C'MON!! Hey, if you paid $10 bucks a pop to see this one, well shame on you. But otherwise, get over it, folks! It's not that bad.
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liamdruskin6 November 2020The plot of Space Chimps was the best I had seen in 20 years. The chimp character really makes you feel involved and included in the movie. As for the setting and characters it was very immersive and made you feel like you were in the action. Although the action made put you at the edge of your seat, the sad parts really made you tear up and relate to the pain and suffering of the characters. Overall the Space Chimps movie was the most heart wrenching, most exciting movie I had seen since James Cameron released Avatar. The plot of Space Chimps was the best I had seen in 20 years. The chimp character really makes you feel involved and included in the movie. As for the setting and characters it was very immersive and made you feel like you were in the action. Although the action made put you at the edge of your seat, the sad parts really made you tear up and relate to the pain and suffering of the characters. Overall the Space Chimps movie was the most heart wrenching, most exciting movie I had seen since James Cameron released Avatar.
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aka_sy20 October 2011I Love this film. Maybe others wont share similar taste. But there is a reason why there is Space Chimp 2. Because Space Chimp 1 is so good, they must release part 2, and they did just that, and I loved that too.
I thought this movie make sense, I mean, chimp in space? and its just smart humor, and great pun.. I really enjoyed it, and I think you will too, maybe kid's wont understand the pun's much, but I think adults will.
I feel this isn't your typical children's cartoon film, more along the line of teen-adults. But nothing non-universal nonetheless.
Space Chimp is one of my favorites films! :) -
arildmarken11 September 2008Everyone seems to be hating this movie, and i don't really understand why? Shrek3 was a way worse movie IMO and that movie currently rates in at 6,2, and I found it horrible to watch.
I do will not rate it as one of the best animation movies, but for its worth is was a short not to serious little story. Some of the jokes were prettey lame, but fun non the less.
The morale is clear, its even stated when grandpa monkey turns up on the way home.
Anyways, I've seen a lot of movies. A lot of em serious, with big underlying points to me made and movies you can spend a lot of time speculating about afterwords. This movie though is supposed to be enjoyed as it is :) -
zeno113828 July 2008Coming in to this film and expecting it to be about the early days of NASA I was a little confused. Alas, my kid wanted to see it and it seemed entertaining.
My main complaint was the aliens looked like they'd been rendered by a totally different CGI company than the more refined chimp parts. (Well the humans looked a bit suspect too.)
Did they run out of money and get the sixth grade class to work on it for them? Or was it some other studio meddling that made the alien world look so cheap?
Kilowatt was entertaining and it looked like some thought was put in to her creation.
The gummy bear looking aliens were fun too.
And my last nitpick, when the Chimps are walking through the sand maybe some deforming of the surface even with a Photoshop airbrush would be a nice touch. -
tenzinmail23 May 2010When I saw this film in the cinema I loved it and now I have the DVD. It is just brilliant. It's just so funny. How can people not find the main monkey not Hilarius? He has the best lines and is a total twit, and is very funny. I was very surprised that it was rated so low, and after reading other reviews it seemed like people didn't find it funny. Their opinion (not a very good one, mind). If you haven't seen it, you might hate it but you might love it and think it's great. (nothing to do with film now) IMDb! How are we supposed to write 10 lines about a film? Come on! who wants to read a long review? Make it 3 lines! Sheesh!