After viewing Vanguard Animation/20th Century Fox's Space Chimps on DVD, it's easy to see why audiences avoided this flick: it's an unfunny comedy with a protagonist who deserves to get booted out the nearest airlock.
What's Space Chimps About?
When NASA scientists discover a wormhole to another part of the universe, they whip out some chimps to do some interstellar exploring. However, an unscrupulous senator (Stanley Tucci) wants some sizzle for the press: he nabs Ham III, grandson of the first chimp in space, to have him lead the mission.
Unfortunately, Ham III (Andy Samberg) is much happier getting shot out of a circus cannon. He irritates everyone around him, including Lt. Luna (Cheryl Hines) – who, since she's a female chimpanzee, must somehow fall in love with him – and Commander Titan (Patrick Warburton) who, because he's a straight-shooting military type, must be humiliated at every opportunity.
Oh yeah, there's also poop jokes by the dozen, an ET dictator who spends most of his time dunking his subjects in quick-dry goo, and riffs on every space movie you've ever heard of . . . and a few you haven't.
It all adds up to an unfunny mess. Andy Samberg's character is supposed to hip and hilarious, but only rises to shrill and annoying. By the 15 minute mark, you're wishing the little poo-flinger would experience explosive decompression and by the end of the 1st hour, you're wishing the same fate for yourself. Jokes referencing Apollo 13 (one character's role is solely to provide the hackneyed line, "Houston, we have a problem"), David Bowie, Star Trek and Freudian theory, will fly over kids' heads and annoy their parents.
You can count the number of funny jokes on one hand, and still have enough fingers left to flip off the producers, writer/director Kirk DeMicco, writer Robert Moreland, the cast, crew and anybody else associated with this cinematic travesty.
On top of it all, the animation is crude and lifeless. The alien backgrounds have all the stiffness and gloss of cheap CGI, as do the aliens themselves. The chimps are a lot better, but not even close to Pixar, or even DreamWorks Animation, standards.
DVD Extras
There's the standard "making of" featurette where cast and crew kiss each other's . . . assets and talk about how wonderful the movie is. You also learn little details like how Samberg wrote many of his lines (not something to be proud of when discussing this film, buddy).
There are also sequences where the voice actors pretend to be having a wonderful time while trying to find the funny in the lackluster script. Add the TV and preview spots, plus a still gallery and that's pretty much it for extras.
The Final Analysis
Between the jerky animation, the lame jokes plus the boring and unfunny protagonist, Space Chimps is a movie full of fail. It gets a 3/10.
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
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